expressed in the English language?—A. I should think that some of them could. Q. But not many?—A. Perhaps a few. Q. Those Frenchmen are from Canada, the most of them?—A. Yes, sir. Q. They came to work for this same class of manufacturers for whom they had worked ?—A. Yes, sir. Q. These men did not seem to have had any means of learning much about our political affairs, did they?-A. Some of them. Q. But very few of them. They have not been brought in contact with the manufacturers, but get their living from the business which these manufacturers carry on?-A. Yes, sir. Q. How do you account for it that they come here and vote in a mass against the very interests and very business from which they derive their own sustenance?-A. We had French citizens there. Q. You have French citizens there who vote directly contrary to what the men who carry on the business think is so necessary for their pros perity, the prosperity of the country, and of their help?-A. I never accounted for it. Q. Do you not think it in some measure against their own interest ?A. I do not look at it in that way. Q. You cannot account for their doing it ?-A. I never have tried to. Mr. BLAIR. I have, but failed. By Mr. McDONALD: Q. Is not that which you have just heard from the Senator the way in which the manufacturers talk to their men ?-A. I think it is. Q. The speech that they make is quite the same kind of a speech; that the men, when working for the manufacturers, should not vote against the interests of the manufacturers?-A. That is not just the way that I heard Mr. Chase talk to them. Q. Did he put the same idea in different language?-A. Yes, sir; but rather stronger than that. Q. The night before the election, you say, this French physician came there and made a speech ?-A. It was the Saturday night before the election. The election took place on Tuesday. Q. And you were at the meeting ?-A. Yes, sir. Q. These men all knew you by sight pretty well? You had a brother who had been working in the establishment, and your father was well known there?—A. Yes, sir; my partner used to be an overseer there. Q. This French physician informed them at the meeting that any of them who wanted to vote but did not want to vote the Republican ticket, which had been given out to them by Mr. Chase and those in authority in the establishment, could get their tickets exchanged by calling on you upon the day of the election; that you would be prepared to exchange tickets with them and give them the ticket that they wanted to vote?-A. Yes, sir. Q. So that, in pursuance of that information, these men came to you on the day of the election and you exchanged twenty-seven tickest ?—A. Yes; I gave twenty-seven. I received three of the tickets they had upon that Saturday or the day before the election, but I did not receive any Butler tickets until the day of the election, and on that day I gave these three men whose tickets I received their ballots. Q. Those three gave you before the election day the ones that had been given to them in the envelopes in the factory-A. Yes, sir. Q. And you gave out 27 Butler tickets?-A. Yes, sir. Q. You did not intend that anybody should see you give those tickets to these men ?—A. No, sir. Q. The purpose was to give them out secretly ?—A. Yes, sir. Q. So that you took the best means that you could take to carry that out? A. Yes, sir. Q. You say they would come up with their backs to you, hold their hands out, ask you to make the exchange and you would do it, they taking your envelopes and leaving the others?-A. Yes, sir. Q. So that you did not intend that Mr. Chase should be able to follow their movements?-A. I did not. Q. Was there any difference in the general appearance of the envelopes-A. No, sir; Mr. Waters and I compared them in the morning and found them just the same. Q. All the tickets that you got from them were Republican tickets and all the tickets that you gave them back were Butler tickets?-A. Yes, sir. Q. They had expressed a desire to vote Butler tickets?-A. Yes, sir; they came to me. I did not know them. Q. And you were simply aiding them to carry out their own wishes, which they were otherwise unable to carry out by reason of the influence that was exerted upon them?-A. Yes, sir. Q. You had been engaged, before going there, in what business?—A. In the music business-pianos and organs. Q. In selling them?-A. Yes, sir; and kept a music store. Q. You were visiting your friends in this place on a vacation, as you say-A. Yes, sir. By Mr. PLATT: Q. Where was this French speaker's meeting held?-A. At Mrs. Coggshall's. It was out of doors, an open air meeting. Q. What one, if any, of the Frenchmen working in the mill helped to engineer this change of ballot?