[856] October 24, 1878.
[857] On May 13, 1878, Congressman Potter of New York secured the appointment of a committee of eleven to investigate alleged frauds in the Florida and Louisiana Returning Boards, with authority to send for persons and papers. He refused to widen the scope of the investigation to include all the States, presumably to avoid the damaging evidence already known relating to Pelton's effort to secure a presidential elector in Oregon. The Tribune's timely exposure of the telegrams turned the investigation into a Democratic boomerang.
[858] In reference to Kelly's despotic rule see speeches of Anti-Tammany opponents in New York Tribune (first page), October 31, 1878.
[859] Myers, History of Tammany, p. 310.
[860] Danforth, Republican, 391,112; Bradley, Democrat, 356,451; Tucker, National, 75,133; Van Cott, Prohibitionist, 4,294. Assembly: Republicans, 98; Democrats, 28; Nationals, 2. Congress: Republicans, 26; Democrats, 7. Cooper over Schell, 19,361.
[861] The following table gave great offense:
| Democratic Districts. | Counties. | Population. | Republican Districts. | Counties. | Population. |
| 3d | Kings | 292,258 | 20th | Herkimer, Otsego | 89,338 |
| 8th | New York | 235,482 | 18th | Jefferson, Lewis | 90,596 |
| 7th | New York | 173,225 | 26th | Ontario, Yates, Seneca | 91,064 |
| 2d | Kings | 172,725 | 16th | Clinton, Essex, Warren | 101,327 |
| 9th | New York | 167,530 | 27th | Cayuga, Wayne | 106,120 |
[862] Appleton's Cyclopædia, 1879, p. 672.
[863] Sharpe's term having expired he had withdrawn his application for reappointment.
[864] "You remember, don't you, what Orville Baker told us about Arthur's two passions, as he heard them discussed at Sam Ward's dinner in New York? New coats being one, he then having ordered twenty-five from his tailor since the New Year came in."—Mrs. James G. Blaine, Letters (January 28, 1882), Vol. 1, p. 294.