PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



713 



duty to compile, gave a majority of 91 votes to the 

 Tilden Electors. 



The election law of the State of Florida provides 

 that at the close of the polls the inspectors shall pro- 

 ceed to count the ballots, and that the canvass shall 

 be public and continuous until completed ; that if 

 the votes cast exceed the number of voters on the 

 clerk's list, the excess shall be publicly drawn out 

 by lot and destroyed; that sealed certificates shall 

 be sent to the Judge of the county and Clerk of the 

 Circuit Court, who, with the assistance of a Justice 

 of the Peace, shall publicly canvass the returns for 

 the county, and forward certificates of the result to the 

 Secretary of State; and that within thirty-five days 

 after the election the Secretary of State, the Attor- 

 ney-General, and the Clerk of the Supreme Court 

 shall canvass the returns of the counties. The only 

 discretionary power given them is to exclude such 

 county returns as shall " be shown or shall appear 

 to be so irregular, false, or fraudulent that the Board 

 shall be unable to determine the true vote," preserv- 

 ing on file the documents relating to the false re- 

 turns. Their discretionary power was adjudged in 

 1870 by the Supreme Court, in the case of Bloxham 

 vs. The State Canvassers, to consist in determining 

 " whether the papers received by them purporting 

 to be returns wei'O in fact such, arid were genuine, 

 intelligible, and substantially authenticated by 

 law." The Supreme Court reaffirmed this decision 

 in 18T6, in Drew's case, defining the duty of the 

 State Canvassers to be limited to compiling the re- 

 turns received from the county Canvassing Boards 

 and computing the aggregate vote. 



The State Board announced on the 6th of Decem- 

 ber, 1876, the election of the Hayes Electors by a 

 majority of 920 voters, and also the election of 

 Stearns, the Republican candidate for Governor. 

 This result was reached by excluding the entire re- 

 turns of Manatee County, and parts of the returns of 

 Hamilton, Monroe, and Jackson counties, amount- 

 ing to over 1,000 votes. The Tilden Electors assem- 

 bled and cast their votes duly for Tilden and Hen- 

 dricks, after having brought an action quo warranto 

 to try the title of the Hayes Electors. The decision 

 afterward rendered in tins action affirmed the legal 

 title of the Tilden Electors to their office. The 

 Democratic candidate for Governor, Drew, obtained 

 a mandamus directing the canvassers to recanvass 

 the county returns and bring in a return according 

 to their face, which was subsequently done, and 

 Drew was declared duly elected and took the office. 

 At the meeting of the Legislature in January, 1877, 

 an act was passed declaring it the duty of the canvass- 

 ers to recanvass the votes for Electors according to 

 the judgment rendered by the Supreme Court, and 

 directing them to do so ; which accordingly they 

 did, finding a majority for the Tilden Electors of 91 

 votes. The Governor then issued a certificate de- 

 claring that the Tilden Electors had duly met and 

 voted on the day appointed by law. 



Although the State of Florida had affirmed by all 

 the departments of its government at the earliest 

 possible moment, and prior to the second Tuesday 

 m February, that the Tilden Electors were the law- 

 ful and only Electors, yet because their title could 

 not be decided by the Supreme Court on the 6th of 

 December, owing to the fraudulent withholding of 

 the certificates of the Canvassing Board till the Jnst 

 moment, the Electoral Commission decided that the 

 Hayes Electors, by virtue of the fraudulent certifi- 

 cate of the Governor, were in possession of the office 

 on the day appointed by law for the casting of the 

 electoral vote. 



The reason alleged by the Canvassing Board for 

 rejecting the total vote of Manatee County, 262 for 

 the Tilden to 26 for the Hayes Electors, was that 

 there was no clerk to conduct the registration. This 

 was owing to the failure of the Republican Governor, 

 Stearns, to appoint such clerk. The vote of one poll 

 in Hamilton County, 320 Democratic to 189 Republi- 



can, was excluded because two Republican inspectors 

 testified that they had absented themselves from tho 

 poll at different times during the day. In Monroe 

 County 401 Democratic and 59 Republican votes 

 were cast out because the canvass had not been fin- 

 ished on the election day, the inspectors having 

 adjourned and completed it the following morning. 

