The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-03-13
THE CIPHER DISPATCHES.
Theft of tho kilograms Explaincd--Sharp
Practice of Republican Leaders and
Their Tools.
WASHINGTON. March 6. 1879.

The Committee for the Investigation
of Frauds in the Electoral Count, which
by the resolution of the House of Janua
ry 20, 1879, were directed to inquire into
certain cipher dispatches, &C., respectful
ly report;
That in the autumn of 1876 the Wes
tern Union Telegraph Company gave
orders to its employees at all points to or
from which such dispatches had been
sent or received or repeated, to forward to
its main Office at New York all despatch
es and copies of dispatches relating to the
Presidential election of 1876, and the same
were thereupon collected and forwarded to
New York, where they were assorted in
packages with reference to the points
from which they came. The purpose
of the company was to keep the des-
patches from being exposed to process
from the courts and from Congress, and
thus keep them from publication. With
that view they directed that the assort-
ment of them be conducted under the
care of Mr.. Cary-office attorney of the
company-and that when assorted they
should remain in his charge, as being
person less likely to be summoned to pro-
duce them than the proper officers of the
company. In this selection ell cipher
and other dispatches referring orsupposed
to refer any way to the election, including
all dispatches in respect ofwhich the oper-
ators were in doubt, were collected and
came into Mr.. Cary's charge, to the num-
Der of something over thirty thousand.
Subpenas having been issued by the
Committee of the House of Representa-
tives on Louisiana Affairs, of which Mr..
Morrison was chairman, calling for par
ticular Louisiana dispatches, and by the
Committee of Privileges and elections of
the Senate, of which Mr.. Morton was
chairman, calling for particular Oregon
dispatches, the same were selected from
the mass thus put in the charge of Mr..
Cary anG particular inventory of them
taken. Subsequently, q general subpoena
having been served upon the members of
the Executive Committee of the telo-
graph company, commanding them to
produce all dispatches relating in any
way to the election of 1876 before the
Morton committee, the company directed
Mr.. Cary to deliver to Mr.. Whitney, the
manager of the company at Washington,
all the dispatches in his charge, and Mr..
Whitney, after having taken therefrom
the specific Oregon and Louisiana de-
spatches aforementioned, placed the rest
| of the dispatches, amounting in number
to 90, ,275, in q trunk, taken an inventory
only of the number sent from or to par
ticular points, but no further designation
of the date, sender, receiver or contents.
The particular dispatches required by the
Morrison and Morton committees were
delivered on the 23d and Oath of January,
1877. The remaining 29,275 dispatches
were on the 25th day of January, 1877,
pursuant to the direction of Mr.. Sargent,
one of the Morton committee in charge
of the matter, delivered by Mr.. Whitney
either to the clerk of that committee, Mr..
Burbank, who was brother-in-law of
Mr.. Morton, or to the person for the time
being in charge of the committee room,
locked in trunk, the key of which Mr..
Whitney at the same time delivered to
the clerk ofthat committee.
DISPATCHES ADsTRACTED.
The Louisiana dispatches received by
the Morrison committee were in due time
returned to the telegraph company.
Those received by the Morton commit
tee, both the specified lot of 24l Oregon
dispatches and the remaining lot Of
1925 undesignated dispatches, re-
manned in the custody of that committee
not open to general or careless inspec-
ton, but, OH the contrary, kept close and
under guard until the 18th day of March,
1877, when the telegraph company, hav-
ing been notified they could recover the
same, applied through Mr.. Whitney to
the officers of the committee, and receiv-
ed back the trunk in which they had de-
livered the dispatches to the committee,
locked, together with the key of the
same, accompanied by the statement that
these were all the dispatches which had
been delivered by the company to that
committee. This trunk, with the des-
patches thus believed to be enclosed, was
forwarded to New York, and in due time,
under the regulations of the company, was
opened, and the dispatches therein con-
tanned destroyed by burning. The tele-
graph company were not aware ct the
time that there had not been returned to
them all the dispatches, which they had
delivered to the Morton Committee. In
point of fact, however, large number
of dispatches had been abstractcd while
they were in the custody of that commit
tee. Of these about seven hundred were,
as late as May, 1878, in the possession OF
one George Edward Bullock, OF Indiana,
who had been the messenger to that COM
mittee, and protege of its chairman,
Mr.. Morton, and who secured, upon the
recommendation of Mr.. Thomas J. Bra
dy, of Indiana, the Second Assistant
Postmaster General, and others from that
State, an appointment as Consul at Co.
logne. Upon the eve of his departure,
in May, 1878, land just after your com
mittee had been appointed, Bullock de-
liyered these dispatches to his friend, the
Hon. j. L. Evans of this House, who
passed them over to Mr.. Brady for allcg-
ed safe keeping, who had them copied,
and after consultation with Mr., Hale
and others, furnished those copies in
part to Mr. William L. Chandler, secre-
tary of the National Republican Com
mittee, and in part to the New York
Tribune, so that from Mr.. Chandler,
either directly or through others, copies
Of all these dispatches came into the
possession of the Tribune.
THE PUBLICATION.
Some Of the originals thus assorted by
Bullock out of the whole lot Of 1925
kilograms Mr.. Brady forwarded anony-
mously to the Tribune at time when it
was claimed that journal had no original
kilograms. The rest of the originals
Brady gave Mr.. Chandler, who left the
same in the office of General Butler, 4
member of this committee, in his alb
sence, without acquainting him from
whom they came, and in whose posses
sion the committee found them.
The Tribune procured the copies of
dispatches which it had thus obtained to
be translated by Mr.. Hassard and other
gentlemen in its employment, in which