994 



KANSAS. 



Prospect Park Fair Ground Association. In 

 1869 be was again elected mayor of tin- city, 

 and, two years afterward, when deserted by 

 his party, he headed an independent ticket, 

 but the late mayor, s. >. !' >.!!, defeated 

 both him and the Republican candidate. Mr. 

 Kalbtl. i-c!i retired from business in 1868, leav- 

 ing throe of his sons to carry on the establish- 

 moiit i.i.'i. r the name of Martin Kalbfleisch's 

 Sons. After the expiration of his term of 

 office, he had lived in ease and retirement ut 

 lii> private residence, one of the finest in Brook- 

 lyn. Mr. Kalbfleisch was a man of culture 

 and scholarly taste, and an excellent linguist, 

 speaking t'uur languages fluently. 



KANSAS. \Vliile the people of Kansas 

 Mill aroused in consequence of the recent 

 exposure of the corruption that had been prac- 

 tised in the senatorial elections of 1867 and 1871 

 (tee A.NXI-AI. CYCLOPEDIA for 1872), and while 

 a committee of Congress was investigating 

 these charges in Washington, a more outra- 

 geous case of bribery in the senatorial election 

 of 1873 wan alleged to have been committed 

 and exposed, producing not only great excite- 

 ment in Kansas, but a sensation throughout 

 the United State*. 



On the 29th of January the Legislature was 

 in joint convention t elect n United States 

 Senator to succeed S. C. 1'omeroy, whose terra 

 of office was about to expire. The most prom- 

 inent rival candidates were Mr. Pomeroy and 

 John J. Ingalls. As the time for the election 

 approached, the public interest manifested in 

 the matter became all-absorbing, owing, in a 

 measure, to the exposures in relation to 

 the previous elections. Consequently, when 

 the two branches of the Legislature were as- 

 sembled in joint convention, the hall was 

 crowded to its utmost rapacity. After the 

 candidates had been unmiiiati-d and the ballot- 

 ing was about to begin. Colonel A. M. York, 

 the Senator from KonUotnerr County, arose 

 and made a most startling disclosure, to the 

 effect that he had hod several interviews with 

 Mr. Pomcroy, in which that gentleman had 

 bargained to purchase his vote for $8,000, and 

 had actually paid $7,000 of that amount. The 

 remarkable sensation caused by this announce- 

 nic-nt wnt mnde still more impressive when 

 1 ii"l York passed to the jin-idinc officer 

 the $7,000 in greenbacks which he had re- 

 Mired from Mr. Pomeroy. The facts relating 

 to this transaction are giv.-n in the speech 

 made by Senator York : 



Before I place in nomination the name of any mn, 

 I hsv a short explanation to nuke, and an It con- 

 cern* ill here present, ml i of rrcat Import i. 

 the Staff of Kan*a, present and future, I denire the 

 clov attention of tlie members of the convention to 

 what I tuv to say. Two weeks ago yesterday, I 

 came to T >pc-kn, an avowed and earnest anti-Pome- 

 roy man. I thought that in hi* defeat lay the re- 

 generation md |>rty, nnd oheerfullv and 

 If with the Miti-Pome- 



tncnt in the legislature. fravo charge* had 

 been made again*! Senator I'omery in com 

 with a certain well-known Utter to \V. \V. !:-*. 

 ThM chargvs bad assumed a scrioui form in a meet- 



ing of the anti-Pomcroy caucus a few evenings ago, 

 when a man by the name of Clark exhibited $ 2,000, 

 in twenty one-hundred-dollar bills, declaring that he 

 had received tin- same from Mr. Pomeroy for signing 

 a eonl'easion to the effect that he bad forged the 

 letter and the signature tin n to. 1 hud no evi 

 as to the truth of these charges, but Mr. P i 

 name having been associated with so many r: 

 of a similar nature, that made me give those reports 

 credence, though I bad no desire t<> coiideinu llr. 

