The Portland daily press., 1880-09-08

By Mr.. Ingalls,:
Q-Did you call the attention of any other
name?
Al do not think I did.
Q-Where was this?
Ain the Council room,
Q-Any of the Council present?
,A-Ihere were two or three; 1 think that
MIR. Brown was present and think Mr.. Mon
roe was present. They were not doing any
business; it was not session of the Council,
put there were two or three Councillors aside
from Foster; do not know but what Mr.
time.
Q-Were they within hearing, and listening
to your conversation?
Al do not know that they were; Mr.. Fos-
Ter and sat down at the Council table, and
ne got these returns and sat down by me and
to me.
inere can be no ESCAPE from this testimony
Mr. Harrington went to Augusta December 8
long before anybody suspected that the coun-
Gil would resort to forgery to count out Re-
publIcans At that time everybody supposed
tnat the Council meditated nothing worse
than the taking advantage of technical defects.
1t had been rumored that there were many
technical defects in returns from Republican
towns Mr.. Harrington went to Augusta to
make through examination of the returns
from Oxford county. He was allowed to see
the returns for county officers and discovered
several defects in Fusion towns, among them
that the return from Hebron gave the name
OF the Fusion candidate for Commissioner as
Henry Z. Walker instead of Henry G.. Walker.
lie made note of this error, sent it to the
oxford Democrat and called it to the atten-
ton OF Tabulator John B. Foster. At that
time certainly Mr. Harrington had no motive
to state anything but the fact. He stated it
publicly, too, SO that if it had not been trne,
Mr.. A. s. Kimball or any one of the other
Fusionists who had the free run of the Coun-
Gil chamber could have contradicted it and
doubtless would have done so if they could. No
contradiction was ever made, however. But
when the Councils tabulations were examined
it was found that Hebron was tabulated for
Henry G. Walker. An inspection of the re-
turn was then made and it was found that the
had been changed to G. The return must
have been changed sometime between the date
at which Mr. Harrington saw it and the time
when the tabulations were made. Who made
that change? Certainly not Republicans? 1t
is absurd to suppose they would resort to for
gerry to enable the Council to count in Flu
sionist? Then who did make it? But one
answer can be given. The men who had mo-
tive for having it changed were the only men
who could have changed it. These men were
the Governor and his Council or men in their
confidence. They changed the to G that
the vote of Hebron might not be lost to
the Fusionists. They committed forgery to
help along the count-out which they resolved
upon the moment they learned that the people
had declared against their party at the polls
When the men on whom suspicion was cast
by this transaction were asked to explain it
some of them ran away to Massachusetts and
Others staid at home and kept SILENT Only one
of them-Gov. Garcclon-took advantage of
opportunity given them to clear their
skirts of the crime of forgery. He appeared
before the Hale committee, and when the re-
turn was shown him frankly confessed that the
return had been altered and that if Mr.. Far
rington's testimony were true, the alteration
was gross violation of right. He cleared his
own skirts by swearing that he knew no thing
about it.