Q. A statement has been made here by a witness that Mr. Moore distributed Republican tickets to his men, saying, "This is for your interest;" that some of them deposited the ballots thus given them and others voted as they chose. So far as you are concerned, did they all vote as they chose?-A. I think they did. I don't know of any one who did not vote. As to distributing tickets, I did not distribute a ticket, not

one.

Q. Then you did not say to any one, as you gave him a ticket, "This is for your interest"?-A. No, sir; I never gave them one.

Q. Do you remember ever using that expression to any voter whatever?-A. No, sir.

Q. Did you say anything tantamount to that, in a threatening way?— A. No, sir.

Q. Do you remember discussing politics with any of your men during the campaign?-A. Not with any particular one. I may have said, on the street, in discussing politics with some one, that I considered it to their interest to vote the Republican ticket. I do not deny that.

Q. Did you not have a perfect right to say that?-A. Yes, sir; I took that right.

Q. Do not those men talk up to you just as you do to them on politics-A. Just the same. They understand that they have the same privilege there and they use it.

Q. And they voted just as they pleased ?-A. They did vote just as they pleased.

Q. You may state if you have ever known of intimidation of em ployés by employers, during the last three years, anywhere in the State-A. I have not known of any; and the last election especially was considered perfectly quiet. I know that I heard it remarked by more than one that it had been an unusually quiet election; that there had been less noise, less argument, or anything of that kind, than formerly.

Q. I had acquired the impression, from the testimony, that you were the champion bulldozer of the town. You will excuse me for having applied the term to you ?-A. Certainly.

By Mr. PLATT :

Q. Was there anything like a pressure brought by you or by any body in behalf of the employers upon the workmen to control their votes?-A. No; not at all.

By the CHAIRMAN:

Q. Were you at the polls all day ?-A. I was, with the exception of an hour, perhaps, when I went to dinner.

Q. What time was that?-A. Between eleven and twelve o'clock.

Q. You were the selectman of the town?-A. I was.

Q. You were chosen by the voters of the town?-A. Yes, sir.

Q. How long have you been such ?-A. Only one year.

Q. When were you chosen ?-A. In April, 1878.

Q. You have been in the habit of being at elections. You were there in 1876 and 1877?-A. Yes, sir.

Q. You were active as a politician in 1876?-A. No, sir, never; not specially active.

Q. You were a Republican then?-A. Yes, sir.

Q. You never attempted to distribute tickets?-A. I don't recollect. I might have done that.

Q. You do discuss politics?-A. Very little; to a very limited ex

tent.

Q. You do talk politics with your hands, and did last fall?—A. I did last fall.

Q. They understood you that you were for Talbot ?-A. Yes, sir. Q. You told them you thought it would not do to have Butler or his policy?-A. I did, if 1 made any remark. I am a Republican.

Q. If you talked at all, you told them it would not do to have his ideas succeed?--A. Yes, sir.

sir.

Q. You say that two-thirds of the voters are Democrats?-A. Yes,

Q. About how many voted for Butler last year?-A. I don't know. Q. There was a Republican gain last year over the ordinary vote?A. I think there was.

Q. You were in charge of the ballot-box, and Mr. Fletcher was outside getting voters ?-A. Mr. Fletcher, I think, drove a team at that time from the north village down, getting voters.

Q. Mr. Lavaree did the same?-A. I think he did. I think he was on the rallying committee.

Q. Where was he?-A. He was in the east village. I don't recollect seeing him in the hall at the time.

Q. You gentlemen are all Republicans, and all pretty active ?—A. Yes, sir.

Q. All of you talked to your employés ?—A. I don't know anything about that. I know my own.

Q. They were ali for Talbot, were they not?-A. I don't know that they were.

Q. So far as you know, these leading gentlemen of the corporation were for Talbot?-A. I think they were for Talbot.

Q. There was no equivocation about their position?-A. I think they were all for Talbot.

Q. Do you think that one-half of the employés of the corporation voted for Talbot last year?-A. I think they did.

Q. Do you think that one-third of them did?—A. I think one-half did.

Q. Were the ballots there opened or sealed ?—A. I think there were eight sealed envelopes in the box.

Q. Do you know who voted those?-A. I do not; I could not name one of them.

Q. Can you remember what was in them when they were opened?A. I cannot.

Q. The eight were so much alike that you paid no attention to any one of them?-A. We did not pay attention to them. I did not specially when they were mentioned, opened, and counted.

