Morning journal and courier., 1880-02-21
HOW IT WAS HOME.

HOW lT WAS DONE,
 The very first case which the committee having in charge the investigation of the Maine fraud has followed out shows plainly how wicked the plot was and how wickedIy it was engineered. In Lincoln county the Re- publican candidate for Senator was Andrew R. G. Smith, and the Democratic candidate Isaac T. Hobson. The former had a majority of 163. But the Governor and Council re- jected the entire Republican vote of one town, 40 in number, because the clerks re- turn made the candidates name Andrew R. O. Smith. This left majority of 23 yet to be overcome. It seems to have been decided to obtain the necessary votes from the town of Somerville. That town gave Smith 72 votes and Hobson 61. The return was correctly made up in open town meeting and sigued by the clerk, who testifes to that fact and by the Selectmen. Another witness also testi- fled that he saw the return at that time, and that the Republican candidates name was correctly written, Andrew R. G. Smith, he re- marking to the clerk, as both of them now re- member, that the name was right. The clerk himself delivered the original return in- to the Secretary of States office the next day. The tabulations prepared by the Governor and Council confirm this testimony, for against the name of Andrew R. G. Smith the 72 votes from somerville appear to have been entered, but afterwards erased and blank is left. In another column these 72 votes reappear cred ited to Andrew A. R. Smith, and thus Hobson appears to be elected by 43 majority.
 How this change came about is told by Mr. Rnyu1ar tha f0I aIa of IT, says that about the middle of December, three months after the election, he received letter from Augusta, calling for another return of Senatorial votes from Somerville and en- closing blank for the purpose. The letter contained instructions for making out the re- turn. He then, with the town record before him, made out @ new return, following the in structions given him. He signed the return himself, and added the names of the Select men all in his own handwriting. He identi- fes the return shown him from the files lately discovered secreted in the State House as that made by him in December, under the circumstances just narrated. Instead of the name Andrew R. G. Smith, it contains the name Andrew A. R. Smith, who appears from the re- turn to have received 72 votes. Mr. Bowler says he prepared this second or forged return with the town record lying open before him, on which the result of the election was cor rectly entered, but he cannot tell why the name of the Republican candidate was wrong ly transcribed, nor can he produce the letter or instructions or tell who wrote it. The let ter, he says, has been lost and he has forgot ten the writer's name, but he is sure 1t was written on paper with printed heading like that in use in the secretary's office. Bowler was an unwilling witness but his testimony was confirmed by the documents in the case and also by the Selectmen, who testified to the facts as to the first return, and their ie- norance of any other.
 The evidence makes it plain that in this case at least there was Q plot to defeat the election of the Republican candidate, not only by taking advantage of technical error ln one town, but by deliberate suppression of the true return of the vote of Somerville and the substitution for it of false and counter felted return made three months after the fact, in which the record of the vote wes will fully falslfied, and the attesting signatures of the Selectmen forged. and that this was done under instructions from the State House, either from the Secretary of State or some one having access to the papers in his office. The Worcester Spy hits the mark when it says Of this case COT course Bowler does not tell the truth when he says he forgets the name of his correspondent. An official who has so foully betrayed his trust and commit ted an ofense so serious as he admits that he was guilty of, does not forget in month or two the inducements which tempted him, or any Of the prominent circumstances of his crime. That the Governor and Council were privy to the transaction, at least so far as to know that it was irregular and suspicious, ap- pears from the fact that their tabulation first followed the original and correct return, and was afterwards made to conform to the faIsi- fled substitute"
 No wonder that Pillsbury, the "arch con- spirator," does not care to stay among the people whose rights he attempted to take away by such villainous means When the record of the fraud is complete there will probably be others who can live more com fortably outside of Maine.