Year: 1871

} 4 the wrong remedy; Wen abolish this
and establish better rone-something
: more efficient than this" but they
; simply swept it out of existence, and
] opened the ballot-bOx so that anybody
, could go in and vote.


: Fellow citizens, in township where
: you may say, everybody knows every
body, where no man can come up to
, vote without several persons of each
7 party knowing whether he is a voter
, or not. it may be safe, though don't


think it is, to allow men to vote with
J out any kind of registration; but in q
, great city like ours, where very few
. men know those who have lived on
either side of them for ten years-I


have lived without knowing who was
: my neighbor for ten years-I could
not tell at the polls any one man in
twenty of those who were entitled
to vote, and one hundred might vote
illegally without bringing the fraud


home to them. And / say that the


men who insist that all safeguards
. shall be intermitted, all barriers


thrown down, they are the men that
are responsible before God and man


for the polling Of illegal votes.


For forty years have known the
! Democratic party to resist steadily


and constantly every effort to deter


mine who are entitled to vote before


hand. was in the last Constitution


al Convention of the State OF New


York, and was their chairman on


Elections and the right Of Suffrage


I drew up the article as it exists in the


present Constitution; made a new


one, without the least thought Of bene-


fitting or injuring any party whatev-


er, my whole object was to establish a


sytem under which every legal voter


should surely vote, and no illegal vo-


ter could possibly vote. One of the


provisions whereon was most tena-


cious, was that the registration should


be completed and published, list


made out, so that every one could see


it, six days before the election. But


every Democrat in that Convention,


including the present Chief Justice of


the State, half dozen ex-GOvernors,


the candidate for Governor, all the


leaders Of the party were there, and


they all voted against any and every
effort could make to prevent illegal


voting. They would have no barrier


that they could possibly avoid or defeat


and when at last had carried thro'


the article giving six days between


the closing of the registry and the


opening of the polls, after I had left
they succeeded in cut ting 1t down to


four days; they could not get it quite


out. In every respect we had the


whole strength of the Democratic


party doing every thing in its power


to prevent and obstruct any barrier


being set up against voting Illegally.


Now then, when at the next year
we came to the polls and found them


polling in the city alone not less than


thirty thousand illegal votes, could I


blame only these men, or the men


who engineered the fraud? Could
| fail to see that the men who left the


door open to the fraud were as eulpa- !


bic as they who voted? The men |
who through years steadily and every |
where; in the Conventions and the |
Legislature, had done their utmost to /
leave the gate wide open through /
which illigal voters marched in bri- !
gade front, could doubt that they |
were responsible?


When we commenced to prepare /
for the election Of 1868, in the first |
place, men were rushed through and /
naturalized by the hundred together,
three hundred or four hundred in one


evening, in a room like this; men


swore, forty at time, that they came /
here five years ago they were rushed


through faster than a Chicago pork


merchant can stick hogs, they put


these men through. They are very


dexterous in Cincinnati and Chicago,
in the pork business, but they can't


kill hogs as fast as the New York


people made votes Then they got


out forty or fifty thousand fraudulent,


Illegal naturalization papers, leaving


place for the name, all the signatures


and seals perfectly correct, and these


were peddled cut at the rate of two


dollars per hundred. The State was


flooded with them. A good faithful


Irishman, who worked for me, and


his son, who had not been long


enough in the country to be citizens,


were supPgied with papers proving
that they were naturalized. and that
they were entitled to vote, but they
did net.


To begin with, it was certain they
would cheat; they were prepared to
cheat. William NJ. Tweed, the mas
ter-spirit now, as then, sent out to all
his confidential fellows in the coun-
try: "The instant the polls close,
send US an estimate by telegraph,
showing how the votes stand at your
poll" so that before our votes were
counted they could tell pretty well
how many were needed to beat Cen
eral Grant. And they did beat him !
for President; they were sixty thoUs- ;
and majority against him, whereas
there were not thirty thousand and
the proportion in Brooklyn was about
the same, some Of it made by fraudu-
lend naturalization, and, the rest ;
by fraudulent counting-largely =;
where they could control. They
would get two men of their own par !
ty, and another whom they could !
buy, and make the result Just what !
they pleased. OF that sixty thousand I.
majority in the city for Seymour over :
Grant, not over thirty thousand was !
honest. They had planned, and con- !
trived, and prepared for months to !
be ready to make that vote just what :
ever should be necessary to beat
Grant in the State. Our State was
clearly for him, and the result was !
only perfected by this fraud, whole :
sale, deliberate, prepared, conspired, :
intended from the first to be.


The instruments were few compare. )
lively; five thousand men will poll
fifty thousand votes in New York if :
well led. They have their names \
And we proved that the 7
leading Democratic politicians Of the :
city had fifteen or twenty men set :
down as lodging in their houses when
there were no such men there-nOt y
merely at the grog shops, where they :
would put fifteen. twenty or thirty in :.
q place where they did not live, but :
at the houses of the leading Demo !
cratic politicians men were put down. \
Then a man goes round and gives =
them the names they are voting on :,
each one gets his name and residence; =
they go and vote, and tAen on to the =
next poll, at which they hveanOther !
and so they are sent round :
from poll to poll until they vote per- =
haps twenty times. And suppose we :
arrest them and take them before :
Judge, they are not away twenty min 4
ltes before they are released by writ y
'f hGbeas corpus, and at the polls 9
again. =,


Now L complain not that individ- \
lals have done this great wrong to g