!

NEW YORK ELECTION FRAUDS.

FEBRUARY 23, 1869.-Ordered to be printed, with the views of the minority.

Mr. WM. LAWRENCE, of Ohio, from the Select Committee on Alleged New York Election Frauds, submitted the following

REPORT.

[The numbers in the foot-notes refer to the numbers of questions and answers in the volume of evidence accompanying this report.]

PART I.

THE EVILS DEMANDING A REMEDY.

CHAPTER I.

The committee was charged with the duty of investigating "the irregularities and frauds alleged to have occurred in the city and State of New York, affecting the recent election for representatives to Congress and electors of President and Vice-President."

This duty is one of the highest political importance. Irregularities and fraud in the election of representatives to Congress and electors of President and Vice-President cannot fail to excite just alarm in the minds of the people. Unless their will can be fully and fairly expressed in the election of the officers who are to make and execute laws, the vital principles upon which the government rests are set at defiance, and soon we may follow the fate of France, where imperial power was welcomed as the only means of peace, or the anarchy of contending factions, so fatal to Mexico, may close the career of our great republic. With us it is a political axiom that governments derive "their just pow

This investigation was set on foot in pursuance of 66 a memorial of a committee of the Union League club of the City of New York," presented in the Senate and House of Representatives December 14, 1868, (Senate Mis. Doc. No. 4, 3d session 40th Congress.) This club numbers about 1,300 members, composed of gentlemen many of whom are distinguished for their learning, ability, and devotion to the interests of the republic. No stain of dishonor rests upon this organization or any of its members connected with the recent election. It is an organization which has rendered valuable service in various ways, including its prompt and energetic measures to detect and prevent fraud and secure the purity of the ballot. Its history is, and will doubtless continue to be, a part of that of the republic. It is proper to say this association has no connection with the organization known as "The Union League.' The prominent historical democratic political organizations in New York city are "Tammany Hall," "Mozart Hall," and the" Democratic Union."

.

ers from the consent of the governed." It has been forcibly said that
"the fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of
the consent of the people. The streams of national power ought to
flow immediately from that pure original fountain of all legitimate
authority."2

By the Constitution the House of Representatives is composed of
members "chosen every second year by the people of the several States."
(Art. 1, sec. 2.)

Congress may at any time by law make or alter regulations prescribed
in the States by the legislatures thereof, as to the times, places, and
manner of holding elections for representatives. (Art. 1, sec. 4.)

As Congress is thus clothed with the high prerogative of supervising
the election of representatives, it is not only eminently proper, but it is
an imperative duty that this body should by all proper means ascertain
when irregularities or fraud exist in the election of its members, so
that the people, apprised of evils, may avert them in the future, by per-
sonal vigilance, by making and enforcing proper legislative provisions
in the States, and above all so that Congress shall apply remedies by
adequate laws efficiently enforced. A republican government that can-
not preserve the purity of the ballot is a failure; one which will not is a
fraud, and is already resolved into anarchy.

If as is alleged 3 the "precipitate communication of the privileges of citi-
zenship to the inhabitants of Italy at large" contributed to the downfall
of Rome, or if the same causes scourged Syracuse by "perpetual sedition,"
how much greater will be the dangers that may environ our own republic if
elections are to be controlled by fraudulent votes cast in the interest of
anarchy and misrule?

The nation must speedily perish if law-makers, under pretence of deriv-
ing their power from legal voters, are suffered to become the representa-
tives of conspiracy and fraud at elections. Successful election frauds in
one great city may decide the political majority of a Congress, of a State,
or of the nation in a presidential election. If they may succeed in one
locality the evil will become contagious, until it pervades the whole body
politic; elections will cease to reflect the public judgment, and soon, if
the evil is permitted to go on unchecked, they will become rival contests
of fraud, commanding neither confidence nor respect at home or abroad.
Power obtained by fraud will not scruple to perpetuate itself by like
means, nor will it hesitate to rob the people by corruption and schemes
of plunder to accomplish its aims.

If evils like these may come, or if a republic in name cannot or will
not be so in fact; if the popular voice is to be hushed and powerless
before the mockery of elections conducted in the name of the people,
but reflecting only the purposes of terrorism and fraud, then revolution
will be speedily invited, and the great republic may crumble to atoms.
If Congress or the people could be insensible of, or indifferent to, the
evils of fraudulent elections, it would not argue well for their patriotism,
nor would it augur well for the permanency of our nationality. Fortu-
nately our past and present history proves that the great body of the
people are alive to the necessity of preserving the purity of the ballot;
but it is to be deplored that the evidences are abundant that elections
have too frequently been carried by fraudulent means in defiance of the
popular will, and that existing laws are wholly inadequate to prevent a
repetition of similar results.

2 Number 22, Federalist; 7 Hamilton's History of the Republic, 379; 2 Contested Elec-
tion Cases, 262.

37 Hamilton's works, 774.

NEW YORK ELECTION FRAUDS.

FEBRUARY 23, 1869.-Ordered to be printed, with the views of the minority.

Mr. WM. LAWRENCE, of Ohio, from the Select Committee on Alleged
New York Election Frauds, submitted the following

REPORT.

[The numbers in the foot-notes refer to the numbers of questions and answers in the volume of evidence
accompanying this report.]

PART I.

THE EVILS DEMANDING A REMEDY.

CHAPTER I.

The committee was charged with the duty of investigating "the
irregularities and frauds alleged to have occurred in the city and State
of New York, affecting the recent election for representatives to Con-
gress and electors of President and Vice-President."

This duty is one of the highest political importance. Irregularities
and fraud in the election of representatives to Congress and electors of
President and Vice-President cannot fail to excite just alarm in the
minds of the people. Unless their will can be fully and fairly expressed
in the election of the officers who are to make and execute laws, the
vital principles upon which the government rests are set at defiance,
and soon we may follow the fate of France, where imperial power
was welcomed as the only means of peace, or the anarchy of contending
factions, so fatal to Mexico, may close the career of our great republic.
With us it is a political axiom that governments derive "their just pow-

This investigation was set on foot in pursuance of "a memorial of a committee of the
Union League club of the City of New York," presented in the Senate and House of Rep-
resentatives December 14, 1868, (Senate Mis. Doc. No. 4, 3d session 40th Congress.) This
club numbers about 1,300 members, composed of gentlemen many of whom are distinguished
for their learning, ability, and devotion to the interests of the republic. No stain of dishonor
rests upon this organization or any of its members connected with the recent election. It is
an organization which has rendered valuable service in various ways, including its prompt
and energetic measures to detect and prevent fraud and secure the purity of the ballot. Its
history is, and will doubtless continue to be, a part of that of the republic. It is proper to
say this association has no connection with the organization known as "The Union League."
The prominent historical democratic political organizations in New York city are
"Tam-
many Hall," "Mozart Hall," and the " Democratic Union."