laws
and the lawfully constituted authorities of the State. By virtue of
authority invested in me I hereby offer a reward of $100 to be paid on
the arrest and conviction of any person charged ... with intimidating,
obstructing or defrauding any voter in the exercise of his right as an
elector."[1203] Thus did the Tweed Ring strike back.

[Footnote 1203: New York _Times_, November 2, 1868.]

The result of the election in the country at large deeply disappointed
the Democrats. Grant obtained 214 electoral votes in twenty-six
States, while Seymour secured 80 in eight States. In New York,
however, the conspirators did their word well. Although the
Republicans won a majority in both branches of the Legislature and
elected eighteen of the thirty-one congressmen, Seymour carried the
State by 10,000 and Hoffman by 27,946.

After the election the Union League Club charged that in New York City
false naturalisation and fraudulent voting had been practised upon a
gigantic scale. It appeared from its report that one man sold seven
thousand fraudulent naturalisation certificates; that thousands of
fictitious names, with false residences attached, were enrolled, and
that gangs of repeaters marched from poll to poll, voting many times
in succession. The _Tribune_ showed that in twenty election districts
the vote cast for Hoffman largely exceeded the registry lists, already
heavily padded with fictitious names, and that by comparison with
other years the aggregate State vote clearly revealed the work of the
conspirators.[1204] Instead of being the choice of the people, it said,
"Hoffman was 'elected' by the most infamous system of fraud."[1205]
Andrew D. White wrote that "the gigantic frauds perpetrated in the
sinks and dens of the great city have overborne the truthful vote and
voice of the Empire State. The country knows this, and the Democratic
party, flushed with a victory which fraud has won, hardly cares to
deny it."[1206] A few months later Conkling spoke of it as a well known
fact that John T. Hoffman was counted in. "The election was a
barbarous burlesque," he continued. "Many thousand forged
naturalisation papers were issued; some of them were white and some
were coffee-coloured. The same witnesses purported to attest hundreds
and thousands of naturalisation affidavits, and the stupendous fraud
of the whole thing was and is an open secret.... Repeating, ballot-box
stuffing, ruffianism, and false counting decided everything