iety.

But all interest in the investigation as it was originally designed,
was suddenly diverted by incidents which were wholly unlooked for when
Mr. Potter moved his resolution and when Mr. Marble wrote his
letter--giving an unexpected conclusion to the grand inquest so
impressively heralded.

It happened that during an inquiry into the Oregon case by a Senate
Committee, some thirty thousand political telegrams (mainly in cipher)
had been brought into the custody of the committee by _subpoenas_ to
the Western Union Telegraph Company. The great mass of these telegrams
were returned to the Company without translation. About seven hundred,
however, had been retained by an _employe_ of the committee. The
re-opening of the Presidential controversy by the Democrats, and
especially the offensive letter of Mr. Marble, led to a renewed effort
to decipher the reserved telegrams. The translation was accomplished
by an able and ingenious gentleman on the editorial staff of the
_New-York Tribune_ (Mr. William M. Grosvenor), and the result disclosed
astonishing attempts at bribery on the part of Democratic agents in
South Carolina, Florida, and Oregon. What may have been done of the
same character in Louisiana can only be inferred, for no dispatches
from that State were found.

The gentlemen who went to Florida in Mr. Tilden's interests were Mr.
Manton Marble, Mr. C. W. Woolley, and Mr. John F. Coyle. Mr. Marble's
_sobriquet_ in the cipher dispatches was _Moses_. Mr. Woolley took
the suggestive pseudonym of _Fox_, while Mr. Coyle was known as _Max_.
Their joint mission was to secure the Electoral vote of the State, by
purchase if need be, not quite as openly, but as directly as if they
were negotiating for a cargo of cotton or offering money for an
orange-grove. Mr. Marble was alarmed soon after his arrival by finding
that the Democratic electors had "only about one hundred majority on
certified copies, while the Republicans claimed the same on returns."
Growing anxious, he telegraphed on November 22 to Mr. William T. Pelton
(a nephew of Mr. Tilden): "Woolley asked me to say let forces be got
together immediately for _contingencies_ either here or in Louisiana."
A few days later Mr. Marble telegraphed: "Have just received a
proposition to hand over at any time required, Tilden decision of Board
and certificate of Governor, for $200,000." Mr. Pelton thought the
"proposition too high," and thereupon Mr. Marble and Mr. Woo