PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



717 



The minority report was signed by Messrs. 

 Hiscock, Cox, and JReed. 



Hutle^s Minority Report. Mr. Benjamin F. Butler 

 presented a long report, in \yhich he' maintains that 

 the counting in of Hayes was accomplished through 

 a series of gross and reprehensible irregularities and 

 frauds ; and that the dignity of the Supreme Court 

 was prejudiced by the appointment of its Judges to 

 sit in the Electoral Commission. He holds that, if 

 there was anv legal title to the Governorship in Lou- 

 isiana at all, Packard was legally constituted Govern- 

 or ; that the sending of the McVeigh commission to 

 Louisiana by Mr. Hayes was an act directly contrary 

 to the Constitution and outside of the legitimate au- 

 thority of the Executive; and that furthermore its 

 motive was to carry out a corrupt agreement and bar- 

 gain made by his friends with his connivance. He 

 holds that there was no full and fair election in Lou- 

 isiana in 1876. The electoral vote of that State, he 

 thinks, should not have been counted at all for either 

 Presidential candidate. The vote of the " bulldozed" 

 parishes might have been fairly and legally rejected 

 by the Returning Board on their proper judgment, 

 with the exception of a few precincts not affecting 

 the result. Rejecting the vote of these parishes, the 

 actual vote of the State was cast for Packard, and for 

 a portion of the Tilden Electors, leaving two of the 

 Hayes Electors unelected. If the Presidential vote 

 of the State had been decided by such a count and 

 return, Tilden would have received the Presidency, 

 as he would also had the electoral vote of the State 

 been totally ignored. The two Houses of Congress 

 should have declared that Louisiana would not be 

 counted for either candidate, thus giving a lesson to 

 over-zealous partisans. The Electoral Commission 

 was no solution of the difficulties regarding the count- 

 ing of a disputed electoral vote. Another such exi- 

 gency would lead to a revolution. He holds that the 

 Commission was unconstitutional, and its decision 

 of no binding force ; and that the result has shown 

 that it was against public policy, tending to encour- 

 age corrupt political methods, sanctioning the send- 

 ing of semi-official partisans into a State for the pur- 

 pose of advising how the electoral vote should be 

 given, or how the popular vote should be counted. 

 He concludes that there is not, nor ouijht there to be, 

 any indefeasible title to an elective office, which can 

 not be reviewed, reexamined, and passed upon by 

 proper proceedings, authorized by Congress, to be 

 taken before and ultimately decided by the Supreme 

 Judicial Court. 



Report of the Committee on the Investigation of Elec- 

 toral Frauds^on the Cipher Dispatches. -The Commit- 

 tee for the investigation of frauds in the electoral 

 count made a special report on the cipher dispatches. 

 It recites that the Western Union Telegraph Com- 

 pany ordered its servants to forward all dispatches 

 relating to the Presidential election to New York, 

 in the autumn of 1876, in order to protect them from 

 publication in consequence of a possible legal requi- 

 sition from the courts or from Congress. They were 

 assorted by Mr. Gary, attorney for the company, the 

 dispatches in cipher amounting to about thirty thou- 

 sand. Subpoenas calling for particular Louisiana dis- 

 patches were issued by the Morrison Committee of 

 tlie House on Louisiana aifairs, and by the Committee 

 of the Senate on Privileges and Elections, of which 

 Mr. Morton was chairman, calling for certain Oregon 

 dispatches. These were separated from the mass 

 and specially inventoried. The rest, in number 29,- 

 275, were subsequently forwarded to "Washington in 

 compliance with a general subpoena from the Morton 

 Committee, and delivered to the clerk of the Com- 

 mittee, Mr. Burbank, or another in charge of the 

 committee room, and locked in a trunk in the com- 

 mittee room, on the 25th of January, 1877. The 

 trunk was returned to the officers of the Telegraph 

 Company on the 13th of March. The dispatches 

 were taken to New York, and in due time destroyed 



by burning, according to the regulations of the com- 

 pany. But, without the knowledge of the Telegraph 

 Company, a large number of the diBpatches had been 

 abstracted from the trunk while it was in custody of 

 the Committee. Of those some seven hundred wore 

 in May, 1878, in the possession of G. E. Bullock, 

 who was the messenger of the Committee. Appoint- 

 ed consul to Cologne, ho delivered them on his de- 

 parture to J. L. Evuns, member of the House. The 

 latter placed them in the charge of Mr. Brady, who 

 had copies taken, and, after consultation with Mr. 

 Hale and others, furnished these copies, a part of 

 them to William E. Chandler, and a part of them to 

 the New York " Tribune." Some of the originals 

 were delivered to the " Tribune," and the rest to 

 Mr. Butler of the Committee. The dispatches were 

 translated by Mr. Hassard and others in the u Tri- 

 bune" office. Of the dispatches which were returned, 

 none of Republican origin were found of a compro- 

 mising character. Some between Messrs. Tyner and 

 Zachariah Chandler, relating to the payment of mon- 

 ey for campaign purposes in Indiana, were remem- 

 bered by telegraph employees. It is probable that 

 during the time when the dispatches were in the 

 keeping of the Republican Committee, Republican 

 cipher dispatches were suppressed as well as Demo- 

 cratic ones stolen. From the shape of the packages 

 in the trunk, one fourth of the contents might have 

 been removed without being missed. 



^The near friends of Mr. Tilden who sent the cipher 

 dispatches seem to have feared that the corrupt 

 canvassers would declare the States of Florida and 

 South Carolina for Hayes ; and, being convinced that 

 the popular vote had been cast for Tilden, to have 

 been willing to submit to the payment of moneys, 

 which they were informed some of the canvassers 

 demanded by way of blackmail. These negotiations 

 were not authorized by the Democratic NationalCom- 

 mittee, nor by the candidate, Mr. Tilden. In the 

 case of South Carolina the negotiations had ad- 

 vanced so far that one Hardy Solomon, claiming to 

 act for the Board of Canvassers, went to Baltimore 

 to receive $60,000 or $80,000; and when an applica- 

 tion was made to Mr. Tilden to advance the same, 

 he at once refused and the negotiation was broken 

 off. In Florida two propositions were transmitted, 

 and one of these was directed to be accepted condi- 

 tionally. There has been no evidence produced con- 

 necting Mr. Tilden m any way with these transac- 

 tions. He has denied all knowledge of them under 

 oath. No charge 1ms been made from any source 

 against Mr. Hendricks. 



The report was signed : Clarkson N. Potter, 

 William E. Morrison, Eppa Hunton, William 

 S. Stenger, John A. McMahon, Joseph C. S. 

 Blackburn, William M. Springer. 



A Card from Mr. Tilden. I have read the publi- 

 cations in the " Tribune " of the 8th of October, pur- 

 porting to be translations of cipher telegrams relat- 

 ing to the canvass of votes in Florida at the Presiden- 

 tial 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 knowl- 

 edge of the existence of these telegrams nor any in- 

 formation 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. 



First. 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 Demo- 

 cratic 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 



