USA > Wisconsin > A political history of Wisconsin > Part 11
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As the whole case turned on the legality of certain returns, the character of some of them is fitly described in Reed's "Bench and Bar of Wisconsin," beginning on page 481, to-wit:
"The election having taken place, it was not long in appearing that the Democratic candidates were elected, except the candidate for Governor. As to that office. the vote was close, and the result doubtful. Both parties continued to claim the victory until the day fixed for the canvassing of the returns. That function was vested by the laws of the State in the State Board of Canvassers, consisting of the Secretary of State. A. T. Gray; the State Treas- urer, E. H. Janssen, and the Attorney-General. George B. Smith. These officers were warin personal and political friends of Gov- ernor Barstow. Having opened and canvassed the returns, they certified that Barstow had received 157 majority, and was duly elected for the ensuing term. Their action excited great indigna- tion. It was stated that having adopted a rule in one case, they had not scrupled to adopt exactly the opposite rule in another case,
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being consistent only to the purpose of finding a majority for Bar- stow or making one. It was further charged that gross frauds had been perpetrated under the cover of 'supplementary' returns, meaning returns received from sources aliunde, the certificates of the county canvassers. The town of Bridge Creek, in Chippewa county, which had never been heard of before, was found to possess startling electoral capabilities, having cast 128 votes, nearly all for Governor Barstow! A precinct in Waupaca county for which no one had yet performed the office of godfather, and which was designated only as 'Town 25, north of range 10, east of the fourth principal meridian,' developed a voting capacity that could only be accounted for on the theory that the bears had been enfran- chised!"
The historian takes up the subject again on page 487. as follows:
"The Supreme Court continued to hear the testimony sub- mitted on behalf of the claimant Bashford. Some of the evidence was of a startling character. There were supplementary returns that were included in the count of the canvassers from Gilbert Mills and Spring Creek, towns in different counties, and over one hundred miles distant from each other. It was observed that the paper on which these returns were written was of the same kind. a peculiar, small white foolscap, much used about the capitol, but rarely seen elsewhere. The more inculpatory circumstance was that the indentions of the two half sheets of paper, upon which these returns were written. upon being put together exactly cor- responded, showing that they had been originally joined in one sheet of paper." .
This went to show that some of these returns were manu- factured in Madison, sent north to be mailed and came back to the State Board as genuine returns and from precincts never heard of before. Having been defeated at all points, and after making a skillful and stubborn defense of a bad cause. Mr. Barstow and his counsel withdrew from the case, protesting against the ralings of the court, which they declared had their inspiration in partisan- ship, all the members of the court being Republicans, and preju- diced in favor of Bashford. The court proceeded with the inquiry. It found upon a recount that Bashford had 1,00y majority over
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Barstow and declared that he was legally elected Governor of Wis- consin. Meantime Barstow had sent his resignation as Governor to the Legislature, but as his title to the office was declared to be spurious, it is difficult to see what the resignation amounted to. Lieut .- Gov. Arthur MeArthur, who imagined he became Gov- ernor as soon as Barstow resigned, by virtue of the Constitution, declared his intention to "hold the fort" at all hazards and against all claimants, but the Supreme Court held that as Barstow was not the legally elected Governor, Me.Arthur's status in the matter was determined by his illustrious predecessor, and that he could not become Governor by fraud. After flourishing about for four days and some hours as the residuary legatee of William A. Barstow, McArthur gracefully and peacefully subsided, and Coles Bashford found himself Governor of Wisconsin.
It is a mistake to suppose that William A. Barstow was not a leader of men and that he had not many friends. It is also a mistake to suppose that he was naturally and inherently a bad and corrupt man. The enthusiasm which he inspired among his followers is well expressed in the following editorial paragraph copied from The La Crosse Democrat of March 7, 1854:
"Governor Barstow is a man untainted by the pedantry of the schools, and not having been cursed by inherited wealth. he is pre- eminently, of all the would-be political leaders in the State, the man of the people, having, by dint of untiring exertion raised himself, regardless of all opposition, from the ranks of the people. to the position he occupies!"
