it was known throughout the State, that five of the Democratic candidates for Congress were elected by an average majority of more than one hundred votes. The clerks of the counties in whose hands the returns were, had, therefore, five days after the result was known, for consultation and advisement, before sending their general lists to the Governor. Noting these facts, we pass by, for the present, the returns from all the counties, except those of Cumberland and Middlesex, merely observing that they were received at the executive office within the time prescribed. The Cumberland return it appears was not made up by the Clerk of that county, until the seventeenth, at least two days after he had learned the general result in the State and after they had been for four days in his hands.* Now it is only necessary to examine this paper to perceive that in the mind of this Clerk, at least a plan for reversing the election * It is a singular document, and we give it, verbatim et literatim, as follows: A general list of all the candidates voted for, together with the number of votes received for each candidate to represent the State of New Jersey in the House of Representatives in Congress of the United States, during the twenty-sixth Congress : At an election held in the county of Cumberland, in the said State, began on the ninth day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and thirty eight, and ended on the following day, as appears by the list of the several townships in said county, certified by the judges and inspectors thereof, duly transmitted and affiled of record of the Clerk's office of said county, viz: FOR MEMBERS OF THE TWENTY-SIXTH CONGRESS. Thomas Jones York, nine hundred and thirteen, Peter D. Vroom, seven hundred and forty-four, Maning Force, seven hundred and forty-three, 913 913 913 911 912 913 741 743 744 744 743 743 Philamon Dickerson, seven hundred and forty-three, The certificate of Deerfield township, the Congressional is headed thus: FOR MEMBERS OF THE Thirty-Sixth CONGRESS on the Part of NEW JERSEY. Joseph Kille, two hundred and seventy-three, William R. Cooper, two hundred and seventy-five, Daniel B. Ryall, two hundred and seventy-one, Peter D. Vroom, two hundred and seventy-six, John P. B. Maxwell, one hundred and seventy-seven 273 275 271 276 273 275 177 176 176 175 177 177 In testimony whereof, I, Josiah Fithian, Clerk of the said county of Cumberland [SEAL.] have hereunto affixed my seal of office, and subscribed my name this seventeenth day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and thirtyeight, A. D. 1838. JOSIAH FITHIAN, Clerk." was fixed when he prepared his return. On its face it purports to be a full return of the whole county. He does not say that the entire vote of the township of Millville was excluded. But he does say that this general list" contains "the number of votes received for each candidate," "as appears by the list of the several townships in said county, certified by the judges and inspectors thereof, duly transmitted and affiled of record" in his office. The certificate was false. That list did not contain the number of votes received for each candidate, as appeared by the list of the several townships in the county of Cumberland. He took the responsibility of suppressing the returns from Millville, which gave the Democratic candidates a majority of one hundred and six votes; and also excluded from his general list the returns from Deerfield, which gave the Democratic candidates a majority of about one hundred. He appends, it is true, what purports to be an extract from the Deerfield returns; but, mark, he does it in a way to make it appear that it was included in the general return. He appends it as an explanatory note-not as an additional return-explanatory of what? of the preceding list, of course; leaving the inference plain that the general list embraced, as it purported to embrace all the returns, those of Deerfield among the rest. So that if the Governor and council thought proper to consider the return from Deerfield invalid, they might deduct it from the general aggregate. Here was provision made for any emergency. The intent probably was, that the Millville majority of one hundred and six, should be expunged at all events. The seal and the silence of death was set to that. Then if it was found necessary, the Deerfield majority of one hundred could also be extinguished. And should it turn out after all, that the Federal candidates were still minus, the august Governor and Council, might have found somewhere in their profound constitutional researches, that the power of subtracting, had been conferred on them, as well as that of "adding up" figures, and were provided with a good and valid Federal apology for doing it. Bearing in mind the facts, that on the thirteenth of October, the declaration issued from the high authorities at Harrisburgh, that the time had come, when the Federal party were to treat elections as if they had not been defeated, that on the fifteenth it was known throughout the State, that the Federal candidates were defeated by from one to two hundred majority in New Jersey-and that now, on the seventeenth, we have the Federal Clerk of Cumberland, with his official certificate, exhibiting a majority of one hundred and sixty-nine votes for his party in that county, when in truth and in fact the actual majority was thirty-seven against them-we will pass the next point of remark. The twentieth of October, the day on which all the county lists were to be in, arrived; all had come except that from Middlesex; and, in the course of the day, the Governor reached the Capitol from his residence at Newark, bringing the Middlesex returns with him.* This list, although dated on the nineteenth, was not prepared on that day, nor until several days thereafter, as we shall show before we have done. It was, no doubt, reserved until the last moment, that it might give just the finishing stroke necessary to carry the fair-business transaction which the leaders had on hand into effect. Information that the Cumberland Clerk had expunged the Millville Democratic majority of one hundred and six, was received in New Brunswick on the nineteenth; the result of the poll exhibiting a Democratic majority in the State ranging to one hundred and ninety-eight, was accurately known at the same place on the fifteenth, and this return, which had been withheld up to the morning of the twentieth, was now put into the hands of the Governor as he passed through New Brunswick to Trenton. When Fithian, the Clerk of Cumberland county, prepared his "List," we have seen that he was uncertain to what length it would be necessary to go, so he expunged the Democratic majority of one hundred and six, put the Deerfield majority of one hundred in a position to be cut off or not as might be necessary, and furnished the hint for disposing of yet another hundred of the majorities of the unruly Democrats if desperate need required. But Booraem's part was plain sailing. He waited until he ascertained the extreme * The following is an accurate copy procured from the proper authority: "A List of Votes taken in the County of Middlesex on the ninth and tenth of October, A. D. 1838, for Members of the Twenty-Sixth Congress of the United States, as received at the Clerk's office from the Judges and Inspectors of ships pursuant to law. the several Town North Brunswick. Piscataway Perth Amboy. 