Morning journal and courier., 1880-07-19
PRACTICE VERSUS PREACHING

1.-The right to free ballot is a right pre-
 servative of all rights and must and shall be ! maintained in every part of the United States" This is Democratic profession. It is Democratic practice to issue 64,O00 fraud u1ent naturalization papers in New York j; to conspire against the free ballots'' of the people of a whole State, as they did in Maine; to pack the ballot-box with tissue ballots, as they did in South Carolina to intimidate | and bulldoze voters in Mississippi, and to shoot down any man who has the audacity to attempt to maintain the fright preservative of all rights.'
 most interesting chapter in the long and
 shameful history of Democratic attacks upon the ballot is furnished by Commission CT John l. Davenport, who has been testify ing before the"Wallaee investigating commit tee concerning the election and naturaliza- ton frauds in 1868 in New York. Probably no man knows more about those frauds than MT. Davenport, and perhaps no man is more
 hated by the Democrats than he, for he has
 used his knowledge very effectively to defeat
 their schemes From MT. Davenport's testi-
 mony which will make an excellent cam
 paign document, 1t appears that there were 64 1000 bogus naturalization papers issued in
 New York city in 1868, and of these 10000
 were not recorded The wholesale natural
 izing begun In 1866 before Judge Cardozo in
 the Court of Common Pleas. But the clerk
 resisted, and in 1867 the papers were sent to
 the Superior Court, where McCunn sat. In
 1868, for the first time in it's history, the Su-
 preme Court was turned into a naturalization
 mill for grinding out voters. Judge MeCunn
 issued Is, ,817 papers in fifteen days, or l 1900
 a day. In the Supreme Court in October,
 1868, five judges took part in the proceed
 ings. Judge Barbour naturalized seVenty-fve
 Robinson the same number Samuel Jones
 one thousand. From seven to eight-tenths
 of the number were before Judge McCunn,
 and Judge Garvin had the remainder. All
 except Judges Garvin and McCunn attended
 to their ordinary duties during the month,
 and Garvin did so part of the time. In 1876
 Mir Davenport issued orders for a perempto- ry challenge of every naturalization paper of
 1868. He desired to notify all persons hold ing such papers to have the wrong righted.
 He sought John Kelly and asked his aid in the matter, and suggested joint committee of Republicans and Democrats to sit with him and assist in rectifying the papers The Tammany men came for two or three days and then subsequent proceedings interested them no more. Before Mir. Davenport two or three thousand of these fraudulent papers were brought by those who held them. Men of mature years were naturalized minors, and certificates were issued to fictitious per of tbaT known as criminals, were employed to identi- fly the men that made applications. Certifi- cates in blank were issued, under the seal of the Court, and with the clerks signature at tached. Where they were so issued, they were ready to use by filling in the names. Mir. Davenport has in his possession blanks with one name erased by knife, and anoth- CT filed in. Later this kind of work was done with acid, and is almost impossible to detect. Some of the witnesses had ''most extensive acquaintance" Patrick Golf was witness for 2,162 persons and John Moran for 1907 About 100 witnesses were perma- nently attached to the Court during the nat uralization term. They made the same affi- davit in two courts, 37, 900 times in one month. In 2,018 c.ses there were no signatures of applicants, although their names were used. The witnesses obtained the cer- tifcates in the names of the applicants, and sold the papers to them at rates varying from l 50 cents to $2. In one day 1000 certificates | were obtained, and 400 of these were deliv- ] cred in Brooklyn. In Saratoga county 800 were offered. In 1868 United States Mar shal Murray, believing this work was being 1 done sent number of fictitious names to | the Democratic General Committee, and in a l few hours obtained certificates of naturalza- | ton for all on the payment of two dollars | each. The New York judges naturalized | persons from New Jersey and other States. 1 Whole streets were taken and naturalized | from house to house. From one disreputa- 1 ble place in Greene street forty-two persons | were registered. The numbers ran as high as l 348 on the register when there were but 263 | as high as No. 342 when there were l only forty houses there Out of forty -four 1 houses in Vandewater street, 103 men were l in the Supreme Court. In | Greenwich, James, Spring, Thames and oth- 1 CT streets numbers were given in excess of | the houses, and Patrick Golf, as witness l for these, gave his address in thirteen differ ent places-an 'sNo. A. :"
 The above and other similar facts testified to by Commissioner Davenport expose anew the treachery of the Democratic party to the right which is preservative of all rights and which it pledges itself to maintain. More practice and less preaching is the great need of the Democratic party in this matter, as in many others also.
 EDITORIAL NOTES.