 The vote of Campbullton Precinct in Jackson County 

 was rejected because the inspectors had left the 

 ballot-box, safely locked, to take dinner; and that 

 of Friendship Precinct, because the inspectors went 

 to a neighboring house to get lights, and there com- 

 pleted the count ; the vote in these precincts was 436 

 for the Tilden Electors and 121 for the Hayes Elec- 

 tors. Fraudulent and irregular returns were ad- 

 mitted and counted by the Canvassing Board from 

 Archer Precinct, Alachua County, in which 219 fic- 

 titious names were added to tho poll-list, and as 

 many additional Republican votes included in the 

 returns, although the real vote had been announced 

 at the polls, and although one of the inspectors for- 

 warded an affidavit to the canvassers declaring the 

 return fraudulent. This forgery was committed by 

 the colored inspector and clerk, Vance and Black, 

 at the house and upon the demand of one Dennis, 

 chairman of the Republican committee, who subse- 

 quently admitted the fraud, the figures not having 

 been filled in at the polls, although the certificate 

 had been signed and sealed. In Leon County, one 

 Bowes, inspector, had a number of small ballots 

 printed on thin paper with the intention of stuffing 

 the ballot-box, 73 of which were found in the box ; 

 and these he admitted on different occasions having 

 surreptitiously inserted. In a precinct in Jefferson 

 County, Be 11, 'inspector, abstracted a package of bal- 

 lots containing 100, probably all Democratic, and se- 

 cretly substituted a bundle of 100 Republican tickets. 

 These frauds were revealed after the recanvass which 

 gave the governorship to the Democratic candidate. 

 Several of the participants were rewarded by posi- 

 tions in the Government service. 



Afte:- the decision of the Court ordering a recan- 

 vass of the vote for Governor, the two Republican 

 canvassers volunteered to recanvass the electoral 

 vote also in correspondence with the judicial deci- 

 sion ; and they actually did obtain a count, appa- 

 rently according to the face of the returns, which 

 gave the State to Tilden : this was by adopting a re- 

 turn for Baker County which they had rejected as 

 defective in the first canvass and also in the recan- 

 vass for Governor. The regular return was signed 

 by the Clerk of the Court and a Justice on the day 

 appointed by the County Judge ; but the Judge him- 

 self, Driggers, on hearing that the State had been 

 carried bv the Democrats, refused to act in the can- 

 vass which he had ordered, and in the evening, in 

 conjunction with the Sheriff, Allen, and one Green, 

 whom he had appointed a Justice of the Peace for the 

 purpose, prepared a second certificate, in which the 

 entire vote of two of the four precincts of the county 

 was arbitrarily left out. The State Canvassers claimed 

 that if they were not authorized to go behind the face 

 of the returns they must accept this one, which was 

 signed by three officers, the law providing that tho 

 Sheriff should take part in the canvass in case either 

 the Judge or the Clerk refused, in place of the full 

 return which was signed by only the Clerk and a 

 Justice. 



The Electoral Commission by a strictly party vote 

 refused to recognize the vote cast according to the 

 Constitution and the laws of Florida, counting instead 

 that of the usurping Electors. The action of the State 

 authorities in returning the State for Hayes and 

 Wheeler, in the light of the facts discovered, appears 

 clearly an intentional wrong, knowingly committed 

 under the encouragement of the visiting statesmen. 

 The visiting statesmen afterward received the^fottow- 

 ing appointments : Edward H. Noyes, Minister to 

 France ; John A. Kasson, Minister to Austria ; Lew 

 Wallace, Governor of New Mexico ; John Little, At- 



