Speech #510089790

In the twelfth election district of the Eighth ward there was one vote for every two of the population. In the thirteenth election district of the Eighth ward there was one vote for every 1.67 of population. and when we come to the tenth election district of the Sixth ward. we find there that for every ninetythree of the population. men. women. and children. there were cast 100 votes! In the tenth election district of the Sixth ward. in 1870. the Democratic vote alone. throwing out the vote of other parties. was 884. or 14 more than the whole number of persons resident in the ward. men. women. and children. native. naturalized. and aliens. Mr. Speaker. in those earlier and "better days." before modern realism had come in to put its fetters upon fiction. persons of fertile imagination who desired to make up election returns made them up in the method of the romantic school of writers. They were not troubled by the desire of plausibility or reality. They made their returns big and handsome. just as the old novelists made all their heroes brave and all their heroines beautiful. There was another feature of New York elections at that time. known as the naturalization frauds of 1868. Under the supervisors law. which came in 1870 and 1871. many of the men who participated in those frauds were brought to justice and most of them gave up naturalization papers which they had obtained illegally in 1868. .1 have examined those files a little. and I have looked at the affidavits of the men who themselves gave up their papers fraudulently obtained and made affidavits as to how they had obtained them. I will not weary the House by going into details. but I will mention a few merely to show the methods by which the work was done. For instance. there is the case of a Spaniard who. after he had been a few days in the country. bad a certificate of naturalization left for him at his house. This was the usual procedure. the certificate of naturalization was generally left at the mans house asa free gift to the person whose fraudulent vote it was desired to secure. Here is another: John Lawrence. who was under age and had been only a few days in the country. was handed his certificate of naturalization in a liquor store. One man. although two years had not elapsed since his declaration of intention. received a certificate on presenting a card from the City Hall to the clerk of the court. Joseph Carey received his in aliquor store. but in order to make it seem more real and natural. he paid the proprietor of the store a fee of $2.