Q. How many votes were polled there ?-A. We polled some seven hundred votes.

Q. Out of those seven hundred there were eight that were in envel opes?-A. Yes, sir.

Q. Now you want me to believe-I suppose, of course, it is truethat you paid no attention to those eight envelopes ?-A. I do not recollect whether they were Butler votes or Talbot votes.

Q. A Massachusetts man ordinarily has more curiosity than that?A. Perhaps I might have known at the time, but I do not recollect.

Q. You did not pay any attention to them as they went in ?-A. The sealed envelopes? Not any more than I gave to an open ticket.

Q. Were the open ballots folded at all?—A. Some of the voters put them in doubled up.

Q. As a rule, were they folded ?-A. No, sir.

Q. When they were put in, could the selectmen see the character of the ballot?-A. They could; they could tell by the different color.

Q. You could distinguish the ticket which a man was voting?-A. I could.

Q. Mr. Shumway, the selectman, and you, the superintendent of this establishment, could see the men vote ?-A. Yes, sir.

Q. You did not make it your business to see how they voted ?—A. No, sir.

By Mr. BLAIR:

Q. No shot-guns were used there at all that day?-A. I did not see

any.

THOMAS D. SHUMWAY Sworn and examined.

By the CHAIRMAN:

Question. Where do you live?-Answer. In the town of Plymouth, Plymouth County.

Q. Were you active at or connected with election matters in that town in October and November, 1878 ?-A. Somewhat.

Q. State the condition of the registration, the circumstances under which it was perfected, together with any ease or difficulty attending it, and the general conduct of the election in that town, last year.-A. In the first place, we had a decision from the board of selectmen that those persons who were born of persons unnaturalized could not be citizens of the United States, and therefore could not register as voters. This was made to operate very injuriously, because most of those who had come of age were young men who were going to vote for General Butler. It so completely demoralized them that some of them said they would not have anything more to do with it. I endeavored to persuade them to hold on. The first intimation I had of it was this: A young man came to me and asked me if I did not suppose that a man born within two rods of Plymouth Rock was a citizen of the United States. I said I had no doubt of it. He said that they had refused to register him, although he was born there, because his father had not been naturalized. I told him I supposed somebody was playing a joke upon him, and he replied that it was a serious matter. I went before the board of selectmen, and found that they had made that decision. I endeavored to argue the case with them, but they said the decision was final; that no one who was born of unnaturalized citizens could be a citizen unless himself naturalized, and that they would not allow any such to register. Some of the men who had been refused on this ground went once or twice to the town house, and then said they would give it up and wouldn't have any more to do with it. One or two persisted in maintaining what they supposed to be their rights, and finally succeeded. I will state that this decision was made about ten days before the election, I think (the first, knowledge I had of it was at that time), and that on the night before the election (Monday evening), at ten o'clock (the polls being opened on Tuesday), the decision was reversed, I understood. The polls opened on Tuesday at a quarter of nine o'clock, and the law is, I think, that after the polls have opened no man shall be allowed to register.

Q. They reversed the decision on the night before?-A. I understood that it was reversed on Monday evening. I was not there. I did not take any further interest in the matter at that time. Previous to that I had come to Boston and got an opinion from the clerk of the district

court, in the building in which the committee now sit, that he considered a decision such as that a frivolous one.

Q. State, if you can, the number of persons who, on that ground, were refused the right to register.-A. I cannot state the number at all. It was a thing that came upon me very suddenly, and at a time when my experience in politics was very limited. As it was my first experience in political affairs, I failed to take the names of those persons. I know of only two who were registered, and do not know of those who were not. I understood that there were some ten or a dozen who were refused registration, but that I do not know positively anything about; that is merely hearsay with me. Another case that I do know of was that of a man who, notwithstanding that he had been born in the neighboring town, went and got naturalized. His name is Alexander Morrison. [Producing the naturalization paper of Morrison, which is appended to this testimony.] This is his naturalization paper. He was born in the neighboring town of Sandwich.

Q. You say that, from what you heard, there were ten or a dozen of this class of persons who were deprived of votes ?-A. I think there were as many as half a dozen. I did not take the names, and have no actual knowledge of the precise number. I would say that the whole management of the campaign there, so far as the opposition was concerned, was crude, was not systematized.

