"Thirty-eight Members of Congress, and of the electoral college, are based upon the six million of colored people in the south. The effect of the crimes I have mentioned is to confer upon the white people of the south, not only the number of votes to which they are entitled for the white population, but also the thirty- eight votes based upon the colored population, and, in this way, in some of the southern states, every white voter possesses the political power of two white voters in the northern states. The colored people have, practically, no voice in Congress and no voice in the electoral college. Mr. Cleveland is now President of the United States, instead of James G. Blaine, by reason of these crimes. I claim that this should be corrected. An injustice so gross and palpable will not be submitted to by the colored people of the south, nor by fair-minded white men in the south who hate wrong and injustice; nor by the great northern people, by whose sacrifices in the Union cause the war was brought to a successful termination. It will not be submitted to, and Governor Hoadley, from his former position, ought to be one of the first to demand and insist upon a remedy, and not seek to avoid or belittle it by cant phrases."
After I had spoken in the opera house at Lebanon I was told that the stage I occupied was within a few feet of the place where my father died. The room in the old hotel in which he was taken sick, and in which he died within twenty-four hours, covered the ground now occupied by the east end of the opera house. As already stated, he died while a member of the supreme court holding court at Lebanon.
This debate at long range continued through the canvass. Governor Hoadley is an able man with many excellent traits, but in his political life he did not add to his reputation, and wisely chose a better occupation, the practice of his profession in the city of New York.
It is not worth while to enter into details as to the many speeches made by me in this canvass. I spoke nearly every day until the election on the 13th of October. While Foraker and Hoadley continued their debate I filled such appointments as were made for me by Mr. Bushnell. At Toledo, when conversing with a gentleman about the condition of affairs in the south, I was asked "What are you going to do about it?" In reply to this inquiry I said in my speech, at that place: "I do not know exactly how we are going to do it, but with the help of God we are going to arrange that the vote of the man who followed Lee shall no longer have, in national affairs, three times the power of the vote of the man who followed Grant. The tendency of events guided by a growing popular opinion will, I believe, secure this condition."
The meetings grew in number and enthusiasm. The largest meeting I ever witnessed within four walls was at the Music Hall in Cincinnati, on the 22nd of September. The auditorium, the balcony, the gallery, even the windows were filled, and thousands outside were unable to enter. This and similar scenes in Cleveland and other cities indicated the success of the Republican ticket. Great interest was taken in the canvass in Ohio by many other states, as the vote in Ohio would indicate the current of popular opinion. The result was the election of Foraker by a majority of 17,451, and of Robert P. Kennedy as lieutenant governor. The legislature elected was Republican by a decided majority, the size of which depended upon the official returns from Hamilton county, where frauds had been committed by the Democratic party.
Soon after the election I was urged by Senator Mahone to take part in the canvass in Virginia in which he was interested. I doubted the policy of accepting, but, assuming that he knew best, I agreed to speak in Petersburg and Richmond. Governor Foraker accepted a like invitation and spoke in the Shenandoah valley. On my way I addressed a spontaneous crowd in Washington, the only place in the United States where no elections are held, and there I could talk about frauds at elections. I had denounced fraud and violence in elections in the south, and at Washington I had to confess recent frauds attempted or practiced in Cincinnati. The worst feature that the frauds in Ohio were forgery and perjury, committed by criminals of low degree for money, while in the south the crimes were shared by the great body of the people and arose from the embers of a war that had involved the whole country. I gave as a sample of the frauds in the 4th ward of Cincinnati this instance:
"As soon as the recent election was over an organized gang stopped the counting in fifteen precincts. Nobody but the gang knew what the vote was. This could be for no motive but to commit fraud, and frauds enough were committed in Hamilton county to change the result on the legislative ticket of four senators and nine representatives.
"There were probably 500 or 600 voters in the 4th ward, and according to previous elections about one-fourth were Republicans and the rest were Democrats. Well, they made up a registration of 700. When the day of the election came they tore up the registration papers and let every fellow vote as many times as he wanted until they got 996 votes in the ballot box. Then that was not all. The Republican judge got angry and went away, but he took the key. Then they broke open the box, tied it up with a rope, and took it to the police officer, and then changed it so that when it was counted over 900 votes were Democratic and only 48 Republican!"
A similar fraud was attempted at Columbus in sight of the penitentiary. The returns of elections had been filed with the county records. Between Saturday night and Monday morning thieves stole one of the returns and added three hundred tallies for every Democratic candidate, thus changing the number of ballots from 208 to 508. The judges were about to count this return, knowing it was a forgery, when public indignation was aroused in the city of Columbus, shared in by its most distinguished Democratic citizens, and fraud was prevented. I felt, and so declared, that these mean crimes were infinitely more despicable than the violence in the south, which sprang from a fear of the southern people that their institutions would be impaired by the votes of men debased by slavery and ignorance.
I went from Washington to Petersburg, where I was hospitably entertained by General Mahone. He had been greatly distinguished for his courage, ability and success, as a Confederate general in the Civil War, and had long been a popular favorite in Virginia. He took the lead on questions affecting the debt of Virginia in opposition to the Democratic party, and a legislature in favor of his opinions having been elected, he became a Senator of the United States. He voted as a rule with Republican Senators, but maintained a marked independence of political parties. I admired him for his courage and fidelity, and was quite willing to speak a good word for him in the election of a legislature that would designate his successor.