Standard Oil Company; Trusts, Industrial -- United States
That Senator Pendleton would testify that more than enough of the
legislators to give him the election had been pledged to him.
That the number of members of the Ohio Senate and House of
Representatives who had been paid money to vote for Mr. Payne was so
great that without their votes and influence his nomination would have
been out of the question.
That a legislator who had been violently opposed to Payne, then changed
and became violently rich, had acknowledged that the treasurer of
the oil trust, out of gratitude for what he had done, had "loaned"
him several thousand dollars--"a case," said the representative of
Ohio before the United States Senate, "of a man becoming well-to-do by
borrowing money."
That legislators who were so poor before the election that everything
they had was mortgaged, and they had to beg or borrow funds for their
election expenses, became so prosperous after their sudden conversion
to Payne that they paid off their debts, rebuilt their houses,
furnished them handsomely, deposited large amounts in the banks, or
opened new bank accounts, bought more property, and that the reasons
they gave for this new wealth were demonstrably untrue--or impossible.
That a member of the Legislature, a State senator, had himself stated
that he had received $5000 to vote for Payne,[567] and had offered the
same amount to an associate if he would do the same; and that after the
election this member opened a new bank account, depositing $2500 in his
wife's name, who immediately transferred it to him.
That another member of the Legislature, who changed suddenly after his
election to the Legislature, and just before the caucus, from a warm
advocacy of one of the recognized candidates to the support of Payne,
when directly charged with having taken a bribe, did not deny it, but
"became exceedingly sick, white as a sheet, and answered not. He went
away and laid in bed two days."
That, contrary to all the precedents of Ohio politics, the caucus of
the majority party was not held until the night before election, so as
to leave no time between the caucus and the election.
That, also contrary to the precedents, the nomination was made, not,
as usual, by open vote, but by secret ballot and without debate, on
the demand of the Payne managers and contrary to the protests of the
opponents, so that it could not be known to the public who the Payne
men were.
That this knowledge was made sure to the Payne managers, who were
to pay for the votes, by the ingenious device of requiring each
purchased legislator to use a coupon ballot furnished by them, the
corresponding stub of which they kept. These legislators were not paid
for their votes unless the torn edges of the coupon ballot voted by
them corresponded with the edge of the stub in the possession of the
managers.
That responsible men would testify that they had received confessions
from members of the Legislature that they had been bribed with money to
vote for Mr. Payne.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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