Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-07-28


Democrats in New York in 1868 have beer
freshly called to mind by the recent examin
alton in that city of Mr.. John I. Davenport
chief supervisor of elections under the ma
tional election laws. Congress recently ap
pointed committee, Of which Senator Wal
lace is chairman, to investigate Mr.. Daven-
port, and from this committees researches II
appears that at the election in 1868 the
Democratic majority in the city of New
York was about sixty thousand. This was
sufficient to Offset the Republican majority
in the remainder of the state and leave ten
thousand votes to spare. Mr.. Davenport
was employed by the Union League club to
conduct certain Investigations. He discov-
cred that nearly seventy thousand bogus
naturalization papers were issued in the year
of 1868 chiefly by judges Barnard and Nc
Gum. 1t had been asoertained by previous
| committees that the naturalization of from
fifty to sixty men in day was all that could
be accomplished during the five hours ses-
sion of each court in which this business
was done. But the court records show that
Judge Barnard of the supreme court turned
out voters at the rate Of five hundred an
hour, and McCunn of the superior court
about the same number. In October, 1868,
thirty-seven thousand naturalization papers
purported to issue from these two courts
nearly every one bearing the name of Nc
Gum or Barnard. In one day the product
of these two mills was four thousand six
hundred and twenty voters, whereas honest
judges of the courts declared that the ut
most limit of one days work of the two
courts was the naturalization of from one
hundred TO one hundred and twenty men.
Besides these frauds twenty thousand natur-
alization papers were issued in blank with
out any application for them, or transaction
of any kind in court, or any record appear
ing on the books. These papers were de-
livered in various parts of the state, and
three thousand of them were seized in a
liquor saloon these were intended for use
in Connecticut, where a contract for them
had been made at fifty cents apiece The
completely of the Democratic committee in
these transactions was notorious. The bus
iuess was carried on at party headquarters,
the system was organized there, the judges
were managed, and the aliens who were to
vote on the bogus papers received their in
structions. That there might be no doubt
about the real responsibility for the crime,
number of fictitious names was sent into
the Democratic national committee, and in
few hours certificates of naturalization for
all were obtained. This stupendous fraud,
perpetrated in 1868, did not end with the
election in that year. The holders of the
sixty thousand bogus papers have continued
to vote on them since that time. When
Mr.. Davenport was appointed chief super.
visor of elections his first undertaking was
to put stop to this outrage on legal voters.
In the public prints and by private notice
he announced that these fraudulent certifi.
Gates would be challenged at the polls. He
invited committee from Tammany to sit
with him at his office and requested all hold
ers of the papers of 1868 to exchange their
false certificates for true ones, if they were
entitled to any, or to put themselves in the |
way of becoming legal citizens. 1t is need
less to say that Tammany declined this |
invitation; it had no stomach for |
such an entertainment. Several thousand |
persons gave up their false papers and made |
affidavit as to how they obtained them, and |
more would have made voluntary |
had not Tammany sent out cir |
culars in many tongues not to appear before |
Mr.. Davenport and to keep away from all |
government supervisors. These facts and |
the means taken to consummate this gigan-
tic crime against the suffrage of the people |
are detailed by Mr.. Davenport at as great |
length as the liberty granted by the commit
tee would allow. He speaks from personal
on all the points of his test.
mony. He has had thousands of the blank |
certificates in his possession, and has the
sworn statements of thousands of aliens as
TO how they obtained the bogus papers. For
his skill and indefatigable efforts in I'M
earthing these frauds and fixing it unmis-
takably on the Democratic party of New
York, Mr.. Davenport has very naturally in
Cured the deadly hate of the national De
petition signed by Fernando
Wood and seventy others demanded his i'm
parchment and removal. For four years
Democratic congress has been trying to in
vent some means for investigating and de-
stroying him. But an investigation was
likely to prove more damaging to the party
than the Potter investigation of the cipher
sort of political boomerang,
dangerous chiefly to the users of the weapon.
Thus it has happened that while searching
for evidence to secure the impeachment and
removal of a vigilant and faithful public
officer who stands in the way Of their sue
cess in the pending presidential contest, the
election frauds of 1868 have been oppor.
timely revived with many hitherto unpub-
lished details, disclosed under oath to
Democratic committee of investigation. To
get rid of Davenport has been the object in
the attempted repeal of the election laws,
and in the refusal to pay the marshals.
Chief-supervisor Davenport is a fixed fact
till after November election, if he lives and
this fact augurs well for a measurably fair
election and Republican victory in New
York.
A DEMOCRATIC LIE NAILED.-A windy
Democratic speaker at Waterbury Thurs |