New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-02-11

II must be clear to all uunlciUdccd persons
who have read the testimony Of NeS>rS. e'o,
Pcton and Marble that there WAS a reserve
fund Of money somCrhere upon which the men
who agreed to purchase votes expected TO
draw for the means of payment. All declare
that the Democratic managers OF the count
fnlly intended to close the transaction and pay
the money. Al affirm that they had no idea
of calling upon Mr.. Iildcn for the necessary
cash. But it surely needs no argument 10 con-
vince reasonable beings that Mr. Smith Weed
never imagined his negotiations dcprnded upon
the airy monetary fanccs of Colonel Pclton ;
or that the veteran Wooley did not enter upon
"A campaign of tins sort without an idea OF
the source from which forces were to be
got together in readiness FOR contingencies /;
or that Mr.. Marble was not entirely IN the
dark as to the basis of the pecunlaTy offers
by which Mr. W0olley muddlcd the Florida
campaign or even that Pclt0n himself did
not risk the ruin of his uncle and himself by
mourning enormous obligations which he had
no definite plan for meeting. Inc COnsplia-
tors all talk rs if they made 'hcir schemes IN
what Mr. Reed would call "a piou, hope and
some expectation that "a hundred and fifty
thousand dollars would rain down upon them
in the night. Which the public rcsolutcly and
unanimously refuses to believe.
Up to this time, tor want perhaps Of the
ingenuity to devise Il better story. they have
all combined to throw suspicion upon the
Democratic National Committee. Mr.. Marble
says that he regarded PcltOn rs the agent of
the Committee and although he does not go
so far "a TO suspect that the Committee au-
thorizcd this transaction. he hesitatcs to say
that he supposed PeltOn was considering the
propositions alone. Smith Weed declares that
he believed the Committee would furnish The
money. Colonel Pelton says that il was to the
Committee he intended to apply. If these per
sons have 80 mean an opinion of the highest
authority in their own party, it is not Tor Us
10 complain; MessrS. Hewitt, Cooper, Scott,
and the other gentlemen traduccd by the eX
plantations of the cOparcencrS Will resent
the imputatiOn upon their honor i'll their
own way. But for oar part, we have no idea
that the three cOniessOrS are telling the truth.
Colonel PeltOn made application to the treas
urcr of the National COMMITTEES for money to
buy the South Carolina Board, and was
promptly repulsed. 1t requires either enOr-
nous impulence or phenomenal stupidity to
expect lis to believe that after this repulSc he
Immediately began to negotiate for the pur-
chase of Florida, still trusting to the treas
urer of the National Committee to give him
the money; and then for the bribery OF South
Carolina legislators and then for the acquiSi-
ton of mate for CTonin III Oregon; and
then, perhaps, for the transfer of Louis
iana-looliing to Mr.. Cooper and his as
sociatcs for the funds. and not even at
tempting to raise them elsewhere. In
deed that he depended upon some other source
of supply is plain enough from the fact that
during the prCciou, last hours Of the Florida
count, when delay must defeat thc plot. he de-
cares that hc did not 90 t0 the Committee for
money, whatever else hc may have done.
The conclusion which the world must draw
from these statements il that the roparccnerS
have not revealed the source OF their expected
supplies, and the well-Sprn% of their hopes.
There i, secret which they have carefully
guarded. even at the great cost of a-ppIsing
the honor Of their own National Committee :;
and in this secret may bc found the key 10 the
whole mystery of the I'ilden aitcr-campaIgn.