The daily gazette., 1879-02-10

ed for to return to New York; did moi
at that time know I'll at Mr.. Smith NJ
Netd had gone to South Caroina-tha
he was thee or had been there at any
time; had not seen him after the elec
ton, and had no knowledge of his where
abouts at that time; my conversation
with Mr.. Cooper was very brief-he
who'e matter was disposed of within
from five to ten minut, 5; / made no IN.
qury with regard to any details. and
There was no discussion between us; Mr..
| Cooper concurred wi h me entirely as TO
the measures to be taken;athOugh took
1t for granted he would nake every nee
essary communication on lhe su ject |
did not leave it at that; | obtained flom
INN Colonel Pelton's address in Balti-
more and caused him to be Immediately
teiegraphed 10 in a peremptoIy manner
to return to New York; my desp tch to
| Colonel Pelton was in ordinary language;
l had no cipher; could not read "a cph-
er, and / could not translate into cipher;
1t never occurred to me tat ther. wa,
| any reason for cOncealment; my belief is
that the despatch to Colonel Pelton to
return was sent III my own name, think
| seht IT or had ii seut within ten min
ltes after Mr.. Cooper LET the house; Col
onel Pelton returned that night to New
| York; with reference to Florida. | never
| saw any one of the Florida telegrams,
| either IN cipher or in tran la ion; the con-
| tents OF no one of them, SO far as know,
was ever communicated to me: | do not
tnink lie contents of any one of them
relating to the course of this controversy
thus lar was ever communicated to me,
and in looking over them | am not able
| to recall any one of them that h ,d ever
seen before; did not know, and was not
| informed, that there had been any offer
from anybody representing, or claiming
to represent the Florida Board of Can
vassers or any member of It to give that
vote to the democratic electors I'LL after
the certificate bad been given and the
votes OF the electors deposited for trans
| mission to Washington; my first infor-
nation on the subject was subsequent to
| that aud after the 9TH of December, 1876;
some time after Mr.. Manton Marble re-
turned from the South; / dou't know
when, but before l went 10 England, he
| called on me one day and mentioned to
me as of bygone affair that the 5 ate of
Florida was offered, or rather the certifi-
| cate, which would have yielded us the
vote, but he said the offer had been de-
clined; sometime later in the summer,
about the time Mr.. Marbles letter on the
Electoral Commission appeared, L made
remark TO Colonel Pelton about this
offer from Florida, and he answered in a
single sentence that all offers had been
declined; that was all the knowledge |
bad on the subject till the publication of
the dispatches.
With reference to the State of Oregon
/ saw none of these telegraphic despatch
es; now refer to the dispatches contain
ed in the Tribune, No. Al 1 never Jaw
one of them in cipher or translation; he
substance OF no one of them was ever
| communicated TO me, with the exception
of the dcsp itch {, ON Governor Grover
| stating that he should give the certificate
of the State to the democratic elector
Cronin; the substance of that despatch
was communicated TO me by some BODY !;
! did not know that IL came in cipher TIL
after it appeared on the examination of
| the Morton committee; in what form that
communication was made to me l cannot
now state. but l was made aware of the
| fact; several of these cipher kilograms ap-
p ared to have been addressed to Colo
mel Pelton at No, 10 Gramercy Park,
my residence; L asked one of my young
| men to look them over and tell me how
many there were of them; / think he told
me there were fifteen of the Flo ida de-
spatches addrt ssed to Colonel Pelton,
chiefly sent by Mr.. Manton Marble; as
far as l know and believe no one OF these
dispatches was delivered at my hou e:
Colonel Pelton's habits and hours and
mine are entirely different; ! was still
Governor of the State of New York, anu
had many executive duties to perform; |
was burdened by daily rece ptions OF peo-
pie who came to me from all parts of the
United States; think from three to five
hours day was the least time | was COM
PEELED to devote to these duties; Colonel
Pelton seldom came to the house till after
had been long in bed he was very busy
at the committee rooms and ] saw very
little of him, but ] think if any consider
able number of telegrams had come to the
house | should have found out the fact
somehow; 1 40 not brlieve any of these
cipher kilograms ever came to the house
at any rate, they never met NV eye and
they never came within my knowledge.
THE VISITING STATESMEN.
Only one word rs to the gentlemen who
were sent South to the disputed States to
watch aud guard the canvass on behalf
of the democratic party. That measure
originated either with Mr.. Hewitt or
General Grant. Within a day or two af-
lection | think General Grant wroie
ii letter in which he propose ed such an ex-
pedient; Mr.. Hewitt had either started it
before or embraced 1t Immediately after;
1 did not select or send the gentlemen
whe went to these disputed States, and
with few exceptions they were not sent
after con, ultaton with me.
l did not attempt TO supervise their
acts did not communicate with them;
In no instance during the whole of the
time did l, directly or indir- etly. COM
municate or correspond with gentle
man that was in the South ON that busi-
ness; / never received any communica-
ii ons from them or any of them except
one commune cation sent by Mr.. Randall,
Mr.. OttendOffer, Mr.. Lamar and Mr..
Wa'terson suggesting some kind of pro-
position to be made by me to Mr.. Hayes;
/ never answered that despatch. except
verbally TO Mr.. Ottendoffer; after he re-
turned to New York he called upon me;
/ was very busy all the time; | took itfor
granted that these gentlemen understood
their business aud l did uot undertake to
direct them; the idea that the, were my
personal az tents in any sense has no foun-
uation in fact.
They were the representatives or dele
gates of the democratic party, chosen
general by its organization 10 money,
so far .ls i knew, ever went to one of
these States with any comm ssion or au-
thor ty or contemplation to do anything
which these gentlemen ought not to do,
or to do anything but defeud the inter