Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1879-05-02

turalized annually $3.50 votes, on an aver
age In 1866, two creatures of Tammany
Hall became Judges, and in few days 49,
023 persons were made voters. The natur-
| alization mill, however, did not get well
under way until 1868, when McCunn was
Judge of the.Superior Court and Barnard Of
the Supreme. October e, 1865, a month
prior to the election, Judge Barnard de
clared that he would attend to no other
business, except the issue Of naturalization
papers. In that month the record shows
that Judge Barnards court issued Ills
certificates of naturalization. 1t was after
wards proved that p .O6S certificates Of
citizenship were issued ,cien no application
rds on file In the Superior Court (Judge
McCunn) the clerks returned under oath
the number of certificates of naturalization
issued on twenty days in October, the aggre-
gate of which was &c ,22G, or daily aver
age of BIZ The two courts during the
month OF October, 1865, ISSUED nor less than
G3 900 natural, alton certificates
The methods employed in this gigantic
scheme Of fraud have been made clear by the
investigations of Congressional committees.
In the Supreme Court twenty-one witnesses
preared for 2,149 applicants. One wit
ness, who swore to the "good moral charac-
ter of "a applicants, had just graduated
from the State prison, while two other
witnesses were well-known thieves. 1t also
appeared on testimony that one of these
thieves had four thousand certificates of
naturalization for sale.
In addition to the wholesale frauds which
these fraudulent issues Of naturalization
papers indicate, there was that year, and
subsequent ones, until the United States
election laws were enforced, an organized
system of false registration and repeating.
1t was proved that in one instance gang Of
fifty were registered from five to thirty
times each. Another gang Of eight register
ed one hundred and sixty fictitious names.
This gang was arrested and their books
seized, showing that they were registered in
two hundred and twenty places. These
offenders were relieved from arrest by Judge
Barnard on writ of hdJtds corpus, and
afterwards discharged without hearing.
Not content with frauds of this kind, the
Tweed ring overcame the honest votes of the
State outside of the city by counting and
canvassing. Tweed himself testified in 1877
that ballots were counted in bulk. that is,
the result was announced without counting,
and that 1.-THE counters, not the ballots,
made the result"
Such was the condition Of affairs when
the Republicans came to the conclusion that
Congress must interfere; and upon the pas
sage Of the Federal election laws an effort
was made to put an end to these wholesale
frauds. From forty to sixty thousand fraud
ulent naturalization papers were to be follow.
cd up and destroyed. Prior to 1873 Super
visor Davenport lad obtained information as
to the holders of these papers. Notice was
given prior to the election to all parties
holding them that they were fraudulent and
that they would not be permitted to register
under them. Before election about four
thousand Of these papers were surrendered.
Just before election thirty-two hundred
warrants were issued against parties who
had registered under these papers. ON
election day six hundred and six were ar
rested and only twelve hundred succeeded
in voting.
This enforcement Of the law called forth
an indignant howl from the Tammany man
ayers, and an investigation followed Mr..
Frye was member of the subcommittee
that went to New York for the purpose Of
those arrested by Supervisor Davenport.
Tammany called seventy as witnesses and ex-
amined only eleven. The papers of forty
two Of these witnesses on their face would
have convicted them of illegal registration.
Mr.. Frye is Of the opinion that not more
than score Of the six hundred persons ar
rested for illegal registration had legal
right to vote.
Mr.. Frye gave statistics to prove his state
ments, for which We have no space but the
figures of the Presidential election in ls7G.
in those wards where the greater part of the
illegal voting was done, show the excellent
results Of the United States laws At an cleo
ton in May ls7l, in those wards the Republi-
can vote was 3.ll4 and the Democratic o.
ol3 at the Presidential election of 1870 the |
publican vote was 1 .Go1 and the Democratic
Is, 323. Thus it appears that under the |
enforcement oft Federal election laws, in |
the most exciting election that the country |
ever witnessed, the Democratic vote of the
HUNS fell Of more than one-half This |
change appears much greater when it is re-
membered that the total vote Of the city in
$50 was only 10 600 against III 900 in
1876.
The opposition Of the Democracy to the
law, under which supervisors Of
10Th parties may watch the elections for the
prevention Of fraud, SIMPLY means that with
his law in force, they feel no assurance that
hey can carry New York for the Democratic
ominee Tor President in 1850, be he who he
nav. Without these laws, New York city
vii! take care Of New York State in the in
crest Of the Democratic party and the solid
outh. But the law will evidently not be
cpealed at this extra session What can be
one with it at the regular session mex.
v inter, remains to be seen