494 494 493 494 494 494 377 375 377 376 377 377 872 249 249 250 249 249 249 154 154 155 155 154 154 404 277 277 277 277 276 277 181 180 181 181 181 181 460 1711 1709 1710 1711 1709 1708 1286 1274 1285 1286 1284 1284 3003 From this Township no return, pursuant to law, has been received. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirteenth day of October, A. D. 1838. N. BOORAEM, Clerk of the county of Middlesex. majority; and that Fithian had disposed of one hundred and six certainly; and he just dashed his pen across the returns from Amboy, which gave the Democratic ticket two hundred and fifty-two majority; and the job was finished to order "The election treated as if they had not been defeated." To proceed with the narrative. The Governor and his Privy Council met on the twenty-fourth of October, for the purpose of "casting up the whole number of votes from the several counties for each candidate," and "determining the six persons who had the greatest number of votes from the whole State for Representatives," so according to law. That is, to ascertain and announce a fact with which every man, woman and child of ten years old in the State, was perfectly acquainted, and had been for at least nine days already. They were officially informed at once, of the fact, equally notorious, that the clerks of Cumberland and Middlesex, had made false and fraudulent omissions-had sent up only partial lists-and not the general lists required by law, that the returns from two entire townships were wholly omitted-and that consequently it was the duty of the Governor to "send express" and procure the omitted lists. This information was pressed upon them in every possible shape. The judges and inspectors of election of South Amboy and Millville, furnished the returns of their respective townships, sealed, certified, sworn to, and accompanied with evidence, amounting to absolute demonstration, not only of the correctness of the returns, but of their fraudulent rejection by the county clerks. Citizens petitioned, and remonstrated, and claimed to be heard-but in vain. The whole subject was referred to a committee of Federalists, who, on the thirty-first of October, reported— That "the committee to whom the returns from the county clerks, and certain papers on file, were referred, in relation to the copies of the returns of the election in the townships of South Amboy in Middlesex, and Millville in Cumberland, verified by the oaths of the respective election officers, and certain other affidavits relating to the cause and manner of their being excluded from the returns of the clerks of the counties, as they do not appear to have been transmitted, or in any manner certified by the clerks of the said counties of Middlesex and Cumberland, that they are of opinion the same are not properly before the Governor and Privy Council, and cannot be recognised or received by them." This was the very case for which the law had provided, by making the Governor, in case the proper lists were not transmitted by any of the clerks, "forthwith to send express to the clerk of the county or counties from which such certified lists of votes had not been received, and procure the same, at the expense of the State." It will be recollected, that the Governor had been aware of the omission in the Cumberland and Middlesex cases from the first. He he received the partial return of the Middlesex Clerk from his own hand, on the twentieth of October, and brought it to Trenton himself. He had been officially apprised of the facts, and called upon day after day to do his duty, and refused. Now, after conference with his Privy Council, they raised this very difficulty, that the clerks had not transmitted the returns; that the lists had not been received; and sheltered themselves behind it. At this crisis, the Hon. Mr. Morris, a Democratic member of the Council, submitted a resolution to remedy the difficulty, by sending expresses to the clerks of these counties, for the omitted returns. It was negatived--every Federalist voting against it. The report of the Committee was taken up and adopted—every Federalist voting for it, and they proceeded, forthwith, on the same day to count the partial returns from the clerks, excluding the entire votes of the people of Millville and South Amboy, and declared that the Federal candidates were duly elected according to law. Let it never be forgotten-that the objection made to counting the votes from these townships, by the Governor and Privy Council, was not that they had not been transmitted at all, but solely that "they had not been transmitted by the clerks." They were before the Council--authenticated by every other possible description of evidence-undisputed, unchallenged, unquestioned; but "they had not been transmitted by the clerks.' That was the point made, that the objection taken, and that only. There it stands, "solitary and alone" upon the record, and there it will stand forever. Let it never be forgotten, that the law made it the official duty of the head of that Council, to "send for" and "procure" such returns, as should be omitted, and that he refused to do it. That the Privy Council were called upon by a resolution introduced by one of its members, to "send for" and "procure" these returns, and that they refused to do it. That they were then called upon to count the returns which had been procured from the township election officers, and laid before them, and that they refused to do it. Let it never be forgotten, that these returns from Millville and South Amboy, were suppressed by Federal clerks. That those townships gave a clear majority for the Democratic ticket of three hundred and fifty-eight. That all the returns counted, five of the Democratic candidates were elected by a majority of from sixty to about two hundred-and that by this process the election made by the people of New Jersey was reversed. By this process, two party clerks, and a party Governor and Council, put out their political opponents, and put in their political friends.* The following table exhibits the result of the election, had the votes of the townships of Millville and South Amboy been counted. General List. 27951 2781327990 27939 27954 27925 28150 2823928192 28283 28252 28177 206 205 206 206 206 206 100 100 100 100 100 100 South Amboy do. 296 296 296 296 296 296 44 44 44 44 44 44 Whole number. 28453 283142849228441 28456 284272829428383 28336 28427 28396 28321 |
