The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1885-08-13
Judge VIM. Archer Cooke.

We recently printed a letter in which
DIR. burroughs Indignantly rcbutted an as
pers'"n identifying Judge Cooke with the
other members of the Florida Returning
Board in its action in the Tilen and
HAYES contest \ letter from Judge
Cooke also, to the Tunes Union, reached
us too late for publication at the time,
and has been excluded from our crowded
columns until now. The yindicaton of
gentleman whose high character Is 80 well
known would seem unnecessary were not
the necessity shown by the imrutation
hec,ilessly cast upon him. We extract
from his letter:
was on that Board You say in ,lAtion 70
Mr.. Noyrs " He was very intimate " ifh all he
mcmi,t.is nf the Returning Board" Thissi
mistake a. 10 myself Alter being niiolqodW
Mr.. Moves, and learning his business in TA1A
haSstP, anu detecting his character from iniima-
lions in his conversation, | re;ll>e. 10 rtc0gnZe
him personally, and only heard Inn IN 'hr pres
ence OF the other members officially assembled
You say, "he was frequently seen 70 come ouI Of
the room where they were III secret session en-
Id9ttl i'll CoohillS inc ICluED>- ~ iNi> -ltA
service Hayes made him Minister 10 France. hut
neither McLln, Dennis, Cock. nor CoM -l.l ever
got pay for his dirty work in putting the push
ianlu4Ous Hayes mo the White IL 'l>e Fer
nit me To say was Democru hcn appointed
by Governor Hart to The Office u Attorney
General. disSentetl from HIM ana hi> party 40
political grounds. lie asked me 10 resign: | re-
fused | was during Stearn> administration an
avoNe ed Democrat favored The nomination Of
len am led fri it,.u II
election, as did also for Drew and the entire
Democratic ticket.
During the examination oi the election returns
before The Board never sat with CLOSED doors
l opposed the action OF the other mrmpcr> when
ever thought them wrong. | refused 10 >lsn
the report they made, and submitted Il lie TINE
the other members signed their report paper
addr sscd 10 &. \. Cowgirl AMI ; tmuc Il Nc
Lin, giving my reasons Tor not signing their re-
port IN relation 10 the Presidential woe, and
said in The same paper a." also protest Tor SUD
santlally the same reasons against signing Inc
certificate OF election in the State vote, regards
the GubernatOrial and Congressional clcctoo'
considering The statement OF the Otter mclntrIs
of the canvas>ing board false and iran !uenL
This paper, signed by me as Attorney Genera
and ee-o9icio member at the State Canva>Sns
Board OF the State OF Florida and read TO tue
other members OF the board and lett with then'
| asked To have filed. They refused. | told them
| would publish ii. | immediately returned 10
my office and made out IA certificate OF election
in favor of The Tilien clcctors-rdt p,t1',etfag,
Of tie Electoral Conmt~St0a 81 tie tsro i'l~s q
C"ngrexs, 1877, p. 12-diso .ippltton's -ihaq%V
cIopRtiia, cot l. ,aetc series, lS16-where the same
paper is published.
And here ask To make a correction OF state
ments made by the person by whom the artlcT
"Florida" WAS written for the CycloredA
where he says, alludlng To my protest, II was
promptly published, but the other members
and the clerk of the Canvassing Board declared
over their signatures that il was not prcsen'eIi
before them or filed with their proceedings
This is n mistate; it was presented 10 them, anu
they heard il read and it was signed on .ne
same day that the other members signed 'ne
Der q, 1876. Ii was with the papers, ana 'nl'
shows that it was known and read 10 them w DC,
fore the Board adjourned else how did II s''
with the papers SEM to Washington
II is a mistake to connect me in any malne1i
with the Republican party in the election =.
Hayes. l never was Republican. IL "H'
known over the country that was an unqu,a,
fed Democrat, and publicly advocated the e,.d
lion of Tiiden and Hendricks puoii'"ls
everything knew i'll reference 10 the ira .ra,
practiced by the Republicans, and as PROOF . n;s
Of everything stated, not one worn ol . I'm in
was ever uttered. The writer of the ar''So en-
the Cyclopeda says was Democrat anu ' ,Ss
ported the nominees of the party durRls "
canvass.