They said there was no man in Massachusetts wh9 did not hoot and laugh at the statement. in General Butlers brief of 130.000 disfranchised persons they affirmed that it was utterly uutrue. I am hero now to submit the figures to these honorable gentlemen and to ask them to come forward not with assertion but with proof. The statement which General Butler submitted to the other House. and which I read the other day in the contest between Boynton and Loring. affirmed that there were. in 1875. 449.686 ratable polls. that there were of voters. native born. 281.842. of foreign born. 69.271. that there were in the State. deducting 5.699 persons supposed to be under twentyone years of age. in 1875. 449.686. and in 1878. 490.158. from which he estimated by the rate of increase that there were 403.444 citizens of the United States in the State of Massachusetts. 136.859 of whom. after allowing 4 per cent. of the total vote of the State for persons remaining away from the polls. were disfranchised for other causes than criminality. idiocy. and insanity. the causes being illiteracy. failure to pay a tax. and pauperism. I hold in my hand the census of the State of Massachusetts taken by authority in the year 1875. I propose to investigate by the light of that census and by the facts exhibited in that census how far the ballot is free and the count is fair in the State of Massachusetts.
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foreign born