Daily Kennebec journal., 1883-07-17
DORsEY,s REVENGE.
A Long Story About the Nomination and
Election Of 1850.


New YORK, July Is.
The Sun prints seven columns of abstract
/ of the statements of Stephen w. Dorsey.
| Among the statements are the following:
| That McVeagh opposed at the meeting of
the club in Philadelpha in 1880. nomina-
| tions of either Grant, Blaine or Garfield, but
! McVeagh was outvoted and the last in which
Wharton Bartlett was quite prominent. de-
cided in favor of Garfield. This fact was
known to Garfield and it was also agreed that
Gov. Foster should take part in the scheme
of Garfieljs nomination. After the nomina-
tion Garfield expressed gratitude to Dorsey
and at the latters suggestion Garfield held
an interview with the leading stalwarts in
New York to secure their aid IN the campaign
At the meeting Garfield promised that the
secretary of the treasurer should be New
York man. He also asserted that at this
meeting Garfield agreed that the operation OF
refunding the government 5's and Us, which
must soon take place. should be given to
such syndicate of New York bankers as
were designated by the stalwarts, and at such
commission as should be fair. Dorsey in
subsequent interviews with Garfield arranged
| TO carry Indiana. and in September, after
| Dorsey had completed the organization of
that State, special messenger left New
York for Indiana having with him over
| S400, 900 either in cash or convertible paper.
This money all had been raised in New York
and principally by the efforts of Lew P.
Morton.
/ Dorsey never touched penny of the money,
though urged to see to the distribution per-
sonally. He was there not only to see that
his plan of organization was followed out to
the letter. but also to prevent as far as pos
sible any money from sticking in the pockets
of those who were trusted with him for its
distribution.
When the money reached local committees
it was found to be largely in crisp, new two
dollar bills. 1t is believed John c. New
could tell how the bills and drafts of large
denominations were thus converted into bills
of this denomination. At all events there
they were. They were distributed through
the State just ballots were in great bunch
es. The destination of each perfectly
well known and by noon of election day they
had fellen like snow fakes silently over the
State, although more in some parts than in
others.
Then came the count OF the polls in the
! evening The two dollar bills and the 1892 =
900 combined with Dorsey's plan Of organi-
Zaton had won.
The statement goes on to show that at The
suggestion of Hubbell. the star ronte contrac-
tors were called upon to contribute for the
presidential campaign through Brady. in ar
ranging for which. Garfield wrote note to
Hubbell, in which OCCURS the expression
.'Ask Brady how he departments are do
ing"
The statement also says that Jay Gould,
when waited on for a subscription, declined,
saving: Il can have no interest in admins
tration at the head of which there would be a
man as leader who in the Black Friday inves-
tigation denounced me as corrupt man, and
compared me to Catiline as a corruptOr of
the youth of Rome
This was reported to Garfield, who was
satisfied that he was of the same opinion as
Gould relative to corporation interests, and
he wanted Gould to be assured that if elected
president and it should fall to his lot to
nominate a member of the supreme bench,
he would take great care to appoint man
whose views were the same as his own.
Gould, it is stated, and another man there
upon subscribed Sl50,000, part of which was
sent to Ohio and the rest to Indiana.
After the election, Garfield offered DOrs ey
a Cabinet position, which Dorsey declined,
and also urged Garfield not to appoint James
or McVeagh to the Cabinet; and when he
learned what was the character of the Cabi-
net. he bade Garfield goodbye.
The statement goes into the details of the
|
AT the request of Garfield with Arthur and
Conkling IN New York on Friday night be-
, fore the nominations, Robertson and others
were sent to the Senate At this confer ence
McN eagh promised there should be no change
in the collectorship at the New York custom
house, and no appointments made without
consultation with the Senator and other New
York leaders.
. Sunday night succeeding, Conkling. accom-
, panied by Vice President Arthur and Post
master James. called at the White House.
Garfield was profuse in his protestatons of
friendship. Garfield assured Conkling and
others that there was nothing he would not
| do to please the stalwarts of New York. He
insisted that only Robertson and his friends,
whose break from instructions of the State
| convention had made his nomination possible
should not be punished. Finally, after Conk
ling strongly opposed the nomination of Rob-
ertson as collector, President Garfield sug-
gested that he appoint Robertson district at
torney, to which Conkling said: "Well, Mr..
President, l suppose l can go out into the
lobby and hold my nose while the Senate is
voting On the nomination"
Dorsey went to Washington and asked
Garfield if he proposed to allow his admins
tration to crafty the maace of McVeagh
against him. Garfield heard him through,
and then went up to him, put his arm around
him and said: ''Steve, old boy, don't worry.
Go back to your ranch.'' He also said he
had the whole business thoroughly in his
own hands where he proposed to keep it,
Dorsey went away greatly relieved.
Shortly after, Dorsey returned to Washing
ton and had another interview with the
President who gave him a transcript of all
the evidence in the first report os the pro-
gress of the investigation, which was sub
mitted by the investigators. The name of
Dorsey appeared many times, but before that
report was given to the press the name and
all illusions to his connection with the star
route system had been stricken out by lead
pencil erasure.
n McVeagh knew this, and also had reason
to believe that on the morning of July I'd
1851, when Garfield rode to the depot with
Blaine, the interesting conversation IN which
, they were engaged had reference to early
changes in the offices of attorney general and
postmaster general. Guiteau's shot caused