On the 7th of November, 1876, the people of the State of New York,
and the people of the United States, expressed their preferences
among the several Presidential candidates to succeed President
Grant, as follows, according to the Albany _Evening Journal
Almanac_:
For Tilden in New York State 522,043
For Hayes 489,225
--------
Tilden's majority 32,818
* * * * *
It is to be remarked that Tilden's vote was larger than any of the
State or local candidates', and was vastly larger than had ever been
cast for any other man.
The vote for Grant in 1872 in New York State was 440,745
Tilden's vote larger than Grant's vote in 1872, when the
latter carried the State by 53,466 81,298
Tilden's vote in 1876 larger than Greeley's vote in 1872 134,764
Grant's vote in 1868 was 419,883
Tilden's vote in 1876 larger than Grant's vote in 1868 102,160
Seymour's vote in 1868 was 429,883
Tilden's vote in 1876 larger than Seymour's in 1868 92,160
The total vote for Tilden in the United States in 1876 was 4,300,316
For Hayes 4,036,015
---------
Tilden's majority 264,301
Grant's vote in 1872 was 3,596,742
Tilden's vote larger than Grant's vote, in 1872, when the
latter's majority was 761,844 703,574
Greeley's vote in 1872 was 2,834,888
Tilden's vote in 1876 larger than Greeley's in 1872 1,465,418
Grant's vote in 1872 was 3,013,188
Tilden's vote in 1876 larger than Grant's 1,287,128
Seymour's vote in 1868 was 2,703,600
Tilden's vote in 1876 larger than Seymour's in 1868 1,596,716
JUST WHAT CHANDLER DID, AND HOW THE PLAN WAS LAID TO DEFEAT THE
POPULAR CHOICE FOR PRESIDENT
[_From the New York "Times" of June 15, 1887._]
"The New York _Sun_, after three days of hard labor, has finally
produced a curious reply to the _Times's_ comments upon Mr. William
E. Chandler's connection with the election of 1876. The best answer
to its series of misrepresentations will be found in the following
statement of what did actually occur at the Fifth Avenue Hotel on
the morning of Nov. 8 of that year.
"As stated on Saturday last in the _Times_, a gentleman entered
the Fifth Avenue Hotel at the Twenty-third Street door about 6.30
o'clock in the morning, possibly a little before that hour. He
went at once to the rooms of the national committee and found them
occupied only by a number of servants in the hotel, who were engaged
in cleaning and setting the rooms to rights. He was informed that
everybody had gone home or to bed a couple of hours before. He left
the room and started for the clerk's desk to ascertain the number
of Mr. Zachariah Chandler's room. While opening the first door in
the direction of the reading-room, on his way to the office of the
hotel, he came in collision with a small man, wearing an immense
pair of goggles, his hat drawn down over his ears, a great-coat with
a heavy military coat, and carrying a grip-sack and a newspaper in
his hand. The newspaper was the New York _Tribune_. The gentleman
did not recognize the stranger, but the stranger recognized the
gentleman immediately. 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. D--n the men who 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.'
"Chandler replied: 'Look at this paper.' The answer was that the
paper had not the news, and the gentleman began to give Mr. Chandler
an idea of the situation, when Chandler interrupted him, saying: 'I
have just got the key to my room; come up-stairs.' Upon entering the
room, Mr. Chandler placed his grip-sack in the corner, took off his
overcoat, sat down in a chair--the gentleman taking the only other
one in the room--and Chandler said: 'Now go ahead.' 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 direct reply to this proposition, but said:
"'We must go and see Zach.'
