Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1878-10-10
From the New York Tribune.
The Story of Florida.

The story told to-day by the translation
of captured cipher dispatches is not pleas
ant one for any American to read. 1t is a
story of such disgrace and shame that we
might well wish that events had not rem
dered it's telling necessary. Every ctzen
must feel that II would have been better
for the good name of the Republic had the
contest of 1876. with all its intense pas
sions and its crimes, been permitted TO
pass from memory. But the persistent
cry Of fraud" raised from the very hour
the votes of the people were found to be
not for Mr.. Tilden. and kept up to
this day in Congress to the peril of the
public peace. and elsewhere to the dishon-
or of the country, has forced an investiga-
ton. not conducted, like the one institu-
ted by partisans in Congress, for the pir-
pose of hiding truth. The clamor OF
fraud" has compelled the discovery OF
the facts. and here they are. They show,
in brief. that the very men who have been
been loudest and most persistent in cry
foul crime against the country.
There are given to-day great body OF
kilograms, both open and in translated
ciphsr..which bear indirectly upon the main
transactions. Yet they are valuable, first
as presenting perfect record of the in
ncr situation and scheming of the demo-
cratic force in Florida, and as proving,
again and again. by exact correspondence
Of the translatiOns with facts recorded at
the time in public prints, the correctness
OF the keys and vocabulares employed
These are given that, out of the mouths
of many witnesses, the truth may be es-
tablished. References to the keys en-
ployed are given, so that every reader may
test for himself the correctness OF the
TRANSACTIONS in every case, and the exact
fitness Of the interpretations of cipher
words.
In brief. the translated dispatches show
that. in answer to several appeals for mon
ey. sent to New York from Florida on
the second day after the Presidential
election. and to request that ga
good man with an understood cipher
should be sent thither, Mr.. John
F. Coyle, notorious lobbyist of
Washington, started with the precise
ciphers afterward used by all the conspira-
tors, and In them recorded his progress
southwark 10 Jacksonville, Florida that
his first work was TO arrange for tele-
graphic transfer of money, whenever de-
sired. from New York to a banker in Flor
ida; and that he then joined at Tallahassee
Mr.. Manton Marble and c. w. Woolley,
who thereafter used in daily communica-
tons with Gramercy Park. New York, the
ciphers Coyle had brought For time
this trio labored only in perfecting demo
cratic returns and proofs, believing, as the
democratic committee of Florida had false
~ asserted, that the State had given 600
majority for MIR. Tlden. They insisted,
too, at this stage, that the Canvassing
Board had full power to purge" the
county returns-a power which they af-
terward most impudently denied when re-
publicans proposed to correct democratic
frauds. Steadily the visible majority
dwindled to nothing, but the local mana
gers held back to the last large democratic
returns, and it was believed that this was
done ID order to SO alter those returns as
to secure majority after the legal pro.
ceedings instituted by democrats had com.
PEELED the opening and canvassing of 9TH
er returns sent forward in time. This plo
having failed. the great crime began TO,
which preparations had been elaborated,
7Fmade.
The first cipher despatch sent to Gram
ercy Park by Mr.. Coyle in which bribery
is distinctly named says: my hope small
= "Nothing but cash lOiH aran.
On the same day Mr.. Manton Marble sen
the following:
TALLAHASSEE. Dec. 2.
Colonel PELroN,6 40. Is Gransercy Park:
Have just received proposition to hand owe
at any hour required Tilden decision of Board anc
certificate Of Governor for two hundred tbousape
dollars.
Three days After, Mr.. Manton Marble
signing himself IN. NJ" says, 10 an oper
dispatch: FINISHED yesterday afternoon
responsibility (as) Moses" The dis
patches SO signed are indispu,ably his
The first proposition was deemed too higl
at Gramercy Park, because on the previ
Gus day Mr. Woolley had telegraphed
TALLAHASSEE, Fla, Dec. /.
HENRY HAyEMEYER, No. Is West I'm ct " J.
30 ard fetch may make necessary expense O
half of a hundred thousand dollars. Can you sa,
will deposit In bank Immediately if agreed. Fox
,lf The identity of Fox" is also proved
most conclu sively. and the reply to tbi,
bald and naked proposal was forwarded
with the signature 'H." It informed