Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1878-11-07
ANOTHER DISCOVERY.
Nephew PeltOn Took the $780,
600 TO Baltimore 10 Buy the
South Carolina Returning
Rnar6
From the Neao York Tribune.

Who went to Baltimore to carry to
Smith Weed the money for the pur'
chase of South Carolina Returning
Board? On the 18th of November
1876, Weed telegraphed.frem Columbia
to Henry Havemeyer-otherwise Colo
mel William T. Pelton:
Majority of Board have been secur'
ed Cost is eighty thousand, to be sent
as follows: One parcel of sixty'tive
thousand dollars, one OF ten thousand
and one of five thousand; all to be five
hundred or one Thousand bills; notes to
be deposited as parties accept, and
given up upon vote of South Carolins
being given to Tilden's friends. The
three packs should be sent without in
scriptfon and tonight, unless you re-
ceiVe a telegram from me counter
nIanding. For Gods sake let it go
Have cash ready to reach Bal timore
Sunday night.
Later on the same day he telegraph
ed: "Shall leave tonight for Balti,
more. Meet.ne yourself If prudent u
And lastly, just before starting, having
apparently received favorable reply
to his request that ''safe man" should
"bring stuff to Baltimore, he wired
this message:
| sLooks well now. You must have
the Copenhagen at Barhum's in Balti
more, early Monday morning, l go n
10 tonight.
The Tribune has already shown how
Smith NJ. Weed, leaving Columbia or
Saturday night, November 18th, did
arrive at Barnum's Hotel in Baltim ORE
early Monday morning, the Goth, reg
istering there by his true name. Il
was also shown, at the time of the pub
lie alton of these dispatches, that there
was every reason to believe that the
''safe man" met him with "the stuff, VI
according to appointment, and that the
failure of the scheme was attributable
to other causes than neglect of the New
York parties to put up the money.
We have taken pains to verify certain
information which reached US two
weeks ago respecting this ''safe man."
The chain of evidence is now complete.
The register of the Mount Vernon
Hotel, small and quiet house in Balti
more, where person of retiring dis
position might be safe from curious
eyes, shows among the arrivals early
on Monday morning, November Goth,
William T. Pelton, of New York. AT
10 o'clock Mr.. Pelton, with friend
who had accompanied him from this
city, took a carriage. Early in the day
| the friend was seen with Mr.. Smith
Weed at Barnum's Hotel. 1t was pro-
badly after this interview-to which ii
would not be rash to assume that Mr..
Pelton also was party-that Smith
Weed sent his first cipher dispatch to
Columbia;
BALTIMORE, Nov. 90
General j.: B. Gordon, Columbia:
Matters arranged by the Returning Board
agent Inform Haskell, and telegraph news.
What occurred during the day to
disturb the arrangement Is not known;
but in another dispatch to General
Gordon, Weed asked that the Supreme
Court might "hold on 10 the electoral
votes" because there might be "a little
delay and then at night Pelton and
his friend and Weed all returned tC
New York.
The fact that it was Colonel Peltor
who made that journey TO Baltimore
compliance with Weeds request that
he would "bring the stuff if prudent"
is most i'm nportant discovery. PeltOr
assuredly would not have gone there
just to tell Weed that his demand fol
money could not be granted. UPetton
,0ds the safe man t1ho met Weed o.
Bdrr,tna's Hotel, Pelton took aoitb hin
$50, 900 to buy the South Carolina Re
turning Board. That is morally GER
tain. Where did he get it? Here i:
the act of bribery brought home, not tC
secret agents, and clerks, and secre.
taries, and amateur negotiators, but t.
some person or some organization iI
the Democratic party high enough tC
command great sum of money and tC
assume a tremendous responsibility
Democrats have tried to meet the dis
grace of tbs cipher disclosures by say.
ing: "Oh, Marble was a fool; throw
him overheard. Coyle and WoolIey
and Weed were politicians of low
grade, whose transactions were not ap
proved by their employers; throw them
overheard. PeltOn was presuming
and scheming rascal; throw him over,
board, too" But for this new develop
ment of the plot there must be differ
ent sort of answer. They cannot throw
overheard man with $4,000 in hi:
pocket. Who supplied him with thai
| 70 oil
to deliver it to the bribe- broker.
Whose hand invisibly moved this
weak and Insignificant young man land
dispatched him with "three parcels
one of S65, 900, one of 1000, and one
of s., 600, to buy the Presidency of the
UniteL. States? Until a serious attempt
to find the answer to these questions il
made by the party for whose benefit
the crime WAS attempted, it is upon
tie whole party that the crushing
weight of shame must rest.
GEN. WoODFoRD closed the cam
paign in Brooklyn Saturday by an el-
oquent speech in which he spoke as
follows of the future of the Republican
party: "Whatever may be the tempo
rary and local results Of this autumn's
canvass, this one result has already
been clearly and confessedly reached.
The Republican party is and it must
remain the party Of absolute good
faith, alike to plough holder, bill hold
er, and bond holder. 1t is and must
remain the steady, sleepless, tireless
defender of the good name and flnan'
cial honor of the Nation. Failing to-
dQv in fhjs it fails in oil Snooaadip0