The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1911-12-15
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
Interesting incident Of the Elec.
ton of 1876.
Editors Act Of Courtesy That May
Have Helped To Defeat Ti'den
and Make Hayes the
President.
BY e. ). EDWARDS.

0y z. y. GU NV00.
On the night of the presidential
election of 1876 the facilities Of the
editorial Office of the New York
Times for receiving the election news
were most courteously granted to me
by the late John c. Reid. who was for
many years managing editor OF that
| was introduced to Mr..
Reid through a letter written by the
chairman Of the Republican commit
tee of the state of Connecticut. The
chairman asked MIR. Reid if l would
be permitted as a representative OF
the committee to send dispatches to-
. the Republican headquarters at Hart
ford, giving tt the committee in this
way the latest reliable Information OF
the returns Of election. Mr.. Reid put
a desk at my disposal and gave or;
,ders that an extra set of proofs should
be placed upon the desk and also
that I should have access to any polit1
iical dispatches that we're received at
THE Times Office.
Up to a little past midnight the rel
turns and dispatches all indicated the
probable election of Samuel ]. Tildenl
of New York. He had carried his|
own state, as we'll as Indiana and Com
Inecticut. so that it was apparent that
IL his party had held the solid south,
he would be elected. An hour LATER
and dispatches began to come into
the Times office from all parts of the
country reporting that the election of
Tilden had been conceded by a mai
jOrity of the Republican newspapers
yof the country. and also at almost all
|0f the Republican state headquarters.
With this flood Of dispatches bel
fore them. the election of Tilden was
being generally conceded in the Times
office, and it has always been my im1
preston that the paper began to pre-!
pare to the election of TIL
den. For the purpose of sending a.
final dispatch to the Republican state
IL of the triumph of the Democracy.
I took the proof slips of the election
returns and from them made two
tables. One contained the list OF
states which had beyond a question:
given a majority vote to either Tilden;
or Hayes. The other table contained
a list of the doubtful states.
AS I finished making the tables Mr..
Reid passed through the room. I CALI
ed his attention to my tables and ask
ed him if he had heard from South
Carolina, Florida and Louisiana. He
replied that nothing definite had been
heard from those states.
"Bnt." said. III those three states
have given a majority to Hayes. then
he will be elected by one vote. ac-
cording to these tables"
Mr.. Reid grabbed up my tables,
looked eagerly at them. and without
saying a word walked away with my
memoranda. | saw that he was sud.
denly laboring under much excite
ment. 1t interested me for a moment.
then l prepared a dispatch to the Re-
publican state committee OF Connecti-
cut. in which l stated that the re.
turns to the New York Times showed,
that the election was in doubt and
that if the three southern states OF
South Carolina. Florida and Louisiana,
had gone Republican. then MIR. Hayes
was elected by one vote.
Some time after the telegram had
been written and sent. Mr.. Reid again
passed through the room. / saw that
he was keyed up to an intense pitch
of. excitement. Later. I learned the
reason. Between the time I had show
ed him my memoranda and his return
to the room. he had been to the Fifth
Avenue hotel with my tables and
showed them to William f. Chandler,
then secretary of the Republican ma
tional committee. As a result of tho
conference that followed. Mr.. Reid!
sent out the now historic telegram
urging the Republican committees I'M
the three states in question to claim
everything, and a little later the
Times was issued with the headline
that the Republicans had triumphedl
and Hayes was elected by one vote.
That telegram and the action of,
William Il. Chandler; as secretary Of
the Republican national committee.
caused doubts instantly to be raised
and the presidential contest to be be.
gun, a contest which was not deter
mined until the electoral commission;
created by congress had decided that
the Hayes electors had triumphed. I'M
the states Of Florida. South Carolina
and Louisiana. thereby electing Hayes
by one vote.
Copyright, 1911. by 70. J. Edwards. ALI
2 Rights Reserved.) I
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