The Portland daily press., 1880-04-09
PORTLAND. FRIDAY MORNING. April. 9 1880

"fatal;'' they also declined to receive test
mony when offered by republicans to cure an
defect in this particular occurring in tn
names OF senators and representatives.
GoULDsBoRo. .-
The representative return from the town
Gouldsboro, in the County of Hancock, disclos
ed upon its face that the initial letter P il
the name of Oliver P. Bragdon, the Reput
llcan candidate for representative, has beel
tampered with and changed. The Republican
vote IN that town was two hundred and seven
and the majority eighty two S. W. Libby, tn
town clerk of Gouldsboro, appeared before tn
committee and testified that the name of Oil
yer /. Bragdon was written by himself, tha
he was we'll acquainted with the name
ana that he never wrote it Oliver B. Brag
don, that he saw the return sealed III
and that when it left Gouldsboro for the ofic,
OF the Secretary of State the name was Olive
+. bragdon, and that the erasure and addi
ton 10 the letter z. were made after it lef
the town where it was sealed up. He produc
ed the town record, and upon inspection i
appeared that the name was invariably writ
ten Oliver P. Bragdon and that the letter P
was uniformly made in the same manner
the loop forming the top of the letter resting
against the body of the letter without any adj
dition. 1t is perfectly evident to the commit.
tee upon inspection that the letter p found in
the return was originally made in this way
but that since it was written an attempt has
been made to change it to the letter B, by adj
ding In different ink the lower loop. 1t is
also evident that for some reason the party
making the alteration scratched out the lower
half OF the added curved line, as if to leave
the question in doubt whether it was the let
ter or B. 1t has occurred TO your committee
that TINS erasure may have been made in or
der that the letter could be read B, for the
purpose of counting out the vote, and could be
read ? in case the forger Should be detected
and indicted for his crime.
The tabulati0n shows that the vote was
originally tabulated for Oliver P. Bragdon,
and that his name was carried out as the per-
son who appeared to be elected, but that after
wards the name was erased; that the vote of
Gouldsboro was tabulated for Oliver B. Brag-
don; that the name of James Flye, the Fusion
candidate was substituted for that of Bragdon
and the certificate issued to Flye. The COM
mittee entertain no reasonable doubt that the
and erasures were made after the
returns came to Augusta, for the purpose of
counting out Oliver p. Bragdon and counting
in James Flye.
HEBRON.
In the return of the town of Hebron for
county officers of Oxford county, the name of
Henry G. Walker, Fusion candidate for Com
missioner, was originally written Henry G.
Walker but it appears that the letter G has
been changed to G, by the addition of a curved
line or stem passing down through the bottom
loop of the letter G, and below the line con-
verting the letter G to G, and enabling the
seventy-two votes thrown for Henry C. Walker
to be counted for hi.n and they were SO tabu-
lated by the Governor and Council. 1t is ev-
ident upon inspection that this addition has
been made by D dii,gs29elt hand and with diff
ferent ink from the original letter. As late as
December s, 1879, the county being very
close, the returns were examined by prominent
gentlemen from Oxford county, and it was dis
covered that the return was for Henry G.
Walker, and the attention of John B. Foster,
one of the Council, was called to it, 1t also,ap-
peared that soon after that, the fact was pub
lished in the Oxford Democrat After this
date it was changed from c to G, the vote tab
ulated for Henry G. Walker instead of Henry
G. Walker. The tremor of the hand of the
person making the change is plainly visible
under the magnifying glass, and dscloses the
agitation which VIC uld naturally attend such
a glaring forgery. The certificate of election
was given to Henry G. Walker, the Fusion
candidate. .s
BERWICK
In the Senatorial return from the town of
Berwick, the middle initial letter in the name
of George FL. y akefeld Republican candi
date for Senator, has been changed to the let
ter A. The Republican vote for George q.
was two hundred and tifty-eight.
