New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-11-02
q" TILE GREAT ER1ED."

By various queer roads a number of Demo
cratic statesmen have lately arrived at the con-
clusOn that the pressing political need OF our
time is vengeance for "the great fraud of
1872 Senator Grady, having been pushed out
of public life. casts q severe glance upon Cover
nor Cleveland, and remarks that the Democratic
party will be untrue to itself if it postpOnes any
longer the righting of that monumental wrong
Several distinguished members of Congress,
being questioned about the prospect
of trouble with the free traders, reply that
revenue reform is-well-yes, of cOursc-but
the point H. shall fraud be cOndOned Judge
Hoadly, after devOting a malariOus leisure to
the consideration of the pending issues, an
nounced his conclusion to be that what the
country most wanted was more information
about CrOnin and the Oregon electoral vote
And Governor Hendricks, having examined
Mr.. Tilden's physical condition with solicitude
only equalled by Colonel Maplesons affecting
concern for the fortunes of the new opera
house, is ready to sacrifice himself in
Difference to an alleged clamOr for
the old ticket. 1t begins TO look as if
Mr. Tidens friends with the kind assistance of
some of his enemies, were getting ready for a
new movement which if it had no other result
might be important as a strategical diversion.
We have always favored the denomination of
the old ticket and that for the same reason pro-
fessed by great many Democrats, namely, that
tie electoral frauds of 1876 need a more
thorough examination than they have yet re-
ccived. Some people are under the impression
that when the Potter Committee OBJ
tanned the confessions Of Smith Weed,
Manton Marble, and William T. Pelton,
that they had been concerned in a
plot to buy the electoral votes of Florida and
South Carolina for Mr. Tidcn at a cost of
$13O,OOO, and that THE TRIBUNE's story Of
that conspiracy, as revealed in our translation
of the Cipher Dispatches, was conect and when,
moreover, these agents agreed in declaring that
they acted without Mr. Tilden's knowledge
when the Committee got as far as this, we say,
some people believed that there was no more to
be told. This is delusion. The inquiry
was arrested just as it began to BE
most interesting. The point of prime
importance was hardly touched. This
was the source from which PeltOn
obtained, or expected to obtain, the large sums
of money which he agreed to furnish for the
bribery of Electors. He pledged himself to sup
ply Weed with $4,000 to purchase the votes
of South Carolina and Marble, or Woolley, or
both of them, with $4,000 for a similar pur-
pose in Florida. He had not the money him
self; but he was sure that he could get it at a
days notice. and, indeed, it has never been
made clear that the Florida bride, at any rate,
was not actually placed in bis hands. His dis
patches in cipher, to his confidential agentSs
on tho very last day of the count,
indicate that he was absolutely GER
tain of the moneys being forhcom-
ing on the moment. Now if he did not look to
his uncle for this money, who was histrcasurer
One of the Republican members of the commit
tee neatly expressed the general curiosity when
he asked Colonel Peton if he believed that
there was any gentleman in the United States
who was ready to take $4,000 out of his own
pocket to buy the Presidency for another gen.
tleman 1t was about this period of the ex-
animation that Colonel PeltOn fell into state
of intellectual collapse, answered questions at
random or failed TO answer at all, made some
compromising illusions to the Democratic
National Committee to Mr.. Edward Cooper, to
Mr. Scott, of Erie, and to Senator Barnum, and
became so plainly incapable of going on with
his testimony that the committee compassion
ately dismissed him. Nothing further was ever
done to trace the source of that $4,000.
Now the temperance of the old ticket"
will naturally raise again this unanswered ques-
ton; and we are glad of 1t, because
the question aas something more than
historical Importance. If Mr.. Tilden did