-A. All of them who got the ballot helped. Q. Was any particular one among the men from the mill in special charge of it-A. I think not. The reason that Dr. King told them that I would hand them the ballots was that they were all afraid, any one of them alone was afraid, to take hold of them. Q. Did you say that you had conversed with these men personally and they had informed you that they wanted to vote for Mr. Butler ?-A. I did not. Mr. PLATT. I thought that you did not say it, and yet it might be an inference from your answer to Senator McDonald's question that you did. Q. (By Mr. BLAIR.) Were you born in this country ?-A. Yes, sir. Adjourned. BOSTON, AUG. 16, 1879. TERRENCE KENNEDY recalled. By Mr. McDONALD : Question. You stated yesterday that you had been a soldier?—Answer. Yes, sir; I served in the Fifty-eighth Massachusetts, in the war of the rebellion. Q. What time did you go into the service?—A. I enlisted in 1863, and was discharged in 1865. Q. Where did you serve ?-A. I served in the Army of the Potomac. under General Burnside, General Meade, and the last general who commanded, who was, I think, Sparks. Q. Were you in any battles ?-A. Yes, sir. Q. Give the names of the principal ones.-A. Cold Harbor, Petersburg. I was wounded in 1865, in front of Petersburg. Q. Where were you wounded ?—A. In the hand. (Exhibiting wound.) I am a pensioner. Q. You draw a pension on account of that wound?-A. Yes, sir. ALVAN W. PUTNAM Sworn and examined. By the CHAIRMAN: Question. Where do you live?-Answer. In the town of Sutton, Worcester County. Q. Were you at the November election in 1878?—A. I was. 'It was the State election. Q. The State and Congressional elections were held at the same time? -A. Yes, sir. Q. Who were the candidates for Congress?-A. Mr. Rice was the Republican and Mr. Thayer the other candidate. Q. Describe the condition of the room into which the employés of the mills were brought to vote, the situation of the ballot-box and the process of voting as you saw it.-A. The town meeting was held in the vestry-room under the Congregational Church. At one end of the vestryroom a platform had been raised with a railing around it probably eighteen or twenty feet in length, and there was usually drawn up alongside of that a long settee, and so arranged as to leave a narrow passage. way between the settee and the railing, the officers being stationed at either end of it. That settee is usually filled with lookers-on watching to see the ballots as they are deposited. Q. Was the ballot-box closed?—A. The ballot-box was open, standing on square tables inside of the railing. Q. Who was the selectman in charge of the ballot-box?-A. The selectmen usually take charge-the three of them. Mr. John McArthur is the principal of the selectmen. Q. Is he connected with the Mauchaug corporation ?—A. He is an employé. Q. What are his politics?-A. He acts with the Republican party. I could not tell you what his politics are; it would be a question. Q. What are your politics?-A. I am a prohibitory Republican. Q. Did you see what occurred?-A. No, sir; I did not notice anything particularly, that is, in regard to the balloting, but it was the current report--- Q. What was the current report?-A. The current report was that Mr. Chase Mr. PLATT. I object to current reports. It seems to me that we ought to limit this somewhere. By the CHAIRMAN: Q. From your observation of the manner in which the voting was conducted on that day, what do you know of what occurred-was there or not a free election on the part of the employés of the corporation ?—A. I judge that there was not, from what I saw and heard, and what I heard Mr. Chase say himself. Q. State it.-A. I was sitting beside the Mr. Rice who was the Demo cratic candidate for Representative, and who was elected, when Mr. Chase came to him and congratulated him upon his success, that is, in carrying that town. I said to Mr. Chase, "Why, you have come around on to my ground"; Mr. Rice being the man for whom the prohibitionists voted, and Mr. Chase having voted against him the year before, and having this time voted to pay off the organ people as he thought, for defeating the man for whom he voted the year before. Q. What else did he say about him?-A. I don't recollect anything in particular, and only the common congratulatory remarks in regard to having helped elect him. Q. What connection did Mr. Chase have with the corporation ?—A. Mr. Chase is the clerk, I think, and does its paying. I think he pays off the help. Q. Do you know anything about this case of Kennedy's?-A. No, sir, only from what Mr. Kennedy has told me from time to time; I have no personal knowledge of it. Q. Do you know anything of the day of which Mr. Kennedy speaks?A. Not from any personal knowledge. Q. You have no personal knowledge of where Kennedy lived?