The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1913-07-30

ABOUT evenly QlNlueu anu Tie hSAt III
votes then began. Buying votes be-
came matter Of common practice,
and it is a somewhat curious fact that
I'D to 1889 there was no law in ONO
prohibiting the buying or selling of
votes.
Home of Noted Persons.
Many of the prominent men in his
tory came from Adams county, O.,
said Judge Blair. General U. 5.
Grants folks were from that county
and Grover Cleveland's ancestors lived
there, as did the parents OF WhltlaW
Reid. The mother and father of Pres
ident Wilson formerly lived in the
original territory that became Adams
county and the late Judge ]. H. Roth
rock of Cedar Rapids was born in
Highland county, Ohio, and spent part
of his life in Adams county.
After the war politics became the
principal business in the county for
months before election, and finally the
buying and selling of votes entered
into the every day affairs of life. In
one township with 400 voters there
had not been single scratched vote
in ten years, Judge Blair found that
in one precinct IS per cent OF the vot-
ers had sold or bought votes and of
the remaining Is per cent eight were
men who had voted the first time that
year and three of the remaining sew
en- were under suspicion.
| Sold Votes at Auction.
81 have seen them take men down
near the polls" said Judge Blair, land
put them on the auction block and sell
their votes to the highest bidders, the
same as you would sell horse. This
happened, not in the rural precincts
across the street from the court
house. l saw one man buy vote and
take his man down to the polls and
vote him and then he came back and
| holding aloft roll of bank notes
shouted, You see l have not spent it
all yet
"The matter got so it affected every
walk of life. If you wanted a teach.
ers certificate you got it through a
pull and ability to control votes 1t
was the power to control votes that
counted if you wanted anything.
"When Mckinley was candidate
for governor, Joseph P. Smith was
buying votes on the street. He did it
openly and brazenly, and worked for
the ticket at which Mckinley was the
head. And when Mckinley was elect
cd Joseph P. Smith was appointed
state librarian. Then Mckinley was
elected president and Joseph P.
Smith became private secretary and
later minister to South America"
In the Game Himself.
The speaker stated that in the early
days he was just as corrupt as any of
them and that he was far from being
proud of it now. He told of how,
when he was going to school, the
teacher asked him if he would not
ike to have teachers certificate and
Jpcn his replying in the affirmative
the teacher told him how to get it.
\ certain man was up for election
as judge, and if he was elected the
teachers brother-in-law would be ap-
pointed school examiner and Blair
would get his certificate. In order to
help the election the youthful Blair
was to go out and round up bur oh
of f1oaters and buy their votes, which
he did-the Judge won, the teachers
brother-inlaW became schoo! cxam;a-
err and Blair got his certificate.
Credit Belongs to Women.
However" said the Judge, 81 did
not clean up Adams county, and do
not claim the honor for doing it. The
honor belongs to the wives and the
daughters and sweethearts of the vot-
ers, and not to the men. 1t was these
women that created in the hearts of
the men the thoughts that cleansed
us of our rottenness. After the cleo
ton got couple of detectives and
sent them into the precincts where
vote selling had been the worst, and
they got the information. l told some
people on both sides what we were
going to do. We found that $1,7OO
had been spent in buying votes.
81 received all sorts of threatening
letters. They threatened to mob me,
to burn the court house, to burn my
home and warned me to keep away
from West Union, the county seat.
The detectives made some arrests
and fined the culprits heavily. Then
some voters came in and pleaded
guilty, and they received a lighter
fine. The result was that they began
coming in by the score and pleading
/.