Col. E. A. Calkins, who was then editing a Democratie news- paper in Madison and probably knew as much about the charac- ter of the returns as any man now living, made the following state- nient in regard to that heated controversy. He was at that time a warm supporter of Governor Barstow, and what he says is there- fore free from any Republican bias:
"The Democrats in that year (1855). while not exactly cock sure, expected or hoped to elect the Barstow ticket by a good. comfortable majority of several thousand. say from 3.000 to 9,000. the latter having been Barstow's majority in 1853. After election, as the returns came in it was seen that this expectation was wrong
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-- that instead of a comfortable majority the result had been close. But nobody (among Democrats I mean) apprehended defeat. Many thought they would squeeze through until the last. But as the Democratic majority diminished and the Republican increased. it became necessary to look in every quarter for votes. When it was seen there would be but a few hundred difference any way, the official returns received at the Secretary of State's office were anxiously examined. and all discrepancies between the reported and the official returns were noted. It was discovered that the official returns from Outagamie and Washington counties con- tained errors in copying, or rather in adding up the columns, and they were sent back for correction. This was all honest. though declared by the Supreme Court to be unlawful. This was the commencement of the 'supplemental returns.' There were also township returns sent direct to the State Canvassers. Some of these were undoubtedly honest, especially those returns from Menominee Mills and perhaps Hay Creek or Gilberts Mills. Elec- tions were held and the votes were cast as returned. These town- ship returns, sent direct to the State Canvassers, had always been counted. They were counted in the mighty close contest between L. J. Farwell and D. A. J. Upham in 1851, though there were not enough votes of the kind to change the result. A year or two later Wyram Know lton was elected circuit judge in the Prairie du Chien circuit. his small majority consisting entirely of township returns. I forget the name of his opponent. There were four or five of these township returns in 1855. two being genuine. They were exhibited at the Secretary of State's office as they came in. and no doubt was expressed as to their genuineness. The Waupaca returns were slow in coming in. Owing to a county seat quarrel the entire vote was so large as to be fraudulent on its face. Two returns came, one from Weyauwega, irregular in form, giving Bashford a few hundred majority. It had no county seat and did not come from the county clerk. Following came the Waupaca returns, giving Barstow several hundred majority. It was regular in form, with the signature of the county clerk and the county seal. Later came a supplemental return' from the same source of Town 25, Range 10, that had the county seal.
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"There were some other supplemental returns for Bashford, probably fictitious like the Town 25, Range 10, and the two or three irregular township returns for Barstow. The entire Waupaca vote of both kinds was fraudulent, as there are not as many votes in the county as the alleged Bashiord majority in the irregular Wey- auwega return or that for Barstow in the regular return with the county seal. This I state from a subsequent thorough study of the case, which I reported at the trial, and by comparison with what I saw and knew as the returns were received from time to time. Until the Waupaca returns came in I do not think anybody sus- pected fraud. No Democrat did then, except as to the Weyau- wega report which gave Bashford a majority. Whatever may have been said or thought of township returns reported direct (which had always been canvassed) it was true that of two reports from a county, one regular with the county seal should be counted to the exclusion of an irregular return without a proper official signature and seal.
"I am sure that I saw all the returns as they came in, calling daily at the Secretary of State's office, with Proudfit, my partner, and we never dreamed of any fraud. We published the whole thing. I am sure that the same was the case with George B. Smith. I often talked with him; not about any fraud, for up to the time of the canvass, or afterward, none was suspected.
"I talked with Gray, the Secretary of State, also, and I am sure that if they knew or suspected any fraud some hint would have escaped, some chuckle or boast that would have given them away. I doubt if Barstow had any knowledge of the ffrauds, though men were at work for him through the State, hunting up the figures in the various counties, and some of them were men who would not hesitate at any trick that would inure to his advantage. Of course he knew this feature of their characters and had confidence in results. But they probably told him that all returns were genu- ine, and it was so for his interest to believe them that he did so readily. The fact probably is that nobody about the capitol had anything to do with the frauds, although two of the townships were suspicious, being written on hali-sheets, and it was shown that the torn edges of the sheets matched-the two towns being
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far apart. But I do not recollect that the paper was identified as any in use about the capitol.