 Pomeroy without a hearing, \\hcn I came bur 1 

 had been waited upon at various times by friends 

 of Mr. Pomeroy, who plied me with arguments in 

 favor of his preeminent fltncvs for the position, and 

 attestations of his innocence of the churgcs brought 

 against him. I was aaked several times to have an 

 interview with Mr. Pomeroy, and finally consented, 

 if this interview could take place in tlie presence of 

 a third party. Mr. Pomeroy assented to the pres- 

 ence of one or any number of my friends. Accord- 

 ingly, on Friday last, 1 waited on Mr. Pomeroy, and 

 there, in the presence of Captain Peek and two 

 others, we had a brief conversation. Alter a general 

 talk about his prospects and otlu r matti r.- relating to 

 the campaign, I put to him the question direct : " 1'id 

 you or did you not write the letter signed with your 

 name and directed to W. W. Boss, and having rcfcr- 

 ence to certain profits in Indian goods I " In reply he 

 handed to me the affidavit of J. B. Stewart, and one 

 signed by several citizens of Lawrence, and asked 

 me to read them and say whether I thought he was 

 the author of the letter. I replied : " Mr. Pomeroy, 

 you have not said whether or not you did write that 

 Boss letter," and he answered, "I did not write the 

 letter." I then said to him: "Mr. Pomeroy, you 

 are the most infamous scoundrel that ever walked 

 the earth, or the worst-defamed man that ever 

 stepped on Kansas soil." The interview ended, and. 

 as I supposed, all relations between Mr. Pomeroy and 

 myself. But a day or two afterward 1 was impor- 

 tuned to accord to Mr. Pomeroy a private interview. 

 At this time it became apparent 10 several of the 

 anti-Poineroy members that illicit and criminal 

 means were being employed to secure Mr. Pomeroy 's 

 reflection, and it !< cmne us, as far as it lav in our 

 power, to circumvent the employment of them. I 

 consulted with the tried ai:d triicst friends of this 

 movement, Messrs. Simpson, Wilson, Jackson, and 

 others, as to the course 1 should pursue, and upon 

 their advice 1 acted. 1 visited Mr. Pomcroy's rooms, 

 in the dark and secret recesses of the T.flt House, 

 upon Monday night, and at tlmt interview my vote 

 was bargained for a consideration of s.o<>. *2,000 

 of which was to be paid to me upon that evening, 

 (5, 000 the next afternoon, and a promise of the ad- 

 ditional $1,000 when my vote hud been cast in his 

 favor. 1 now in tlu- pn-i-ence of this honorable body 

 hand over the amount of $7,000 lust as I received it, 

 and ask that it be counted hv IB* . iTetnry. [The 

 speaker advanced and placed upon the chief clerk's 

 desk two parcels of money our open, mid amount- 

 ing to (2,000, and a brown pupi-r parcel, tii-d with 

 twini-. which, upon examination, was found to con- 

 tain (A, 000 in greenbacks of large denominations.] 



I know that there arc many here who may feel dis- 

 posed to impugn my motives in thin mutter, who 

 mav decry the manner of my unearthing tl 

 ana damning rascality which hax eaten likeaplnpue- 

 spot into the fair fame of this glorious young State. I 

 am conscious that, standing here as I do. a xclf-oon- 

 victr.l l<ri>><Mnkcr. I take upon myself viiarioiifly 

 the odium that has made the name of Knm-as ana 

 of Kansas politics a hiss and a by -word throughout 

 the land. I do not undertake .of my act 



any further than it may convey with it its own justi- 

 fication. From every part of the State comes a de- 

 mand, thunder-toned nnd unanimous, from the hon- 

 est masses, whose will has been so long disregard! d 

 and overslaughed by the corrupt use of money, by 

 Individuals nnd corporations, that we make a final 

 and irrevocable end of corruptionists. In this mat- 



