New-York tribune., 1879-04-09
EREE ELECTIONS.

ing active members of the party III the rural
counties to telegraph to William NJ. Tweed
the moment the polls closed, a careful esti-
mate of the vote in their respective towns.
The object of collecting this early int Iii
gcnce was not explained, but it was well un-
derstood that the Tammany managers wanted
10 know betimes how large q Republican ma
iority in the country districts they had to
overcome by frauds in counting the city
returns. The scheme worked IA they
desired. The news from tho interior
was promptly teegraphed. The figures
from the metropolitan precincts were held
back until the result in this State was known; ;
and then Tweed and his fellows counted up
fictitious Tammany majority which reversed
the true verdict of the people. placed John l..
Hoffman in the Governors chair. and fraudu-
lently transferred the electoral votes OF the
Empire State from Grant to Seymour. Mr..
Tilden afterward declared that he knew moth
ing of the circular to which his name was at
tached. 1t has been the peculiar misfortune
of this eminent statesman all his life to have
wicked things done IN his name or his behalf.
which he would have forbidden if he had
been consulted about them,-one day an opera
ton in false counting, the next large trans
action in bribes then the theft of account
books ont of a court Of justice. If PeIton,
Marble and Smith Weed could compromise
him SO deeply without his knowledge, there Is
no difficulty in believing that William NJ.
Tweed was quite capable of deCeiying him
too.
But whether the Chairman Of the Democratic
State Committee was priyy or not to the
frauds by which the State was secured to his
party, the systematic operations of the DemOc-
racy in stuffing ballOt-boxes, sending repeaters
to the polls, and falsifying the count, were
notorious at that time, and furnished the text
of a remarkable letter addressed to Mr. Tilden
the next year by Horace Greeley, to which
Mr.. Chittenden lately invited the attention of
the Confederate House. A few paragraphs
from this letter are well worth reproducing
here:
On one very important point your bitterness = par
:isau has mpeed you ignore and come short Of your
duty as citizen and profesed upholder Of govern
inent by the People; and for this derelcton here
raign you. aude to the preservation Of the purity OF
the Baotbox. Tho matter which
call your attention is vital 10 the very exist
cnce OF free popular government Whenever 1t
shall be generally understood that the result OF the elec-
tons are determined by the ballots Of legal voters,
but by frauds voting frauds in counting then the
advent OF ayOwed unoquivocal desDosm must be near
at hand. Mr.. Tilden. have been voting here
for thirty-seven years. and active politician for
than Thirty Of them and appeal t. God for nay sin-
cerity ana M public record Tor witness, that in all
those years | have earnestly sought and hJ0rcd 10
have our elections decided by legal votes ana none
Other Seeing how great the temptations andtne faci
ities undcr Right OF suffrage general our' 10 poll
~
effort TO shut and keep the suffrage pure and
legal That every legal voter should have tuil and
fair opportunity TO vote once at each election
That no one should be enabled 20 vote more
than onee.nd that none but legal voters should be
allowed or empowered to yOtc az asucn has been NY
constant am Ihaye not conaucd myself TO barren
professions, but Lave shown my !a!th BY my works.
now is it with youf Y0u hold most responsible
and influential position the councils OF great party
You could make that party content itsolf with polling
legal votes II you only would In our late Constitutional
Convention tried erect fresh barriers against
election frauds; did youi Tho very ttle that was
enabled to effect IN this direction shall try 20 have rat
flied by the people az ensuing Election. VIII yoUf
Dir. Tilden, You cannot escape responsibility by say
ing. with the guilty Macbeth,
"Tnou clnst not say did it; never shake
TnCso CORY lO5hs 1t ne -
for you were at least passive accomplce In tho giant
frauds OF last November Tour used, without
public prWtst on your part IN clfCudls sOWeu broad
cast over State. whereof the manifest intent to
make assurance doubIy " that the frauds here
perperatcd should not lie OyorbOrne by the
the rural districts Aud you not merely by silence,
but by positive assumption, have covered those frauds
with the msEue OF your responsibility. GU the prnc
pie that the receiver Is a, bad the thief" you
deeply implicated Ia them to-day though your name
were Tweed. O'Bricn, or Oakley Hall.
No answer was ever made to this appeal.
n 4 4.
wholesale and systematic frauds upon the
suffrage waich his party were perpetrating
under the mantle of his respcctability. The
crimes were fragrant there was hardly a pre-
tence of cOnccaing them but loose election
laws redoundcd to the immediate profit of the
Democracy, aud no Democrat would consent
TO their amendment. SO the scandal went on
until the Republican party, aroused particu-
laily by the stupend0us rascalties perpetrated
i'll NeW-York according 10 the Tilden circular
OF 1868, enacted Federal law to insure
that every legal voter should have a full
"and fair opportunity to vote once ut each
" election that no one should be allowed
"to vote more than once; and that none
"but legal voters should he allowed and em-
powered to vote at all" Under that law
there was rcGsohable utSrcc OF purity IN
the management of elections until the Dem
ocratic party returned TO power in the South,
and drove the colored voters from the polls
with rIfes. Even there, however, violence
was not altogether safe. and Wholesale frauds
like those of 1868 were hardly possible.
Thus to-day the champions of fraud at
the polls. still smartng under the
expoSure OF their plot To buy for
money the Presidency which they just
missed securing by crimes against the suf-
frage, hurry to the Capital, riotinG. camor-
ing and threatening, to demand the instant
repeal OF the election laws made necessary by