as had not been destroyed, and such others as they did not prefer to suppress.

The facts developed subsequently to the inauguration of Mr. Hayes-viz.: 1st, The acknowledgment by the administration of Mr. Hayes that the Democratic State officers in Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina had been legally elected, although in the two former States they received fewer votes than were given to the electoral ticket of Tilden and Hendricks; 2d, The appointment by Mr. Hayes, to most important offices, of the members of the Returning Boards of Louisiana and Florida, and of all the persons who had been actors and instruments in the frauds perpetrated by those boards, including the two electors whose names were forged in the corrected electoral votes of Louisiana, and the persons who were privy to those forgeries - led to a new investigation by a committee of the House of Representatives, of which Mr. Clarkson N. Potter, of New York, was chairman.

After this committee had been some six months pursuing its investigation, and had developed facts which carried conviction to the minds of fair men of all parties as to the gross nature of the frauds which were made the basis of a false count by the Electoral Commission, it was manifest that something had to be done, and at once, to counteract the moral effect upon the country of these disclosures. The publication of some and the suppression of the rest of these despatches proved to be the only weapon within their reach, and ignominious and lawless as they knew such a violation of private correspondence to be, they did not shrink from resorting to it.

The despatches that were published show, what was confirmed by the uncontradicted testimony of the witnesses examined before the Potter committee, that unequivocal offers were made by persons representing, with every appearance of authority, the Returning Board of South Carolina, and a majority of the State canvassers of Florida,

to give to the Democratic candidates for presidential electors, official certificates that they were duly appointed, for money considerations to be paid after the delivery of such certificates. It was proved that the agent of the South Carolina Returning Board, after his offer was rejected, went to the city of New York to repeat and press his offer, and stayed there several days in the vain endeavor to have his offer accepted. It was also proved, by unimpeachable testimony, that the offer in behalf of certain of the State canvassers of Florida was repeatedly made through various persons. It was further proved that similar offers in behalf of the Returning Board of Louisiana were made to Mr. Hewitt, chairman of the National Democratic Committee, and to others. These offers were prefaced by statements that, if not accepted, pending transactions with the Republicans would be consummated, although involving more risk, because in that case the certificates would be contrary to truth.

All the powers of the Hayes administration, vainly struggling to justify its own existence, and all its means of influencing the press, were exerted to create a suspicion against Mr. Tilden that in some instance he had entertained or given countenance, directly or indirectly, to such negotiations.

These efforts totally failed. They were not only destitute of the slightest foundation, but they were so contradicted by every intrinsic probability as to be absurd. Besides, they were disproved by the concurrent testimony of every witness who was examined. Their only pretext was, that the South Carolina and Florida offers had been communicated to one of the nephews of Mr. Tilden, though the fact had been kept secret from Mr. Tilden.

How far that gentleman was led into this indiscretion by a desire to learn the tactics of the adversary, or to gain time and means to prove and to defeat their strategy when it should be completely developed, or to secure the oppor

tunity of submitting the matter to members of the Democratic National Committee, whenever it should assume a definite form, does not clearly appear. It is certain, however, that he took no second step, and all negotiations of this character were rejected and abandoned.

The great controlling fact stands, that none of these offers were accepted, nor their conditions complied with, by any of Mr. Tilden's friends, nor were the certificates of any of the Returning Boards or State canvassers given to the Democratic electors, to whom they rightfully belonged. On the other hand, those certificates were all given to the Republican electors, although at the expense of numerous frauds in the canvasses, false authentications by the governors of three States, and the forging of the signatures of two electors.

Whether for these felonious transactions bribes in money were paid according to the offers which the actors in them professed to have received, has not been proved. But that bribes in the more effectual form of appointments to lucrative offices were actually given to all the felons is now a matter of authentic history. Mr. Potter, in his report, makes the following sagacious remarks: "If a man be bribed by a sum down, he may lose it or waste it, and then the control it gave over him will be gone. But in an office which he holds at the pleasure of the person who appointed him, he is under continuing control."

When the first publication was made, about October 7, I went to see Mr. Tilden. I found him very much affected. He was very indignant that the existence of such compromising communications should have been kept from him so long. He begged me to stay with him a few days. He was more completely overcome than I had ever seen him before. He regarded these despatches as I did, as the reply of the administration at Washington to the Potter investigation. It having been established by the Potter committee to the conviction of the whole nation that Hayes was not

elected, the administration, instead of continuing the defence of Hayes' title, determined to show, if they could, that Tilden was bad enough to have been elected by the same means that Hayes had been. Fortunately, facts that were no longer in dispute protected Tilden's character.

1. Only one vote was required to elect Tilden. It was in proof that the votes of three States were in the market, and at a price which would have been but a trifle to Tilden. 2. Tilden did not get that vote. Nor was there a particle of evidence that any money was ever furnished to any one by Tilden, or any one else on his account, to secure the one needed vote.

All

3. Hayes needed all the votes of three States. were for sale. Hayes got them all and was elected, and within six months after his inauguration every person known to have been concerned in securing or giving those notes, from the highest to the lowest, received an office or the offer of one.

The position in which Mr. Tilden found himself placed by the publication of these telegrams subjected him to the humiliating necessity, for the first time in his life, of making a public defence of his personal character. He lost no time in preparing and sending the following statement to the press:

"NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 1878.

"TO THE EDITOR OF THE 'HERALD:'

"SIR: I have read the publications in the Tribune' of the 8th instant, purporting to be translations of cipher telegrams relating to the canvass of votes in Florida at the presidential election of 1876, and have looked over those printed in the 'Tribune' of this morning relating to the canvass in South Carolina. I have no knowledge of the existence of these telegrams, nor any information about them, except what has been derived from or since the publications of the Tribune.'

"So much for these telegrams generally. I shall speak yet more specifically as to some of them.

"1. Those which relate to an offer purporting to have been made in behalf of some member of the State Board of Canvassers of Florida, to give, for a pecuniary compensation, certificates to the Democratic electors who had been actually chosen.

"None of these telegrams, nor any telegram communicating such an offer, or answering such an offer, or relating to such an offer, was seen by me, translated to me, or the contents of it in any manner made known to me. I had no knowledge of the existence or purport of any telegram relating to that subject. Nor did I learn the fact that such an offer of the Florida certificates had been made until long after the 6th of December, at which time the certificates were delivered and the electoral votes cast; and when the information casually reached me, as of a past event, it was accompanied by the statement that the offer had been rejected.

2. As to the publications in the Tribune' of this morning, purporting to be translations of cipher telegrams relating to the canvass of votes in South Carolina in 1876, which I have seen since I wrote the foregoing, I can speak of them no less definitely and positively. No one of such telegrams, either in cipher or translated, was ever shown to or its contents made known to me. No offer or negotiation in behalf of the State canvassers of South Carolina, or of any of them, or any dealing with any of them in respect to the certificates to the electors, was ever authorized or sanctioned in any manner by me directly or through any other person.

"I will add that no offer to give the certificates of any returning board or State canvassers of any State to the Democratic electors in consideration of office or money or property; no negotiation of that nature in behalf of any member of such board or with any such member; no attempt to influence the action of any such member, or to influence the action of any elector of President and Vice-President by such motives, was was ever entertained, considered, or tolerated by me or by anybody within my influence by my consent, or with my knowledge or acquiescence. No such contemplated transaction could at any time have come within the range of my power without that power being instantly exerted to crush it out.

"A belief was doubtless current that certificates from the