"The gentleman said:
"'Do you know the number of his room?' William E. Chandler replied:
"'Yes, I know where it is.' To which the gentleman answered:
"'If you don't know exactly, I'd better go to the office and get
the number; I was going there when I met you.' Chandler said: 'No,
I know where it is,' and led the way around to the Twenty-fourth
Street side of the hotel. After proceeding a short distance down the
corridor he looked up at the number over a door and said: 'This is
Chandler's room.' Then he began to knock and kick at the door. The
noise at once awakened the inmate, and there proceeded from the room
a series of shrill screams and shrieks, followed by an affrightened
female voice crying out: 'What do you want? Go away; I'm a lone
woman.' Chandler immediately darted down the corridor. The gentleman
said: "See here, if you don't know the number of the room we'd
better go immediately down to the office and get it; we don't want
anything more of this kind." Chandler insisted that he would be
right the next time, however, and walking still further down the
corridor he selected a room about four doors below the first one
he had attacked. The response to his knock was immediate and not
uncertain. There was no scream in this case, but the inmate shouted
in angry tones: 'Get out; I'm a lady. Why do you disturb me at this
hour. Go right away, or I will call the servants.' Chandler then
remarked: 'I guess I'll have to go down to the office.' Whereupon he
darted down-stairs, ascertained the number of Zachariah Chandler's
room, which was between those of the two ladies whom he had thus
unceremoniously aroused, and he began kicking and knocking at the
door, of the right room in this case, and did so for a little time
without effect. The gentleman then joined with him in thumping and
kicking the door, remarking: 'We'll wake up the whole house and will
have the police down on us if we don't look out,' when in a moment
came the well-recognized voice from the inside, 'Who's there?'
to which William E. Chandler replied: 'It's me, Chandler; open
the door, quick.' The door was shortly opened, and Mr. Zachariah
Chandler was discovered standing in his nightdress. Mr. 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
this he seated himself on the edge of his 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 laid down and said: 'Very
well, go ahead and do what you think necessary.' The two visitors
left the room and went to the telegraph office in the hotel. It was
just five minutes before seven by the hotel clock when they arrived
there. The telegraph office was not open, and they were informed
that it would not be open until 8, possibly later. The two men
stood by the receiver's shelf at the little telegraph inclosure,
Chandler with his back to the door opening towards Twenty-third
Street entrance. The other gentleman faced Chandler, leaning on the
shelf, with his back to the door leading into the great hall of the
hotel. The only other persons in the room were a few servants and
a clerk in the newsstand. 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: 'We'll first telegraph to
Gov. Chamberlain, of South Carolina.' The gentleman dictated the
despatch, which appeared in the _Sun_, and which was as follows:
"'_To D. H. Chamberlain, Columbia, S. C._:
"'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
gentleman then proposed to send a similar despatch to S. B. Conover,
of Florida. Mr. William E. Chandler immediately objected, saying
that Conover was as much of a Democrat as he was a Republican, and
would probably show the despatch to the Democrats as early as he
would to any Republican in town. At any rate, the Democrats would
get it first. The gentleman remarked:
"'Have you any other proposition to make, or have you any one in
your mind whom it would be safer or better to address?' Mr. William
E. Chandler scratched his ear with his pencil, and after a moment's
consideration said he had not. The gentleman then said it was
imperative that some one should be woke up down there, and if Mr.
Chandler could think of no one else it was essential to telegraph
to Conover. Mr. Chandler hesitated for an instant, and said:
'Well, I suppose we must; something has to be done.' The gentleman
accordingly dictated to Chandler the Conover despatch. Here it is:
"'_To S. B. Conover, Tallahassee, Fla._:
"'The Presidential election depends on the vote of Florida, and
the Democrats will try and wrest it from us. Watch it and hasten
returns. Answer immediately.'
"The gentleman then suggested S. B. Packard as the proper person to
address in Louisiana, and the Packard despatch was dictated to, and
taken down by, William E. Chandler in shorthand:
"'_To S. B. Packard, New Orleans, La._:
"'The Presidential election depends on the vote of Louisiana.
The Democrats will try to wrest it from you. Watch it and hasten
returns. Answer immediately.'
"The gentleman then asked: 'To whom shall we send in Oregon?' Mr.
Chandler said: 'John H. Mitchell.' The Oregon despatch was then
dictated:
"'_To John H. Mitchell, Portland, Oregon_:
"'Without Oregon Hayes defeated. Don't be defrauded. Hasten
returns. Answer.'
