New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-10-07
TILE SECRET HISTORY or 1876.

THE TRIBUNE begins this morning its sys-
tematic exposition of the Democratic efforts
to tamper with the electoral count In 1876.
The most ingenious and intricate system of
ciphers Yet known was devised in order
to conduct the negotiations. The most active
and trusted friends of the Democratic candi-
date were equipped with these cipbers
and sent to the electoral boards of
the doubtful States. So active were
they that the mass of their telegraphc
correspondence in our hands would fill pages
of THE TRIBUNE. So anxious were they to
cover their tracks that when an investigation
was threatened, they endeavOred to have their
cipher messages burned, and, until very lately,
thought they were burned. To-day they can read
how their whole system of cOncealment has
been mastered and how the very perfection
of their cipher aids in our absolute demonstra-
ton of the accuracy of our translation. To-
morrow they can begin the luxury of cOntem-
plating In cold print the history they secretly
made in the critical days of 1876.
The Democratic House of Representatives
arraigned two of the Republican visiting
statesmen for fraud and conspiracy,
in the matter of the electoral
count After months of fishing with a
drag-net they have produced what a con-
fessed perjurer is able to recall of a letter
| not in existence, purporting to come from
man whose handwriting he didn't
know, and promising that persons who
did their duty would not be forgotten.
Absolutely that is all. If now it shall appear
not on the doubtful recollection Of per-
| iurer, but on tho indisputable testimony of
their own dispatches; not on a single
doubtful copy Of doubtful letter which
| if genuine proved nothing but on the
cumulative and comprehensive testimony of
| hundreds of dispatches from different men in
different States at different times, sent out
| from the same headquarters and reporting to
the saue headquarters-if, now, it shall
appear from this overwhelming and conclu-
sive evidence, furnished by their own
secret correspondence, that the Democratic
j visiting statesmen most intimate at Gramcrcy
Park, sent directly from Gramercy Park, after
elaborate and most carefully secret CORE
spOndence with Gramercy Park, did, in three
different States, deliberately attempt to buy
| -. But we anticipate. Read the dispatches,
and make I'D your own minds.
Meantime, after seeing from our account
|
varied were the devices of the Democratic
visiting statesmen to conceal their acts
in the doubtful States, will readers recall little
incident in the Investigations that has
hitherto escaped much nOticei When the
! Knott Field Committee of the House was in
! curing into the electoral count, IT called upon
! the Western Union Telegraph Company for dis
patches sent to and from Louisiana, Florida
and South Carolina, and proposed to inquire
| into the money transactions of the Republicans
| in each of those States. All at once it
was given out that the committee had changed
| its mind, and would not :go into that
subject. And it did not. Could the fact that
the first Oregon dispatches were then coming
out have been the only reasonf From that
day to this the Democrats have never shown
any desire to open up the subject of
money transactions in the doubtful States
| When William E. Chandler was on
the stand, as late as June of this year,
ne twice attempted to have the Potter
Committee ask him to translate his ci-
pber dispatches. Each time both Potter
and Hunton stopped short the moment the
testimony began to tend in that direction. Did
they suspect then. what all the world will
begin to learn tomorrow, as to the