The Silver State

BRIBERY OR PERJURY.

The committee appointed by the New York Legislature to investigate the bribery charges are making some remarkable disclosures. Besides establishing the fact that either Assemblyman Bradley, who swears that he received from Senator Sessions $2,000 for a vote for Depew, or Sessions, who swears that he did not pay Bradley $2,000, or any other amount, for a vote for Depew or for any other purpose, is guilty of perjury, it also shows that Government offices are being used as an inducement to members of the Legislature to vote against Conkling. Senator Strahan, a Stalwart Republican, swears before the committee that he received a telegram signed "Jno. J. Davenport," requesting an interview at the Union Club. Strahan met Davenport, and was asked by him if he would like the United States Marshalship for the Southern District of New York, remarking that he is in with Garfield in this fight and would get it for him, provided he acted against Conkling. Davenport wanted Strahan to agree to his terms at once, as the Cabinet would meet at Washington the next day, and he would be immediately confirmed. This is another case of bribery or perjury. Davenport is Federal Supervisor of Elections in New York city, and the man appointed to ferret out the alleged forger of the Morey letter. He has had the reputation of being one of the most corrupt and unscrupulous officials in or out of the United States, but so long as the charges against him were preferred by Democrats, no notice was taken of them by the party in power. Now, he is accused by a Stalwart Republican of offering him the Marshalship of the Southern District of New York for a vote against Conkling, with the assurance that he would be appointed next day by Garfield. Unless Strahan swears falsely, his testimony implies that Federal offices are being offered by the emissaries of the Government as bribes to the Stalwarts to vote against Conkling. As the charge is made by a Republican, it can not be dismissed with the simple assertion that it is a Democratic falsehood. What more is necessary to convince the public that politics reek with corruption than the disclosures now being made in the New York Legislature in the fight between the contending factions of the Republican party. If no bribery has been attempted, representative Republicans are on record as perjurers, having no regard whatever for the sanctity of an oath, while on the other hand if the charges of bribery are true, they prove conclusively that corporation money and Federal offices are being hawked about Albany and offered in exchange for votes for United States Senators. The press of New York has had much to say about the use of coin in Senatorial elections in Nevada, but the testimony before the New York Bribery Committee proves that not only the wealthy candidates, but the Federal Government, are using money and patronage to purchase the Senatorships in the Empire State.