Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1889-01-18
IN THE INTERESTS OF

~-'
HONESTY"
When the political history of the United
| States comes to be written, it will appear
that in the first century of the Republic
| a republic that can breathe the air of long
existence only through an interrupted
ballot-our national elections had become
the field of bribery and theft and trickery,
unsurpassed in the oldest governments of
the world. While corruption is confined
to no set or party,we think it will be con-
| ceded that it was never practiced on so
.. gigantic scale.and with so audacous and
| shameless methods as those inaugurated
by the Republican managers at the last
Presidential election, and to which there
is little question they owe their victory.
The plan seemed to be either to deceive the
voter OR. failing in that, to buy him. Ear
ly in the campaign the plan was developed
in the publishing of forged concentrations
by English free trade leaders, of the Tariff
Reform issue made by the Democratic.
The exposure of their falsehood so far from
stopping them, seemed only to hurry up
| the printing presses chat were issuing
them. Having tested the facility of
fraud through the printing press. it was
engaged in different direction. In Gen.
Harrison's own State his supporters had
printed, and circulated, fraudulent pa.
per parporting to be the issue of the Indi-
annapolis Knights Of Labor organ, the La
| Dor Herald, which was violently opposing
oil Tn 5o ho
per retracted its former opposition and
supported Harrisonl These frauds among
others were discovered as the campaign
! progressed, but the evidences Of new ones
are still coming out. We have received
the New 7 ork Voice, the Prohibition Or
| gan, of Thursday last. Its first page is
illustrated with fac smile reproductions of
| letters written by James s. Clarkson, Vice
Chairman of the National Republican
Committee, and W. W. Dudley its Treas
urer. of 'blocks OF five" reputation. The
letters illustrate page containing his
tory of the theft of that papers subscrip-
ton list. and its purchase from the thief
for $3.50 by the Republican National Com
mlJtee. the negotiations for the stolen
goods being carried on and concluded by
| the Vice Chairman and Treasurer of the
Republican National Committee. It is
the facsimile of their letters to their two
confederates during the transaction, which
had been surrendered by the two thieves
! (both employees in the Voice" office)
after their guilt was proven, and they
| themselves were threatened with prosecu-
ton. Having obtained possession of its
Committee used it to send out copies of
the Voice in which were enclosed many
Prohibition documents, and one even
more remarkable document still. The
Republican National Committee had estab-
blished during the campaign paper called
the New FORK Democrat, edited by a red
hot Republican named George Voorhees,.
This paper contained the most ultra free
trade articles calculated to scare off all
Protection Democrats from the Demo-
| cratic ticket, and also proclaimed that the
| Prohibition party was in league with the
| Democracy, which was intended to scare
| off all the Democrats who were opposed to
| Prohibition. This remarkable specimen of
fraud was mailed along with the Voice
through the stolen mall-list. 1t was Charles
A. Durfee, of the mailing department of
the Voice, who went to the Republican
National Committee and proposed to steal
his employers mailing list and sell it to
that Committee. Vice Chairman Clarkson
jumped at the offer and gave the follow
Ing remarkable introduction of the thief
| to Treasurer W. W. Dudley, and which is
produced in facsimile in the Voice:
"W. W. D.-This gentleman is of value
to US, and may be able to give important in
| formation in the interests Of honesty. j. S.
| c."
| The Voice publishes the confessions of
| the two thieyes-there were two, another
employee being in with Durfee-whicb,
, ton as the statement of any other thieves,
| if the deadly facsimile letters were not pub
lished with them. The result of the theft
| was that the Prohibition voters were bad
| Iy ratified by the reception of such
strange papers accompanying the copies of
| their official organ land the vote Influenced
| by that organ was much demoralized and
| diverted. For this work Durfee's a. .ent
got $3.50 and promise Of government
office; the latter, he alleges in his confess
sion. being from Chairman Quay himself.
! Doubtless this money come from the fund
| of $150,000, stated by Col. Elliott F. Shep-
| perd in his "Mail and Express" to have
| been disbursed in New York city in buy
ing up the ''smaller political movements"
| This remarkable transaction ''in the in
| terest of honesty" by Messrs. Quay. Clark