576 



NEW YORK. 



was maintained until after the election, their 

 differences being reconciled in New York City, 

 where they chiefly existed, by an agreement 

 upon a division of the local nominations be- 

 tween the Tammany Hall and Irving Hall or- 

 ganizations. The candidate for Mayor of the 

 city, Mr. William R. Grace, was selected by 

 the Tammany Committee from a list of names 

 submitted by that of the Irving Hall Democrats. 

 The selection proved far more satisfactory to 

 the Tammany faction than to the other, and 

 many of the latter, together with the great 

 body of independent voters, joined with the 

 Republicans in support of William Dowd for 

 Mayor. The local contest turned largely on 

 the public-school question and the fact that 

 Mr. Grace was a Roman Catholic, and it was 

 probably not without effect on the State and 

 national elections. 



The total vote cast for Presidential electors 

 on November 2d was 1,105,226. Of these, 

 555,544 were for the Republican, 534,511 for 

 the Democratic, 12,373 for the "Greenback," 

 and 1,517 for the Prohibitory ticket. There 

 were 80 votes for the Antimasonic candidates, 

 and 1,201 returned as "scattering." The Re- 

 publican plurality over the Democratic vote 

 was 21,033; majority over all, 5,862. The 

 vote for Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals 

 was 1,094,134, of which Folger received 562,- 

 821, Rapallo 517,661, Armstrong, Greenback 

 candidate, 13,183, and 469 were "scattering." 

 Folger's plurality was 44,160. An amendment 

 of the Constitution was voted upon and rati- 

 fied by a majority of 110,678 out of a total vote 

 of 333,128. The vote for Mayor in New York 

 City was 101,760 for Grace, and 98,715 for 

 Dowd, making the plurality of the former 3,- 

 045. 



The constitutional amendment which was 

 ratified provided for detailing Judges of the 

 Superior and Common Pleas Courts of New 

 York and the City Court of Brooklyn to hold 

 special terms of the Supreme Court in their 

 districts, and for the continuation of the sala- 

 ries of Judges of the Supreme Court and Court 

 of Appeals who are forced to retire by reason 

 of being seventy years of age before the ex- 

 piration of the term for which they were elect- 

 ed, provided they have served on the bench ten 

 years, such continuation to be only for the un- 

 expired term. 



CHARLES J. FOLGEB, who was elected Chief 

 Judge of the Court of Appeals, was born in 

 Massachusetts, April 16, 1818. At the age of 

 fourteen years he removed with his parents 

 from Nantucket to Geneva, New York, where 

 he entered Hobart College, graduating in 1836. 

 He studied law at Canandaigua, and was ad- 

 mitted to the bar by the Supreme Court at 

 Albany in 1839. After practicing a short time 

 at Lyons, he finally settled down at Geneva 

 in 1840. In 1844 he was chosen Judge of the 

 Court of Common Pleas in Ontario County, 

 and Master and Examiner in Chancery, posi- 

 tions which were abolished by the remodeling 



of the judiciary by the Constitution of 1846. 

 In 1851 he was elected County Judge in On- 

 tario, and held the position four years. He 

 was elected to the State Senate in 1861, and 

 served in that body continuously until 1869, 

 taking a prominent part in the important legis- 

 lation of that period. In 1869 he accepted the 

 position of Assistant Treasurer of the United 

 States at New York. In 1871 he was elected 

 to the bench of the Court of Appeals as one 

 of the Associate Judges for the full term of 

 fourteen years. On the death of Chief-Judge 

 Church, he was appointed by Governor Cor- 

 nell to fill the vacancy until the election which 

 confirmed him in the position. 



About two weeks before the election consid- 

 erable excitement was produced by the publi- 

 cation in New York City of the following let- 

 ter, alleged to have been written by the Repub- 

 lican candidate for the Presidency : 



[PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL.] 



HOUSE OF ^REPRESENTATIVES, | 

 WASHINGTON, D. C., January 23, 1880. f 



DEAR SIR : Yours in relation to the Chinese prob- 

 lem came duly to hand. 



I take it that the question of employees is only a 

 question of private and corporate economy, and indi- 

 viduals or companies have the right to buy labor where 

 they can get it cheapest. 



We have a treaty with the Chinese Government 

 which should be religiously kept until its provisions 

 are abrogated by the action of the General Govern- 

 ment, and I am not prepared to say that it should be 

 abrogated until our great manufacturing and corporate 

 interests are conserved in the matter oflabor. 



Very truly yours, J. A. GARFIELD. 



H. L. MOREY, Employers' Union, Lynn, Massa- 

 chusetts. 



General Garfield at once denounced this as a 

 forgery, but a fac-simile of the manuscript 

 having been printed, a prominent member of 

 the Democratic National Committee, who was 

 familiar with General Garfield's handwriting, 

 publicly expressed the opinion that it was gen- 

 uine. It was widely circulated by the com- 

 mittee and the press, and occasioned much 

 bitter controversy. Shortly before the elec- 

 tion, an attache of the newspaper in which the 

 letter first appeared was arre^ed on a charge 

 of forging it, and an investigation was begun 

 by the Court of Oyer and Terminer in New 

 York. Evidence was produced to the effect 

 that there was no such person as H. L. Morey, 

 of Lynn, and tending plainly to show that this 

 letter had been concocted and a forgery com- 

 mitted for political effect. The accused was 

 held for trial, but a nolle prosequi was subse- 

 quently entered in the case. One of the wit- 

 nesses who testified to the genuineness of the 

 letter was, however, convicted of perjury and 

 sentenced to eight years' imprisonment. 



Controversy in regard to the power of the 

 Mayor of the city of New York to remove the 

 heads of executive departments, which began in 

 1879, continued during a greater part of this 

 year. The charter of the city provides for such 

 removals by the Mayor, on charges and after a 

 hearing, subject to the approval of the Gov- 





