Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1884-08-27
A FAMOUS FORGERY.
United States Comm Is sfOner Daven-
ports Expose of the Morey-
Letter Fraud i'm 1880


ports Expose of the Morey-
Letter Fraud i'm 1880.
New YORK, August 2O-The long
delayed expose of United States Commits
sioner John [. Davenport of the Morey
letter campaign fraud of 1880 (the
pretended letter of General Garfield in
favor of Chinese immigration, which had
the effect to change California to
Democratic state), is published. It makes
up of fac -similes OF documents showing
the forgery in its various forms The
narratives only brief part of the whole
volume. The book sets forth that the
person who actually penned the forged
Morey letter was a lawyer of this city
named Henry III. Hadley. Davenport
describes him as the manipulation of in
surance companies of doubtful character
and of other matters equally precario:s,
with innate love of intrigue, and with
craving for notoriety, and an uncon-
querable desire to dip into politics and to
correspond with public men. He quotes
from his letters to show that he was
always Democrat, though at the time of
the commission of the forgery he was
Secretary OF the Hancock Republican
Association, in the rooms of which the
forgery was committed on or about
October 2, 1880. The forgery, according
to Hadley's admissions and confrmatory
evidence collected by Davenport, was
originally in the forni of an extract from
a supposed interview with Gen. Garfield,
Davenport possessed himself of about
1000 letters written by uadley between
1873 and 1879, and finds all the dis
tinctive marks of photography and
caligraphy alike in them and the forged
letter. Hadley always misspelled the
word "religiously'' as it was misspeled
in the forged letter, and all nouns ending
in 'ies," such as companies" "coties,"
enemies" he spelled the final "ys'' as
the word "companys" appears in the
forged letter. In his genuine corresponds
ence Hadley invariably dotted the
letter or" when it occurred in word
containing an 'f," as in the signature
to the forged letter. One hundred fac
simile reproductions prove this conclus
lively. It was on the display of this
evidence OF guilt that Hadley confessed
his part OF the crime.
Hadley admits that he wrote the name
Henry L Morey in the register of the
Kirkland House, Lynn, and substituted
it for the name George E. G.. Morey in
the affidavit of Mrs. Clara Morey declar-
ing be was her son. These forgeries
were made to sustain,the original forgery.
There was no such man as FL. l.. Morey,
to whom the forged letter letter was
supposed to have been written, nor was
there ever any such person as John w.
Goodall, who claimed to have been the
executor of II. L. Morey, and who
transmitted the forged letter to Truth.
Hadley wrote the Goodall letters also.
Davenport also says that week or ten
days before the publication In Truth of
the Morey letter Charles A. Dana, OF the
New York Sun, was told that such
letter was il existence, and upon his
expressing doubt thereof his informant
assured him that such was the case, and
that he believed he could obtain it and
show it to him Dana). To this Mr..
Dana replied that he did not care to see
It, for the reason that he believed if any
such letter was in existence it was a
forgery, and be wished to have nothing
to do with it. Lindsley, like Morey, was
a fictitious person, and the man O'Brien,
who personated him on the Philip exam
ination. was arrested for forgery. confess.
ed, and is row serving a term in Sing
Sing Prison for that offense.
The language of the Morey letter is
shown to have been culled from speeches
of Cutter, of New jersey; Willlams. of
Wisconsin; Phillips, of Kansas; Luttrell,
of California, and others, on the Chinese
bill, and from the testimony of Henry
George and others before the House
Committee on Chinese immigration, and
in no sense are the extracts from Gar
fields writing.
A copy of the account of Garfield with
the Sta tionery Clerk Of the House for
the session from March 21 to December
%, 1879, shows that Garfield never used
paper with the peculiar heading of the
sheet on which the forged letter was
written and.that the style of papel was
never issued except during the time
indicated.