"The late M. H. Sessions (known as 'Long Sessions'), State Senator after the war, and long prominent in politics before the war, and one W. H. Wells, an editor at Berlin, undoubtedly concocted the Waupaca returns, including Town 25. Range 10. Who con- cocted the fraudulent Weyanwega Bashford returns I had no sus- picions, but I think it was the joint work of anti-Barstow Demo- crats and local Republicans. Both Sessions and Wells were counted as anti-Barstow and Sessions became an active Repub- lican.
"It was afterwards ascertained who forged the township returns in the northwest, but I forget his name. He was not conspicuous, but was a small lawyer up Sparta way. The mistake of Barstow was in withdrawing from the case and letting it go by default. George B. Smith and William M. Dennis, with others, including myself, advised him to stay in court and try the case on its merits. Judge A. D. Smith told me that if he had managed Barstow's case as a lawyer. he would have prolonged the suit until the term of office had expired and that in the end doubt would have remained as to the actual vote. I do not believe that there was a difference of 100 in the honest votes cast for the two candidates.
"I could say much more, but this more than covers your ques- tion. It all amounts to this: That there was no conspiracy in which the State Canvassers were involved. One thing happened after another, and as more votes were needed for Barstow they were found in some way, by corrections of error in the honest returns and by manufactured returns. The same was the way with the Bashford side."
If the respectable Democrats were disappointed in and ashamed of the administration of Barstow, the Republicans had a taste of the same sort of humiliation with the official career of Coles Bach- ford, the first Governor of the new anti-slavery party. The choice between the two men. as far as integrity and honesty are con- cerned. might properly be decided by the toss of a copper. Bar- stow had an insatiable ambition for office and a desire to help his friends; while Bashford's memory is tainted by the act of
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receiving a large amount of La Crosse & Milwaukee railroad cor- ruption bonds as a gratuity from the company. The alleged ras- sally conduct of "the forty thieves," and the orgies of "Monk's hall," during Barstow's term, were eclipsed at the extra session of the Legislature by the lobby which assembled at the capitol in April, 1856, to dispose of a grant of land given by Congress to aid in the construction of certain lines of railroad in Wisconsin. It was the most scandalous affair that has ever blackened the his- tory of Wisconsin, and the like of it is not likely ever to occur again. The bill conferring the most of the grant upon the La Crosse & Milwaukee company, of which Byron Kilbourn was then the president, was passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Bashford. The Legislative Investigating Committee afterwards made a voluminous report-by which it appears that · thirteen Senators and fifty-nine members of the Assembly were implicated, also the Bank Comptroller, Lieutenant-Governor, pri- vate secretary of the Governor, a judge of the Supreme Court, three officers of the Assembly and some twenty-three prominent lobbyists and public men interested in the land grant. Bonds and stock to the par value of $175.000 were given or assigned to the Senators, four of whom received or were assigned the sum of $20,000, and the remainder $10,000 cach. In the Assembly bonds and stock were assigned to the value of $355,000; one as- signment to the amount of $20.oco; eight, $10,000 each, and the remainder $5.000 each. One Senator who voted for the land grant bill in the Senate declined receiving his share, and in the Assembly four members voted for the bill who had no bonds assigned to them, and in the Senate four members voted for the bill but had no bonds. Those who voted against the bill in both houses, to the number of eighteen, were excluded from any par- ticipation in the benefits being distributed. The three State officers received $10.00 each and the private secretary of the Governor $5.000. The Governor received $50,000."
