Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1879-03-06
The Result.

The Cipher Committee having practically
finished its labors, we can now weigh the
product of the four weeks inquiry. The sur
face facts of the conspiracy revealed by the
translated kilograms were hardly in doubt,
and the confessions of the confederates added
little to the assurance already held by the
public that persistent attempts had been made
by Democratic agents to purchase the votes of
the disputed States. The Committee never
theless has compelled highly important dis
closure. 1t has demonstrated that there was
no readiness on the Republican side to sell,
but only wild eagerness on the Democratic
side to buy. The purchasing agents dispatch
ed from Gramercy Park and the Everett
ostensible purpose of watching the count"
went into the business of bribery systematic
ally, and at toterably early period of the
canvass, and kept it up with great zeal till the
themselves some as the victims of an over
whelming temptation offered by corrupt Rad
ical officials, Others as paragons of virtue who
repulsed improper approaches aud never
transmitted dshonorable offers except as
''danger signals" 1t is quite clear now that
they were not the tempted but the tempters.
In South Carolina there has never been any
doubt on which side the scheme of purchase
originated, although it has been uncertain
heretofore whether the Board of Canvassers
were actually ready to accept Mr.. Smith
Weeds proposals If the money mad been OBJ
tanned in time. The testimony of ex-Con-
troller Dunn, however, settles that point. MIR.
Dunn proves that Smith Weed, while he sup
posed he was conducting bona fide nego-
tiation with a majority of the Board, was
only showing his hand to shrewder man
than himself, who Immediately reported every
detail of the affair to Governor Chamberlain.
Mr.. Chamberlain, if he had been called,
would have corroborated the statement of
Mr.. Dunn. Now by revealing the plot to the
chief victims if it had been carried out, Mr..
Dunn made it absolutely impossible for the
Board to accept the bribe, if they had been SO
disposed. He gave the best imaginable pledge
for the fidelity of himself and his associates,
and test by which we can surely determine
the value of his present testimony. The Sin
terceder" Hardy Solomon, as soon as Smith
Weed showed a danger signal by revealing
his name to the Committee, disappeared
from sight, and we do not imagine that the
Democrats in Washington, or Columbia eth.
er, are very anxious 10 find him.
The transactions in Florida were somewhat
more obscure, but upon these affairs, too, the
Committee has thrown strong light. Every
attempt to trace the propositions" of Marble
and Woolley to their source leads straight to 8
Democrat, and there stops. Mr.. Marbles &c.
centric forgetfulness as to the persons from
whom he received the corrupt offers tele.
graphed to New York was subject of won
dering remark at the time of his examination.
The air was full of offers, he says; but three
were reported to him in such positive shape
that he felt authorized to submit them to his
principal at home. The first, he thinks, was
for $3.50, 900; then there was, of certainty,
an offer for $500, 900; finally there was pro-
honest Democratic statesman, ''watching the
count" lad received a series of distinct prcpo
sitions to sell out, he would remember from
whom he received them. 1t is obvious that
mind more strongly than the others, it would
be the first, made while he was fresh and
made at the highest price. Yet Mr.. Marble
swore that the only one he could remember
anything about was the last and the cheapest;
and probably he would not have remembered
that if Mr.. G. E. Dyke, the editor of Demo
cratic paper in Florida, had not already stated
that he heard it as rumor and repeated it tC
Marble. This statement of the chief COM
mander of the Tilden campaign in Florida i:
absurdly incredible. And yet it did convey
some information which Mr.. Marble did moi
mean to let out; for it is as plain as day that
if he did not, or would not, remember the
sources of these proposals, they did not reach
him through Republican channels and could
not be traced back to any Republicans either
IN Office or out of Office.
The evidence of Mr.. Coyle furnishes strong
confirmation of this conclusion. He swore
that Mr.. Alexander Thain, Democratic pol
itician of this city, was the person who made
the $500, 900 proposition. Thain made it moi
only to Marble, but to Coyle He made it as
early as the 11th of November, when Coyle
met him on the cars at Weldon. He showed
Coyle dispatch from Florida which read
"Come quick with cornucopia," and of course
he could not have received such a message
except from some member of his own party
He nursed the proposition for three weeks
He seems to have gone about Tallahassee
pressing it with great earnestness, at the SAINT
time that Colonel Woolley was assuring Coylt
that the job could be managed for $50, 600
There is not hint in all these transactions
that any Republican was so much as consult
ed about the trade. The correspondence has
been public ever since October. Woolley hal
maintained an obstinate silence. Marble, aftel
all his abusive language, has been unable u
recall solitary fact discreditable TO the can
v4ssing officers whom he has SO violently de.
famed. A Democratic Committee, after am
pie opportunity for conference with the "vis-
iting statesmen" has been unable to find thu
sliuhiest trace Of an offer Inv any mamher m