The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1886-08-12
MORAL SENATOR'S.
Few Observations Showing How the
Gentleman from Massachusetts, Obtained
His Seat.


A Few Observations Showing How the
Gentleman from Massachusetts, Obtained
His Seat.
The cold chills which have be en-
creeping up and down the backs of
several United States Senator'S during
the threatened investigation of the
much-investigated election of Senator
Payne, of Ohio, have ceased, and those
Senators have resumed their wonted
cheerfulness. There will now be no
further talk at this session of inquiry
into the causes which led to the sud-
den changes of some of the members
of the New York Legislature when Mr..
Evarts was elected, nor to investigate
the published charge that each MEM
Der of the Republican Senatorial eau
Gus in the last California Legislature
who voted for Mr.. Stanford received
from some benevolent source the hand
some present of $4,000.
Speaking of Senatorial elections,
here was one, which though saturated
with fraud. was never very generally
understood by the public. When the
pICSCutCu, ttlt
affair was allowed to blow over. This
was perhaps because the truth was
very damaging to one of those gooL
men whose goodness is so extra good
that it is sufficient explanation of any
bad or questionable conduct of which
they may be found guilty. Of course,
this plainly points to Hon. George
Frisbie Hoar, of Massachusetts.
Whether or not the trick by which
Mr.. Hoar was reelected in 1888 would
be deemed sufficient to unseat him, it
was most disgraceful fraud. 1t was
simple, clear and well sustained false
hood, telegraphed at the last minute
from an apparently authorized source,
to the effect that Mr.. William w.
Crapo, then a member of Congress,
was not a candidate for the Senator
ship. This gentleman was candi-
date, as Senator Hoar and his friends
well knew, and he was one they feared.
By the well-contrived tale that he was
not, the members of the Legislature
who would have voted for him were
deprived of exercising their real wishes
in voting, and Mr.. Hoar gained votes
which never would have been his with
Mr. Crapo known to be candidate.
The Senate became so virtuous in
1873, under the pressure of the Credit
Mobilier panic, that, to avoid its right
eous wrath, Alexander Caldwell re-
signed his seat as Senator from Kan
saS, having then four years to serve,
because it had been shown that friends
of his had bought off a rival candidate.
They had not got his votes away from
him by saying he was not candidate;
they had simply paid mercenary the
price he had placed upon his ambition.
The argument was that the limitation
thus put upon the choice of legislators,
by depriving them of one of the candi-
dates who had sought votes, had
changed the result of the election by
giving to Caldwell votes he would not
otherwise have received. A vote on
the case was anticipated by Caldwel's
resignation.
The case of Hoar is the same as that
of Caldwell, with this difference in
favor of the latter: He paid his money.
and got the rival out of his way, so
that he might receive the votes others
left free. In Hoar's case the rival did
not cease to be q candidate. 1t only
cost the price of telegram to make
the members of the Legislature believe
that he would not accept He was
simply lied out of his chance, and
those who preferred him to Hoar were
lied out of their chance to vote their
preference, and enough voted for Hoar
instead to give him the election. The
lie was sent by telegram from a town
in Massachusetts, and signed by per-
son known to be so near to Mr.. Crapo
that it produced the same effect as
though signed by that gentleman him.
self. No one doubted its truth, and
Mr.. Crapo never knew of it until it had
done its work and Hoar had been
elected.
Mr.. Hoar never insisted upon or
even asked for an investigation to have
it determined whether or not he inaug-
urated or connived at this disgraceful
swindle by which his present seat in
the Senate was secured. Mr.. Crapo
felt greatly outraged He would most
likely have been elected instead of
Hoar but for the corrupt trickery and
falsehood to which the latter or his
1AICIluS .ICSOIICu. Auo yCC,
holding seat thus tainted by coarse
and vulgar fraud and secured by the
votes of members who preferred Crapo,
but were falsely told at the opportune
moment that he would not stand, Sem
ator Hoar has been spending his days
and nights for some weeks past in
vain endeavor to smirch Senator Payne.
An investigation of the circumstances
attending his own election would show,
as above stated, that he holds his seat
by votes stolen from another by con-
spiracy and falsehood. How long
would it take him in such a case, if an
other than himself had been involved,
to conclude that the beneficiary of the
fraud must be supposed to have been
willing party to it? What effrontery
in him to sit in judgement on the title
of brother Senator to a seat in the
body in which he himself is an in
truder. N Y. Sun.
POLITICAL DROPS.