The full account of these disreputable proceedings, together with all the testimony in the case, made a volume of 220 pages, called the Black Book, which is now very scarce, as the most of them were gobbled up and burned by those most interested in their
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destruction. It is proper to say that members of both political parties were implicated in the shameful affair. as corruption never has any respect for age, sex or previous condition, and that nearly all of those who accepted the "pecuniary compliments" tendered them by Mr. Kilbourn retired to private life and remained there to the day of their death. If. as appears by the report. a few more Democrats than Republicans were "propitiated" by Mr. Kilbourn. the explanation is to be found in the fact -- not that Republicans are more honest than Democrats-but that he was a Democrat himself, and knew more of that kind of people personally than he did of his political opponents. In paying for what they got, Mr. Kilbourn and his colleagues seemed to have used much discretion, and paid each Assemblyman and . Senator according to his sup- posed market value. some influential Senators bringing a much higher premium than their less valuable colleagues. It is noticed that the deal was "for value received," and that no bonds were issued to the legislators who opposed the passage of Mr. Kil- bourn's bill. Many of the recipients held on to their bonds until the credit of the company was greatly impaired, and their market value sank to almost nothing. Those who "realized" at once made money, and among them was Governor Bashford and B. F. Hopkins, the Governor's private secretary.
. It is said that ten righteous men would have saved Sodom: there were a few men in that Legislature of sterling integrity who were not there for revenne only, and who came out of the lion's den unharmed. One of these was Col. Amasa Cobb. then a Sen- ator from Towa county. He was Speaker of the Assembly in 1861, and represented the Third district eight years in Congress. from 1863 to 1871. A certain intimate friend of Cobb's. then a clerk in the Assembly, was deputed by the officers of the La Crosse & Milwaukee Railroad Company to "see" Cobb and try to get him to vote for their bill. The clerk aforesaid invited Cobb to take a walk with him in the Capitol park, when it was gently hinted to Cobb that it would be greatly to his pecuniary advantage . to vote for the bill; that $to.000 was the sum named for his sup- port, and that the clerk aforesaid had been authorized by Mr. Kil-
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bourn to negotiate the trade. The following is Col. Cobb's answer, under oath, as copied from the Black Book, page 114:
"I asked him what was the amount of the capital of the com- pany. He replied, ten million dollars. I told him to say to Byron Kilbourn that if he would multiply the capital stock of the company by the number of leaves in the Capitol park, and give me that amount in money, and then have Kilbourn, blank and blank blacked, and give me a clean title to them as servants for life, I would take the matter under consideration."
"Another of the 'propitiated' Senators, being asked what he thought of the whole scandalous transaction referred his ques- tioner to Christ's words as recorded in Luke, 13th chapter. 4th verse: 'Of those eighteen (men) upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men who dwelt in Jerusalem? (Madison). I tell you nay! "
The new Republican party of Wisconsin entered upon the presidential campaign of 1856 with great enthusiasm. Having elected Bashford Governor the first year of the party's existence. and sent Charles Durkee to the United States Senate in 1855. they felt certain that they could carry the State for Fremont and Day- ton in 1856. They had also in 1854 elected two of the three con- gressmen -- C. C. Washburn and Charles Billinghurst. Wisconsin was entitled to five votes in the Electoral College, and they nomi- nated Edward D. Holton, James HI. Knowlton, Gregor Menzel. Walter D. MeIndoe and Billie Williams as presidential electors. all good men and true, and well known to the voters of the State. The majority for Fremont and Dayton was 13.247, and a full delegation of Republicans were elected to Congress, namely, John F. Potter. C. C. Washburn and Charles Billinghurst. Their Democratic opponents were Jackson Hadley. Samuel Crawford and Harrison C. Hobart. The defeated Democratie candidates for Congress were all men of corresponding ability and occupied front seats in the Democratic sanhedrim. Gen. Hobart has been often referred to in these papers: Judge Crawford had been a men- ber of the Supreme Court. and Hadley was one of the leading men . of his party in Milwaukee in early times, and had represented the city to great acceptance in the Legislature. At that time Milwau-
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kee city and county usually cast about 400 Democratic majority, varying according to the necessities of the situation, and in Had- ley's race against Potter for Congress, his friends and neighbors had done their best in rolling up .a big majority. His local majority was so large that it was thought to be impossible for the rural districts to overcome it, and tradition has it that he and his friends proceeded to celebrate Mr. Hadley's victory "in due and ancient form," and in accordance with the usual custom of the times. There was an impromptu banquet after the count was made, at which speeches and champagne flowed freely. Imagine the disappointment of Hadley and his political friends the next day when the returns from the back counties came in and showed a tremendous vote for Judge Potter, quite large enough to over- come the big majority for Hadley in Milwaukee and elect Potter.
