The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-09-04
THE CIPHER TELEGRAMS.
Oakley Halls Revelations Concerning
the Tilden Campaign.
The First of a Series of Articles Giving the
History of the Old Mans Attempt
to Seize the Presidency.


means employed by him to obtain the presi-
dency This is intended as an offset to the
disclosures made by Dorsey in the Sun.
I'm the summer of 1873" Truth will say,
1.-The New York Tribune found itself in pos
session of mass of telegraphic dispatches
which had passed between certain leaders of
the Democratic party in New York city and
the confidential agents in various contested
States at the time of the canvass of the
electoral votes in 1876 The whole number
of these dispatches was not far from 400.
About half OF them were in plain English.
These, although sometimes useful in determ-
ming the meaning of messages of another
kind, related generally to transactions of
little importance. The rest were in cipher,
and a slight examination was sufficient to
show that they covered political secrets of
the first consequence.
''The history of the electoral crisis in No
vember and December, 1876. as disclosed by
the cipher dispatches of the Democratic lead
ers and their secret agents, covers a period of
about twenty-eight days, from Nov. s, when
it first became apparent that the presidency
depended upon the count of the vote in two
or three doubtful States, until Dec. 6, when
the electoral ballots were duly cast for Hayes
and Wheeler By deciphering these tele-
grams it was discovered that agents were at
once sent out from Is Gramercy park, the
residence OF Samuel J. Tilden, to South Car
DINA, Florida, and Louisiana, and that others
at the West received telegraphic orders to
capture one or all of those States for the
Democratic candidates.
These men all resorted to bribery, COM
municating to Tilden's nephew, the late
Colonel w. I. FELTON, the particulars OF the
bargains they concluded, and receiving from
him distinct and formal approval. Colonel
Pelton is no longer alive, but nearly all the
other actors are.
First, in Florida the secret agents were
Manton Marble, c. w. Woolley and John F.
Coyle. Marble transmitted to Gramercy
park, first, proposition for the purchase of
the Florida returning board, at the price of
5000, 900. That was rejected as extravagant,
and the figure was reduced to $50 600, at
which price Colonel Pelton signifed his
willingness to close the transaction
Second in South Carolina the purchasing
agent was Smith NJ. Weed. He telegraphed
to Colonel Pelton on the very day of his ar
rival at Columbia proposal to buy the can
appears to have readily assented. This fig
ure was too low, and the negotiation, after
lasting six days, was closed at the price of
$50, 900. 1t was arranged that Weed should
meet messenger at Baltimore, who was to
carry the money in three packages and he
particularly requested that Colonel Pelton
should act as this messenger himself. Weed
accordingly arrived in Baltimore from Co.
lumbia, Nov 90 and Pelton arrived there at
the same time from New York. But little
delay upset the scheme.
subsequently plot was formed to buy
four members of the South Carolina Legisla-
ture for 500 600, and thus having obtained
control of the State government to put the
Hayes electors in Jail and lock them up in
separate cells until the day for casting the
electoral vote had passed The result of this
villanly would have been to deprive South
Carolina of any vote; and to throw the
choice of a President into the House of
Represen tatives, which would have elected
Tilden. This plan failed because the four
members could not be bought.
Third, in Oregon the Democratic Gov
ernor withheld a certificate from one of the
Hayes electors on the ground of ineligbility,
and instead of allowing the other electors to
fill the vacancy gave the certificate to Til
den elector named Cronin, who had clearly
been defeated. The secret agent in Oregon
was one J. N. H. Patrick He telegraphed to
Col. Pelton that it was necessary to purchase
a Republican electoT to recognize and act
with Cronin,' and the price was $4,000. This
proposal likewise was accepted, and the
money was sent to Oregon, where it arrived
December 6.
From the great number of dispatches
which were translated it will only be neces-
sary to select sufficient to give the story in
connected shape. Two systems of cipher
were used. One was the dictionary cipher
Websters pocket dictionary of the English
lo, -xuha nd
supplied by the word on the corresponding
line certain number of pages off. The num-
Der of pages varied from one to five, so that
a dispatch to one person could not be de-
ciphered by another who did not hold the
same key In the examples given the list
can easily be supplied The other was a
transpositOn cipher, which consists in writ
ing the dispatch out, numbering the words,
and rewriting them in an order previously
agreed upon"
Truth prints an elaborate table of keys
and then goes on to say: "On Wednesday af
ternoon, Nov. s, 1876, it became known 10
capable leaders Of both parties that the pres
idential election would probably turn on the
vote OF Florida. In South Carolina Mr. Til
den had fallen far behind the Democratic
State ticket In Louisiana it had been no.
torious that for weeks the DEM
ocrats, by systematic beating and
murders in counties formerly
RepuDllcan, nau rendered IL possible Tor
the returning board, in accordance with the
peculiar law of that State, to throw out re-
turns giving large Democratic majorites, but
the four electoral votes of far-off Florida
would suffice to secure the election of Tilden
if, as kilograms from the Democratic COM
mittee in Florida declared, the majority of
the popular vote in that State had been for
Democratic electors. Florida had been bull
lied and bribed, 'bulldozed and terrorized
through long and fierce campaign, until
even the most hopeful Republicans had al
most lost confidence that their scattered
friends in that State, mainly colored citizens,
could stand up against the assault. On the
day of election Republican judges and clerks
were driven from the polls by force; the
boxes were stuffed with fraudulent Demo-
cratic votes, and in at least one precinct were
aftarward seized and burned to make snra