New-York tribune., 1878-10-08
THE STORY or FLORIDA.

The story told to-day by the translation Of
captured cipher dispatches is not pleasant
one for any American to read. 1t is story of
such disgrace and shame that we might well
wish that events had nGt rendered its telling
necessary. Every citizen must feel that it
would hc.gc been better for the good name
of -,ihe Republic had the contest of 1876,
with all it's intense passions 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 dishonor of the coun-
try, has forced an investigation, not conducted,
like the one instituted by partisans in Con-
gress, for the purpose of hiding truth. The
clamor of fraudr has compelled the discOy-
ery of the facts, and here they are. They
show, in brief, that rhe very men who have
been lOudest and most persistent in crying
fraud" are those at whose door lies foul
crime against the country.
There are gwen to-day a great body Of tele-
grams, both open and in translated cipher.
which bear only indirectly upon the main
transactions. Yet they valuable, first, as
presenting perfect record of the inner stua-
ton and scheming of the Democratic 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 vocabularies en-
ployed. These are given that, out of the
mouths of many witnesses, the truth may be
established. References to the keys employed
are given, so that every reader may test for
-. 90 tba fra,, al taftn in
every case, and the exact fitness OF the inter
pretations of cipher words.
In brief the translated dispatches show that,
IN answer to several appeals for money sent
to New York from Florida on the second day
after the Presidential election. and to a re-
quest that ga good man with an under
stood 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 south
ward to Jacksonville, Florida; that his first
work there was to arrange for telegIaphic
transfer of money, whenever desired, from
New York to a banker in Florida; and that
he then Joined at Tallahassee Mr.. Manton
Marble and C. w. Woolley, who thereafter
used in daily communications with Gramercy
Park, New York, the ciphers COyle had
brought. For a time this trio labored
only in perfecting Democratic returns
and proofs, believing, as the Demo
cratic Committee of Florida had falsely as
serted, that the State had given 1,600
majority for Mr.. Tilden. They insisted, too,
at this stage, that the Canvassing Board had
| full power to "purge" the county returns
| I off ard i'm
pudently denied when Republicans pro-
posed to correct Democratic frauds. Steadily
the visible majority dwindled to nothing,
but the local managers held back to the last
large Democratic returns, and it was believed
that this was done in order to so alter those
returns as to secure a majority after the legal
proceedings instituted by Democrats had COM
| peled the opening and canvassing of other
returns sent forward in time. This plot hav-
| ing failed. the great crime began for which
preparations had been elaborately made.
The first cipher dispatch sent to Gramercy
| Park by Mr.. Coyle in which bribery is dis
tinctly Damed says: my hope small.
+" Nothing but cash ,ciH aeail.D On the same day
| Mr.. Manton Marble sent the following:
| TALLAHASSEE. Dec. 2.
! Colonel PnLrox, No Is Gramerey Park:
Have lust received proposition 70 hand over at any
hour required Tden decision Of Board and certificate
| OF Governor for two hundred thousand dollars.
Three days after, Mr.. Manton Marble, sign
ing himself an. NJ" says, in an open dis
patch FINISHED yesterday afternoon respon-
"ibiIity (as) Mosesn The dispatches 30
signed are indisputably his. The first propo-
sition was deemed too high at Gramercy
Park, because on the previous day Mr.. Woollcy
| had telegraphed:
TAILAHAssEE. Fla, Dec. l.
HKxnr HAylnIEYER. No. Is Eess 17U-st. ~ r.;
| Board fetch may make necessary expense Of half o