The election of James R. Doolittle to the Senate of the United States January 23, 1857, was another of the striking political events of that year. Doolittle did not come to the State until 1851, and was looked upon as a newcomer by Holton, Howe, Randall, Jack- son and Whiton, who had borne the heat and burden of territorial times, and who had an eager eye on the seat in the Senate soon to be vacated by Henry Dodge. Mr. Doolittle was elected judge of the First Judicial circuit in 1853, which office he resigned in 1856. and his eligibility in consequence of this election caused much con- troversy. The constitution of Wisconsin provides, section 7, article 10, that "they (the circuit judges) shall hold no office of public trust, except a judicial office, during the term for which they are respectively elected, and all votes for either of them, for any office. except a judicial office given by the Legislature or the people, shall be void." Although he had resigned his office a year before, and was no longer a circuit judge, the strict constructionists insisted that he was ineligible to any other office except a judicial office until the six years had expired for which he had been elected. When the Legislature met in January, 1857. the contest for the senatorship was exceedingly lively and interesting, and the willing candidates were numerous. The opponents of Doolittle made these points against him: (1) That he was ineligible according to the express terms of the constitution; (2) that he resigned his (12)
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circuit judgeship on purpose to be a candidate for United States Senator; (3) that for the same reason he joined the Republican party; (4) that he was not in accord with the Supreme Court of the State upon the Fugitive Slave Act. and (5' that he was a too recent convert from the Democratic party. Doolittle wrote a long letter to the members of the Legislature defining his position on the State rights question, then a hot subject of dispute, and which had rent the Republican party in twain, in which he spun some fine theories upon the subject, and left the question about where he found it. He took good care not to offend cither fac- tion, but to mistify, if not please, both. His position was very much like the Maine politician's attitude on the Maine liquor law. He said that he was in favor of the Maine law, but was opposed to its enforcement! Doolittle's chief competitor was Timothy O. Howe, whose opinion of the State rights doctrine of the Supreme Court was not at all obscure. He was decidedly and unequivocally opposed to it from everlasting to everlasting. Of course all such radical sheets as The Janesville Gazette, Kenosha Telegraph. Grant County Herald and Fond du Lac Commonwealth, pitched into Howe unmercifully. Those editors all lived to support Howe with the same zeal that characterized their former opposition. The other dark horses in the race were Holton. J. Allen Barber, M. M. Jackson, Wyman Spooner, and others of less repute. The Republican caneus to nominate a candidate for Senator was held January 21, when Doolittle was nominated on the sixth ballot. The last ballot stood, Doolittle. 41: Howe. 29, and the rest scat- tering. Whole number of votes cast. 81 ; necessary to a choice. 41. In the joint convention the vote stood James R. Doolittle, 79: Charles Duun. 36, and two scattering. At this joint convention the Lieutenant-Governor, Arthur McArthur, presided. and at his side sat Wyman Spooner, the Speaker of the Assembly. When the vote was cast Mr. McArthur immediately pronounced the vote for Doolittle void on account of the constitutional prohibition . already noted, and declared that there had been no choice. From this decision an appeal was taken and the ruling of the chair re- versed, thus confirming the election of Judge Doolittle. Speaker Spooner also declined to vote for Doolittle or to sign his certificate
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of election, for the same reason that had influenced Mr. MeArthur. It is needless to add that Judge Doolittle was readily admitted to his seat in the United States Senate, that body having esablished a precedent in the case of Judge Trumbull of Illinois. The elec- tion of Judge Doolittle to one of the most desirable and honorable offices in the gift of the party, so soon after his joining it, gave rise to a clever bon mot by Mortimer M. Jackson, who was himself an aspirant for senatorial honors, who said in disgust: "The Republican party is prompt pay. sir : prompt pay. sir!"
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