"The gentleman suggested that George C. Gorham, of San Francisco,
was the proper man to receive a telegram. Chandler at once assented.
Then the gentleman suggested that probably he might be able to
do something with Nevada and Oregon, and a despatch something as
follows was prepared:
"'_To George C. Gorham, San Francisco, Cal._:
"'The Presidential election depends on our having both Nevada
and Oregon, which are reported for Hayes. Telegraph both those
States immediately. Watch them and hurry results. Answer
immediately.
"'W. E. CHANDLER,
"'_Fifth Avenue Hotel_.'
"Chandler says, in his testimony before the Potter committee, that
he found the Gorham despatch among some papers. This happened in
this way: After the despatch had been written some verbal changes in
it were suggested. Mr. Chandler found some trouble in making them
on the telegraph blank, and the gentleman who dictated the despatch
remarked: 'You'd better write that despatch over again; you'll save
time.' Chandler did so, and the original despatch got into his
pocket with the rest of his papers.
"William E. Chandler signed with his own name the despatches to
Oregon and to Gorham, 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 five
despatches above printed, the gentleman standing by him taking every
despatch as he finished it 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.
Chandler immediately started to open the door from the reading-room
to the Twenty-third Street entrance that the gentleman might make
a hasty exit, but Chandler made a bungling job of it; finally the
two reached the outer door. The gentleman jumped into the carriage
there waiting and told the driver to get 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: 'The National Committee has no account here,
and we can't do it. Why not charge them to the New York _Times_
account?' 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.
"And now a few extracts, which the _Sun_ failed to discover in
the Potter committee's report, are pertinent. First, in regard to
the telegram to George C. Gorham, in San Francisco, Mr. Chandler
testified:
"'I found among those papers this copy of a telegram which I sent
from the Fifth Avenue Hotel. I think before daylight on the morning
of Nov. 8. It bears date of the 7th of November, but it was really
written and sent on the morning of the 8th.'
"Immediately after this comes the following sentence, bear in mind,
from William E. Chandler's testimony before the Potter committee:
"'The remaining copies are in shorthand, and I will read them.'
"If these messages were not dictated to Mr. William E. Chandler, why
should he have written them in shorthand? When time was so precious,
is it to be believed that William E. Chandler wrote his own messages
first in shorthand and then transcribed them? Further down on the
same page (526) of the testimony occurs the following:
"'This paper [handing to the chairman a paper from which he had
read] is worn from carrying it in the pocket.'
"The chairman: 'Who made these stenographic marks?'
"The witness: 'Those are my own. I learned to write shorthand many
years ago.'
"It is perfectly clear from this (Chandler's own testimony) that
these messages were dictated to Chandler by another person. They
were so dictated exactly as described in the foregoing narrative.
The New York _Times_ has never to this day been reimbursed by the
National Committee or William E. Chandler, nor has William E.
Chandler or any national committee ever offered to pay the _Times_
for the telegraph tolls or for any of the expenses incurred on that
morning.
"Mr. Chandler's efforts in behalf of the grand old Republican party
on the morning of Nov. 8, 1876, may therefore be briefly summarized
as follows:
"First.--He frightened two lone women nearly out of their wits.
"Second.--He finally discovered the number of Zachariah Chandler's
room.
"Third.--He acted as an amanuensis for a gentleman who dictated five
despatches. (Work well done.)
"Fourth.--He asked a servant to bring a carriage around to the
Twenty-third Street entrance of the Fifth Avenue Hotel. (Result
satisfactory.)
"Fifth.--He attempted to open a door to enable the gentleman bearing
the despatches the more readily to reach the street. (Made a mess of
it.)
"Mr. Zachariah Chandler, chairman of the National Committee, asked
the gentleman above alluded to, on the evening of Nov. 8, if it
would not be well to send William E. Chandler to Florida. The
gentleman thought it would. Mr. William E. Chandler left for Florida
on the following day at 6 P.M. Mr. William E. Chandler,
therefore, did not initiate the idea of going to Florida. The truth
is that Zachariah Chandler wished to send to Florida a gentleman who
had been formerly a private secretary to William H. Seward, but the
person was not at hand and could not be reached in time. William E.