The letter III was originally made by two
downward strokes of the pen, open at the top,
and connected together by crosstie; very
common way of making the letter H. 1t is
evident to your committee upon examination
that the alteration was effected by closing the
top of the Ell by curved line, making it an A
with rounded top, and changing the name
from George Ell. Wakefield to George A.
Wakefield The color of the ink is different,
and the line of joinder between the letter and
amendment is clearly defnable. The town
clerk OF Berwick was before the committee
and testified that he never made the letter A
in the manner disclosed in the name of George
IL. Wakefield, and never made the A in ques-
ton. The record of the town clerk fully con-
hrmed this statement that he was well -ac-
quainted with the names, and that the altera-
ton was made, and the forgery done after it
came to Augusta. The vote was in the first
instance tabulated for George Ii. Wakefield,
but afterwards was erased, and the vote was
then tabnlated for George A. Wakefield and
the certificate was issued to Ira S. Libby, the
fusion candidate. There can be no doubt un-
der the testimony. that this alteration was made
for the purpose OF counting in Ira S. Libby,
the fusion Senator from York, and that it was
made while in the hands of the Governor and
Council, and while the business of tabulation
was going on.
WELLS.
In the senatorial return from Wells, there
has been an alteration in the name of Josiah
A. Stover, the fusion candidate for senator, by
inserting the middle initial letter a. and
..
and rewriting the same so as to leave room
for the insertion Of the added letter. George
Il. Hatch, the town clerk of Wells, was sum-
moned before your committee and produced
the town record, and also the original minutes
from which he made up the returns. In both
record and minutes the name was written
Josiah Slower. After inspection of the returns
the clerk testified that the letter GA" was
not in his handwriting, or the handwriting of
either of the municipal officers, and that it
had been added since it left the town of Wells.
The letter is made in imitation of the same
is evidently a poor forgery. The vote was
for Josiah A. Stover
DAYTON,
In the senatorial returns from DAYTON two
changes appear in the names of the fusion
for senator. In this case the letter
A. in the name Of Josiah A. Slower, was orig
inally Ell. but has been changed in much the
same way as the change was effected in the
name of Geo. e. Wakefield, but with opposite
motives. III Wakefield's case the change was
made for the purpose of depriving a RepNbi-
can senator of the votes which appeared to
have been thrown for him; in Stover's case it
was to enable the Governor and Council to
tabulate vote which would have been re-
jected if tho rule adopted in the Berwick case
was to govern. 1t also appears that the middle
initial letter in the name of John @. bennett,
fusion candidate for Senator, was formerly
written L. and has been changed to @. so as to
save ninety-fve fusion votes for him. The at
tempted change in the letter l.. consisted in
adding curved line to the top of the letter on
the left hand side. The effort would not be
considered a success as a matter of art, but it
proved sufficient for the purpose in view, be-
cause the vote was tabulated for John @. Den-
nett. The town clerk of Dayton testified that
the alterations were not made by him, but
were made after the returns left Dayton for
Augusta.
BROWNFIELD.
The forgery in the return for county officers
of the town of Brownfeld, in Oxford county,
seems to be a matter of greater skill and pre-
meditation. On the Sth day of December this
return was examinedin the presence of John B.
Foster of the Council, by Hon.E c. Harrington
of Fryeburg, and the discovery was made that
neither the name of the town of Brownfeld,
nor the county of Oxford, appeared
anywhere upon the face of the return, all the
blanks left for this purpose remaining untitled.
The attention of the Councillor was expressly
called to this defect, and the fact that it exist
ed appeared in the Oxford Democrat of
December 16, 1879. 1t now appears that the
names of the town and county have been
written in since that time, in hand designed
to initiate the body of the return. The assist
ance of an expert in handwriting was called in
who pronounced it forgery, executed with
some skill, but yet too clumsily done to deceive
any one. Your committee wished to place
the matter beyond question, and summoned
E. B. Bean, Esq, chairman of the selectmen
of BrOwntield, who wrote the body of the re-
turn, and who testified without hesitation that