New-York tribune., 1879-11-01
L0uK OFT FOR FP1UD.

The Republicans of New-York have VIC
tory within their grasp, on one condition.
They ought to cast majority OF the votes at
the coming election, but they need to he par
tcularly careful that the votes cast are also
counted.
The Tilden clique is desperate 1t Is rule
or ruin with the Sage of Cipher Alley There
was time when Mr.. 11lden relied upon the
glamour of Reform for success, but he does
not now. He is not a green politician. lie
knows that the Democratic opposition Is
strong enough in this State, in spite of all
that his trained workers can do, to make the
defeat of Governor Robinson certain, provided
the votes are honestly counted and returned. Yet
his friends are boasting. There was time when
men would have been reluctant to believe
that Samuel j. Tilden would deliberately set
plots to rob the people of their free choice.
Those who have read the ugly record OF the
doings of his confidential emissaries IN South
Carolina, Florida, Louisiana and Oregon,
have come to the conclusion that MIR. Tilden
can be trusted about as far as one can throw
Trinity Church by the steeple. 1t is life or
death to him whether the Democratic ticket
succeeds in this State. If his trusted agents
can win, by any means not more criminal
than the bribing of an elector, the Republicans
may as well consider that their ticket is still
in danger.
There are but few hours left and those
hours should be spent, in every voting district
in the State, in taking the best possible pre-
cautions against fraud in the counting and
the returns. In this city, where Tammany
Democrats as we'll as Republicans on the
watch at every precinct. there is less chance
of fraud than in some other localities. There
are other cities and towns III which the
ballot-box will be guarded by Republicans
only, for the only Democratic officials
will he men who will repeat the frauds
of 1868 if they can. There are some
symptoms of determination on the part
of Mr. Tilden's faction to prepare the public
mind in some localities for results which would
otherwise be incredible. The thing for Re-
publicans to do is plain. Their business is TO
see that every Republican vote is not only
cast but counted and returned, and to organ
ne Immediately sufficient vigilance committees
to render undetected fraud an impossbility.
No doubt the campaign committees have
already taken especial precautions, but it Is
not possible to watch the polls too closely this
year, and in some places needful care may haye
been omitted
1t is shameful that the people of this State
are obliged to guard their ballot-boxes, in any
election in which Mr.. 1ilden takes great
interest, with as much care as one would use
to protect valuables against burglars, tramps
OF sneak-thieves. But the disgrace attaches
to the party which permits the Cipher r-Using
clique to dictate its candidates and to run its
campaigns Until Mr.. Tilden has been COM
pletely extinguished as a possible Presidential
candidate, the Democratic party must expect
to be watched with extreme suspicion and
care There are decent men In that party, of
course but they are not too decent to give
unreserved support to man who did not
know anything about it when cipher dispatches
by the bushel were delivered at his private
residence. They are not too decent to cling
to that same candidate after his use of the
same telegraphic cipher in order TO evade
payment of q tax to the Government has
been exposed. They stick to him still, though
he has not ceased to put in places of high
trust men who were used in 1876 as agents
in an attempt to buy votes. The experience
of 1868, when Mr. Tilden was chairman Of
the Democratic COMMITTEE, cannot safely be
overlooked. Care would have defeated the
most infamous frauds at that time, and care
may be equally necessary now.