By Mr. McDONALD:

Q. Was it at Plymouth Rock where this occurred?-A. One of the men was born within two rods of Plymouth Rock.

By the CHAIRMAN:

Q. State the politics of the selectmen in Plymouth.-A. Four of them were Republicans and one was a Democrat, that is, an Abbott Democrat. The board was practically a unit in the last campaign. It was com posed of five members.

Q. Do you know Albert Hedge?-A. Yes, sir.

Q. What do you know of his case?-A. I don't know anything from my own knowledge, and only from what has been told me.

Q. Did he tell you of it?-A. He did not.

Q. Do you know about John O'Connell's case?-A. Only from what he told me himself.

Q. What did he tell you?-A. He told me on, I think, the day after the election that he had gone out to the town-house on the night before the election to pay his poll-tax; that Mr. Bradford, one of the selectmen, looked on the list and told him his name had been stricken off; (I am not sure whether he said that Bradford looked for his name on the list or told him this without looking;) that he asked Mr. Bradford on what ground it had been stricken off, and that Mr. Bradford told him that his father had not been naturalized. I will not be sure either whether it was that his father had not been naturalized or that he himself had not been naturalized. But O'Connell then told Mr. Bradford that he had been naturalized, and that he had voted in Plymouth the year before. Bradford told him to produce his naturalization papers, when O'Connell stated that they were in Rockland, where his father lived. Bradford told him that they had stricken his name from the list and that he could not register until he got his naturalization papers. O'Connell replied that he had voted the year before; that they must take his word for it, and swore that he had the papers; that they were in Rockland, and that it would be too late for him to get them in time

to vote before the polls closed. They refused to put his name upon the

list.

Q. He was born in this country?-A. I do not know. He is here.

By Mr. PLATT:

Q. Of whom was the board of selectmen composed?-A. William H. Nelson, chairman; Henry Whiting, Lemuel Bradford, Charles B. Stoddard, and David Clark.

Q. Do you know them personally?-A. Yes, sir.

Q. What is Mr. Nelson's business?-A. He is a ship-owner and a dealer in fish; a merchant.

Q. Mr. Whitings?-A. I do not know that he has any business at present; he was formerly a hammer manufacturer, I think. He may

be a farmer.

Q. Who was Mr. Bradford ?-A. Mr. Bradford was at that time one of the selectmen, the town collector, and overseer of the poor.

By Mr. McDONALD:

Q. He was a handy man to have around?—A. Yes, sir.

By Mr. PLATT:

Q. Mr. Stoddard's business?-A. Treasurer for the Plymouth Iron Foundry.

Q. Mr. Clark's business?-A. I am not positive; I should say a farmer.

Q. They are reputable men, are they not?-A. Indeed they are.

Q. And you supposed they were honestly mistaken as to the law when they rendered their first decision? You did not suppose it was a corrupt decision?-A. At the time I thought they were not.

Q. You would hardly accuse them of having made a decision which they knew to be wrong?-A. Not by any manner of means, but I simply judge of them as I judge of myself.

Q. Do you know whether they had taken any advice from an attorney in the matter?-A. They told me that they had legal opinion. I told them I was not satisfied with that opinion, and that I should go to Boston to see if I could not get better; that is, an opinion that would satisfy me. I told them I knew nothing about it; that I was not a lawyer, but that the decision struck me as being, at least, a very strange one. I asked them if that precedent had been established for a long term of years, and they said it had never been.

Q. Do you know whose opinion it was that they took ?--A. I think Mr. Nelson told me that he had the opinion of two lawyers in Plymouth. One was Mr. Davis and the other Mr. Lord. I think he told me so. I have heard since that they denied giving such an opinion.

Q. Mr. Davis is a somewhat prominent Democrat down there and judge of the district court ?--A. Yes. He voted last fall, I think, for Mr. Talbot.

Q. He had formerly been a Democrat ?--A. I think his politics have been Democratic since 1874.

Q. It is a little difficult to tell what people's politics are here in Massachusetts--A. If you will allow me to explain, it was anything in opposition to the Greenbackers last fall. I happened to be one of that unfortunate class.

Q. They got the opinion, as you understood from and Mr. Lord ?--A. I think Mr. Nelson told me so. state that for himself.

them, of Mr. Davis He is here and can