with a small man wearing an immense pair of goggles, his hat drawn down over his ears, a greatcoat with a heavy military cloak, and carrying a gripsack and a newspaper in his hand. The newspaper was the New York Tribune.' The stranger cried out, 'Why, Mr. Blank, is that you?' The gentleman knew the voice and said, 'Is that you, Mr. Chandler?' He answered, 'Yes, I have just arrived from New Hampshire by train. Dn the men who have brought this disaster upon the Republican party!' The gentleman replied, "The Republican party has sustained no disaster. If you will only keep your heads up here, there is no question of the election of President Hayes. He has been fairly and honestly elected.""

Mr. Reid and Mr. Chandler then proceeded to the latter's room in the hotel.

"The visitor went over the ground carefully, State by State, from Maine to Oregon, counting the electoral vote in each State, and showing the vote as it was finally counted for Hayes and Tilden. After he had finished, William E. Chandler said:

"Well, what do you think should be done?' The gentleman replied:

"Telegraph immediately to leading Republicans, men in authority, in South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, California, Oregon, and Nevada.' Mr. Chandler made no reply to this proposition, but said:

"We must go and see Zach.'"

After some difficulty, Mr. Reid and William E. Chandler succeeded in finding Zach. Chandler's room.

"The door was shortly opened, and Mr. Zachariah Chandler was discovered standing in his night-dress. William E. Chandler then said, closing the door, 'Here is a gentleman who has more news than you have, and he has some suggestions to make.' To which Zach. Chandler replied: Yes, I know him. What is it?' with which he seated himself on the edge of the bed. William E. Chandler then said: The gentleman will tell you the story himself. He understands the case better than I do.'

"The gentleman then went over the details of the election, and added the recommendations he had made to William E. Chandler.

"The chairman of the national committee lay down and said: Very well, go ahead and do what you think necessary.""

Mr. Reid and William E. Chandler then rushed in company to the telegraph office in the hotel. It was not yet open It would not be open for an hour or more.

for business.

"The gentleman said: 'I'll have to take these messages to the main office of the Western Union.' Chandler called a servant and directed him to have a carriage brought to the Twenty-third street entrance. Then Chandler said: "Well, what do you want to do?' The gentleman replied:

r

"We'll first telegraph to Governor Chamberlain, of South Carolina.' The gentleman dictated the despatch, as follows:

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Hayes is elected if we have carried South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. Can you hold your State? Answer immediately.'

"Mr. Chandler took the despatch in shorthand, as dictated."

The following despatch was then dictated to S. B. Conover, Tallahassee, Fla. :

"The presidential election depends on the vote of Florida, and the Democrats will try to wrest it from us. Watch it and hasten returns. Answer immediately. Hayes defeated without Florida. Do not be cheated in returns. Answer when sure."

To S. B. Packard, of Louisiana, the following despatch was sent:

"The presidential election depends on the vote of Louisiana, and the Democrats will try and wrest it from you."

Mr. Reid says despatches of like import were sent to Oregon and California. He then adds:

"William E. Chandler signed with his own name the despatches to Oregon and to Gorman, of San Francisco. To the despatches sent to Conover, Packard, and Chamberlain, the narrator's recollection is he signed the name of Zachariah Chandler. William E. Chandler at once took telegraph blanks and wrote from his stenographic notes the despatches above printed, the gentleman standing by him taking every despatch as he finished, and carefully reading it. When the last despatch was transcribed, Chandler handed it over to the gentleman and said: Are they all right?' He was informed that they were.

"The gentleman jumped into the carriage waiting and told the driver to go to the main office of the Western Union with all possible speed. Probably the quickest time ever made by a carriage from the Fifth-avenue hotel to the Western Union was made that morning. Arriving at the Western Union office, the gentleman went to the receiver's desk and handed in the despatches. The receiver, who knew the gentleman very well, said, 'Good morning.' The gentleman said:

"Get these despatches off as quickly as possible, and charge the Republican National Committee.' The receiver replied:

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The national committee has no account here, and we can't do it. Why not charge them to the "New York Times'" account?"

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The gentleman replied, 'All right,' and the receiver immediately handed them back to him to be countersigned. This was promptly done. The gentleman returned to his carriage and was driven back to the Fifth-avenue hotel. There was still nobody stirring connected with the national committee.

"The New York Times' has never to this day [June 15, 1887] been reimbursed by the national committee or William E. Chandler; nor has William E. Chandler, or any national committee ever offered to repay the Times' for

the telegraph tolls or for any of the expenses incurred on that morning."

Here we have, upon the most authentic possible testimony, a quasi official account of the first stage in the erection of the complicated structure of fraud by which the choice of the American people was to be defeated and their executive government delivered over to a usurper.

That the Tilden and Hendricks ticket was entitled to 184 electoral votes was undisputed. That the Hayes and Wheeler ticket was entitled to 165 electoral votes was also undisputed. There were There were 369 electors in all. The Tilden ticket, therefore, with 184 votes, needed but one more to give it the majority required for an election. The Hayes ticket, having only 166 electoral votes assured, required 19 votes more to ensure its election.

The four votes of Florida, the eight of Louisiana, and seven of South Carolina made just nineteen. To get one of these votes was sufficient to elect Tilden and Hendricks. To elect Hayes and Wheeler it was necessary to get the whole nineteen.

The "Times" of the 9th followed up the operations initiated in its columns the previous morning by boldly claiming to have returns which gave the election to Hayes, though it could have had nothing of the kind. If it had any returns of such import they were of course simply the partisan reverberations of Chandler's despatches.

"THE BATTLE WON.

"A REPUBLICAN VICTORY IN THE NATION Gov. HAYES ELECTED PRESIDENT AND WILLIAM A. WHEELER VICEPRESIDENT-THE REPUBLICANS CARRY TWENTY-ONE STATES, CASTING 185 ELECTORAL VOTES A REPUBLICAN MAJORITY IN THE NEXT CONGRESS.

"The despatches received since our last issue confirm the reports on which the Times' yesterday claimed 181 electoral votes for Governor Hayes. On Wednesday the

following States were put down as surely Republican : Colorado, California, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oregon, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, Louisiana, and South Carolina. Some of these States were claimed by the Democrats; but all intelligence, thus far received, not only shows that the above estimate was correct, but that Florida, which was left in doubt, has gone Republican by at least 1,500 majority, our latest despatches say 2,000,- and that the two Republican Congressmen are also elected. Encouraging reports were received from Oregon early yesterday morning, and in the afternoon came the decisive news that the Democrats conceded the State, which had given a Republican majority of over one thousand, and gained a Republican Congressman. In Nebraska the same condition of affairs was shown. There the Republican majority rose to 8,000. Despatches from Nevada made it certain that the State had gone for Hayes. The latest news from South Carolina shows a Republican victory, the Democrats conceding the State to Hayes and the Republicans claiming 5,000 majority. Louisiana is one of the States which the Democrats have claimed; but our despatches, coming from various sources in the State, show that it has gone Republican. The latest intelligence points to the certain election. of Gov. Rutherford B. Hayes to the presidency, and a Republican victory in the nation."

In no other newspaper in New York city or elsewhere, I believe, was a serious doubt expressed of Tilden's election. It was conceded in the "Times" office, and but for the inquiry of Barnum I am assured, upon the best authority, that the question of his election would never have been raised. The evidence which that inquiry furnished of the closeness of the vote operated like an open basement window at night to a burglariously disposed passer-by. If the vote was so close as this inquiry warranted the suspicion that it was, what was easier for the administration, with its control of the army, of all the federal offices, including the judiciary, and with all the patronage of the