Chandler for this important mission was a second choice.
"The whole scheme of sending what were afterwards called 'visiting
statesmen' to the doubtful States originated in the brain of
Zachariah Chandler, not William E. Chandler.
"If the New York _Sun_ and Mr. William E. Chandler can find any
comfort in the foregoing plain narration of facts they are entirely
welcome to it."
* * * * *
Notwithstanding Mr. Tilden's popular majority, the public needs
not now be told that he was counted out by the instrumentality of
an extemporized tribunal, not only unknown to the Constitution,
but in distinct disregard and violation of the provisions of that
instrument for counting the electoral votes for Presidents and
Vice-Presidents. A detailed account of the processes by which this
great national crime was initiated will be found in the first
chapter of the second volume of Bigelow's _Life of Tilden_. To that
record, however, some important testimony has since been disclosed
which appears to have escaped the biographer's notice.
At a meeting held at Chickering Hall on the evening of November 12,
1891, to sympathize with Governor Nichols's war on the Louisiana
lottery system, the late Abram S. Hewitt was one of the speakers. In
the course of his remarks in denunciation of the lottery gambling in
Louisiana, Mr. Hewitt said:
"I can't find words strong enough to express my feelings regarding
this brazen fraud.
"This scheme of plunder develops a weak spot in the government of
the United States, which I would not mention were it not for the
importance of the issue. We all know that a single State frequently
determines the result of a Presidential election. _The State of
Louisiana has determined the result of a Presidential election. The
vote of that State was offered to me for money_, and I declined to
buy it. _But the vote of that State was sold for money!_"
A day or two after this anti-lottery meeting the New York _Sun_
recites this passage of Mr. Hewitt's speech, and accompanies it with
the following pertinent and instructive comment:
"We do not remember that this highly important testimony has ever
before been elicited from Mr. Hewitt in any public declaration.
He says that he has personal knowledge that the vote of Louisiana
was sold to Mr. Hayes' managers for money; that the same vote was
offered for money to him as Mr. Tilden's representative, and that he
declined to buy it--very properly, as all patriotic citizens and all
honest men will agree.
"Some time in the summer of 1878, when the great crime was less
than two years old and the beneficiaries of that crime were still
in the full enjoyment of its fruits, there occurred a spirited,
we may even say a bitterly personal, controversy between the Hon.
Henry Watterson and Mr. Hewitt as to the extent of the latter's
responsibility for the failure of the Democratic party to obtain
its rights by the seating of Mr. Tilden in the office to which he
had been elected. Col. Watterson acrimoniously, and, as we are
glad to believe, unjustly, charged Mr. Hewitt not only with a
mismanagement of Democratic interests at the time of the electoral
count, but also with suppressing the fact of Mr. Tilden's personal
disapproval of the electoral commission bill at a critical time in
the deliberations of Mr. Tilden's friends at Washington.
"The merits of the Watterson-Hewitt controversy are not now of
living interest. Time doubtless has softened the sentiments of
each of the two statesmen with reference to the other's part in the
events of 1876 and 1877. We refer to the incident merely to say that
even under the strongest provocation to disclose all that he knew
about the theft of the Presidency, Mr. Hewitt withheld the statement
which he made so distinctly and emphatically at an anti-lottery
meeting in Chickering Hall fifteen years after the crime.
"There was also, as it may be remembered, a searching investigation
into all of the circumstances surrounding the theft of the vote of
Louisiana, conducted by the special committee of the Forty-fifth
Congress, known as the Potter committee. The object was not to
remedy the irremediable, but to bring out the whole truth, to fix
the responsibility where it belonged, and to make a repetition
of the crime forever impossible. Those Democrats who possessed
special knowledge bearing upon the crime came forward and testified.
The report and testimony of the Potter investigation fill about
twenty-five hundred printed pages, but on no page is there any piece
of evidence more important than that which Mr. Hewitt volunteered
on Thursday night before a mass-meeting called for an enterprise of
moral and social, rather than political, reform.