-A. Only from what he has said. He has said that he lived in No. 13 Middle Row. Q. You knew that he lived in the town?-A. I knew that he lived in Manchaug Village. Q. Is he there now?-A. No, sir; I understand not. Q. Who owned the tenement houses in the village of Manchaug ?-A. The corporation. By Mr. PLATT: Q. What is your occupation?—A. Agriculture, at the present time. Q. What candidate did you support for governor last year?—A. Dr. Miner, the prohibitory candidate. Q. Was there a prohibitory candidate for Congress?-A. I think we had; I think it was a Westboro' man; I do not recollect his name now. Q. Of your own knowledge, do you know of any act of intimidation on the part of the officers of the corporation toward their voters ?—A. Not of real intimidation. I know that they usually watch their men; that is, Mr. Chase and some of the overseers of the mill are usually near the polls as some other men who act for them are. Q. It seems from the testimony of the witness Frank Kennedy, yesterday, that other parties watched them a little better than those men did? -A. Mr. Kennedy knows more in regard to those matters than I do; I lived some five miles from their village; I am near the center, and their village is some five miles from the center. By the CHAIRMAN: Q. Did the position of the chairs and settee in the voting room and of the people who were there make a narrow passage through which the voters had to pass up to the polls?-A. No, sir; not until they got up to the platform. Q. There was then such a narrow passage when they got up to the platform?—A. Yes, sir. This long settee was drawn up, leaving a space about wide enough for men to pass through in single file to vote as their names were checked. Q. Through that narrow passage?—A. Through that narrow passage. These men were standing watching there. Q. Usually, did you see the employés of the corporation brought there?-A. I did not at that time. But they usually came up in large teams. Q. When?-A. Usually, I think. I cannot state so as to fix dates, but I know they usually came there in that way. Q. The usual practice was to bring them in large teams?-A. Yes, sir. Q. Are they, then, brought to the polls and voted en masse?—A. I think they usually do not start together; my impression is that sometimes those teams have been obliged to come twice. Q. Who usually meets them at the polls and takes charge of them ?— A. I do not know that any one meets them, but I have frequently seen Mr. Chase and Mr. Knox standing near to where they passed through. Q. What became usually of the employés after they had voted?-A. I think they are usually soon taken home. Q. In these same teams in which they had been brought there?-A! Yes, sir. Q. Are they or not provided with tickets when they come to the polls?—A. I could not say as to that. By Mr. PLATT: Q. Have you been familiar with the arrangements for voting in other country towns? I do not know that you would call that place a country town exactly.-A. Yes, sir; it is a country town. I have been in other country towns at elections. Q. Was there anything unusual about this passage way? Do they not usually put something like a barrier in front of the box so that people have to pass through the passage?-A. I do not recollect anything of the kind; and what is peculiar in our town is a set of men standing on that settee and watching. Q. Active politicians are pretty apt to stand near the ballot-box in all places?-A. We suppose that the more active a man is in politics the more interest he takes in it, of course. Q. Active Democrats get up there too, do they not?-A. I presume so, but I have declined voting in two or three instances because I was watched. I did not care so much about voting, or I would have voted. Q. You do not look like a man who would be easily intimidated. I do not know that it is claimed you were intimidated.-A. No, sir; I was more provoked than intimidated. By Mr. McDonald : Q. Is it usual to vote in an open ballot box?-A. It is usual in our place. Q. Is it usual in other places ?-A. Not so far as my knowledge extends. Q. Was there any lid to the ballot-box?-A. No, sir; the ballot-box stands on a table or desk, and the clerk checks the names as the voters come up here. [Indicating.] Then they deposit their ballots in an open box under the eye of the selectman. I speak of a State election. Q. What is the size of that box?-A. I should think perhaps ten inches in length and seven or eight inches wide. Q. It is a good deal like voting in an open hat?-A. Yes; it is about as wide as that. It is just on the same principle as would be voting in an open hat. |