"We speak of the Potter investigation merely to say that the Hon.
Abram S. Hewitt was not among the witnesses before that committee.
He did not appear to testify to the sensational facts which he gave
so freely to the anti-lottery meeting in Chickering Hall. In all the
twenty-five hundred pages he appears only once, and then indirectly.
Major Burke testified that when he went to Mr. Hewitt as the
ostensible manager of Mr. Tilden's case in the House, and asked him
whether Louisiana was to be abandoned by the Democratic managers,
Mr. Hewitt replied, among other things, that 'the Democratic party
could not afford to take the responsibility of plunging this country
into anarchy and strife, upsetting values and disturbing trade.'
"But Mr. Hewitt's silence on previous occasions, when his testimony
would have been so valuable, does not render it less interesting,
now that its importance is mainly historical."
In _Harper's Magazine_ for the month of March, 1907, will be found
an article from the accomplished pen of Frederick Trevor Hill,
entitled "The Hayes-Tilden Contest--A Political Arbitration," in
which occurs the following statement of an incident of the nefarious
transaction under consideration, which no one has ventured to
contest, and which leaves no longer a doubt that Mr. Tilden must
have been declared President instead of Mr. Hayes, despite all the
other devices by which he is believed to have been counted out, but
for the forgery of signatures to the returns from Louisiana which
escaped the attention of the perhaps too-eminent counsel in charge
of Mr. Tilden's case, a forgery for the concealment of which Senator
Ferry seems to be indirectly responsible:
"The proceedings opened as usual with the reception of the
conflicting certificates from the Senate chamber--five documents
in all--and while these important papers were being perfunctorily
examined and initialed by the presiding justice, the journalists in
the gallery watched the scene, the lawyers whispered together and
prepared for the coming contests; the general public waited, bored
and inattentive, and some of the Republican managers sat quaking
with fear.
"Judge Clifford finally laid aside his pen, and it was ordered that
the various exhibits which he had been marking be printed and copies
furnished for the convenience of the counsel and commissioners. Had
a single objection to this routine been interposed; had prudence,
habit, or even curiosity impelled any of the Democratic counsel to
scrutinize the original documents, or had enterprise prompted any
journalist to examine and compare them, a sensational exposure would
have been inevitable, for one of the Republican certificates was
clumsily, even obviously, forged.[12]
[12] "Under the Constitution three copies of the certificate of the
Louisiana vote were necessary, one of which had to be forwarded
to the president of the Senate by mail, another delivered to him
by hand, and the third deposited with the United States district
judge--all of which had to be accomplished within a certain number
of days. When the Republican messenger--one T. C. Anderson--arrived
in Washington and delivered the package containing one of those
three certificates to Mr. Ferry, the president of the Senate, that
gentleman called his attention to an irregularity in the form of the
endorsement on the envelope and suggested that he consider its legal
effect. Anderson therefore retained the package, and secretly opened
it to ascertain if the error had been repeated in the certificate
itself. To his consternation he discovered far more vital defects
in the document, and flying back to New Orleans consulted with the
party leaders, who agreed that the instrument must be redrawn, and
the electors were hastily resumed. Then, to the managers' horror,
it was discovered that two of the necessary officials were absent,
and could not possibly be reached within the time limited by law
for the delivery of the paper in Washington. 'Heroic' measures were
therefore deemed essential, and after all the available signatures
had been obtained the others were forged, and the doctored
certificates, which, of course, were obviously different from the
one previously forwarded by mail, were rushed back to Washington
just in the nick of time. All these facts were subsequently
unearthed, but those who actually committed the forgeries were never
detected."--H. R. R., No. 140, 45th Cong., 3d Session, pp. 50-63 and
89-91.
"Had this been discovered, it is not improbable that one or more
of the Republican commissioners, who were suspected of wavering
in their party allegiance, would have voted for a thorough
investigation, and an entirely different result might have been
effected. Neither suspicion nor inspiration, however, put the
Democratic champions on their guard, and the opportunity passed
unheeded, never to return."