Q. I suppose you must have known his political sentiments?-A. Yes, sir; I have known that he was a Democrat; I have seen him attending the caucuses. Q. Is he still a Democrat?—A. I could not say. Q. Do you know for whom he voted last fall?-A. My only information is what I heard. Q. Did you hear anything in regard to which way he voted last fall! -A. I heard that he voted for Talbot. Q. What is his position in this elastic works?—A. I do not know. Q. You do not know whether he is a common workman, a superintendent of some kind, or an overseer?—A. I do not. Q. How many employés has this company?-A. I have no way of knowing for certain; they say about four hundred men. Q. Of what nativity are most of those workmen ?-A. I cannot account for any of them except those in the ward in which I live; they are generally what they call "the Irish voters; " we count all the rubber men with the Irish voters. Q. Most of the Irishmen live in your ward and work for this elastic company?—A. Yes, sir. Q. Do you understand that most of their help is Irish ?-A. As a general thing. Q. And in their politics, Democratic as a rule?-A. Generally; yes, sir. Q. Can you give the name of any workman of this company whom you heard say that Tom Sullivan said what you have stated?—A. No, sir. Q. Of the whole twenty-five you cannot recall the name of one in that connection?-A. No, sir; I could not very well. Q. When did you hear them say this about Tom Sullivan?—A. On election day, the night before election day, and the day before. Q. Did they mention any other man of the company as having said this?-A. I heard the remark made that Bell, the foreman, would be likely to be there all day. Q. He was there?-A. I saw him there pretty much of the day. Q. You were pretty active there all day?-A. I was appointed by the Democratic ward executive committee to distribute ballots. Q. And you did your duty as well as you could?--A. Yes, sir. Q. You think that Bell was there more on that election day than on any other?-A. He was more active than at any other election. Q. He did not feel any more interest in the election than other people did? He was not any more interested than you were?-A. I don't think he could be. Q. Was not the election a vey exciting one last year?-A. Yes, sir. Q. Did not people take an interest in the canvass and in the election itself who never had interested themselves in that way before?-A. In the ward in which I live, all the voters generally vote, even at the city election. Q. But you had a more exciting canvass last year than ever before, even in that ward ?—A. I didn't notice anything particularly more than at any other election. Q. You have seen Mr. Bell there at former elections ?-A. To come in and vote. Q. And go out again?-A. Yes, sir. Q. Do you think the help in that establishment voted as generally last year as they ever did before?-A. No, sir. Q. Many did not vote?-A. Many did not vote the Democratic ticket as they generally did in other years. Q. I mean in the aggregate. Did they generally vote as formerly, one way or the other?-A. Yes, sir. Q. Do you not know any more specific or particular instance of intimi dation than what you have stated?—A. A colored man came into my shop and told me he would like to vote for Butler, but that he would be apt to lose his job if he did. Q. What did you tell him?—A. I told him I didn't think he would. Q. Did he not vote for Butler ?—A. I could not say. Q. That you do not call a case of intimidation?-A. He told me that his employer bad said he would discharge him, and asked me if I thought he would. My father had worked for fifteen years for the man for whom this colored man was working, and the colored man thought I ought to know the man pretty well. He asked me, therefore, if I thought the man would discharge him if he voted for Butler. I told him to vote as he pleased. He said that the boss told him the day before the election that he would lose his job if he voted for Butler. Q. Did he lose his job?-A. I do not know. This is what you testified to in the first place, that he came and asked you if you thought he would lose his job; you thought he would not, and he said he was going to vote for Butler?-A. He said he would like to. Q. You never heard of his being discharged or the contrary ?—A. No, sir. Q. Was your father a Democrat?-A. Yes, sir. He is dead now. Q. He worked for the same man for fifteen years?-A. Yes, sir. Q. You never heard of his being discharged or turned off on account of his political action while working for this same man?—A. He was not turned off. Q. How long has your father been dead?—A. Five years. By Mr. PLATT: Q. What is the name of the employer of the colored man ?—A. Daniel Curry. Q. What is his business?-A. He is an oil merchant. Q. Is he the same man who was mentioned by the other witness?— A. Yes, sir. I talked to this colored man several times about it. Не said he would like to vote for Butler, but was afraid that he would be discharged. Q. What is the name of Mr. Bell ?—A. James M. or John M. Bell. Q. Did you speak of a colored man by the name of Gray?—A. Yes, sir; Robert Gray. Q. For whom did he work ?-A. Daniel Curry. Q. Do you know whether Mr. McBirney is living or not?—A. He died within three weeks. PETER COYNE sworn and examined. By the CHAIRMAN: Question. Where do you live?—Answer. In Chelsea. Q. Do you know Robert Gray, a colored man, here spoken of?-A. Yes, sir. Q. What did he tell you about what his employer told him last fall?A. He told me that Mr. Curry came at him in a great rage and asked him if he was going to vote for Butler. Mr. Gray told him that he didn't know. Curry then said, "If you vote for Butler, I am going to discharge you." Q. When did he say that this occurred?—A. I don't know exactly the time; it was some week or so before the election. By Mr. McDONALD: Q. You say that he said Curry came at him in a great rage? Tell that part of the story.-A. That was what he told me; that Curry was mad, came at him and told him if he would vote for Butler he would discharge him. He asked me, "What would you do about it?" I told him, "I don't know; you can do as you please.” By Mr. BLAIR: Q. Do you know how he voted?-A. No, sir. Q. Do you know whether he was discharged or not?-A. No; he was not discharged, I believe. Q. Where is he now ?-A. He is down there working for Curry now. Q. He is still working for Curry?-A. Yes, sir. CHARLES A. STOTT sworn and examined. By Mr. BLAIR: Question. You reside in Lowell?-Answer. Yes, sir. Q. Are you the mayor of that city at the present time?—A. I am not at the present time; I was in 1876 and 1877. Q. How long have you resided in that city ?-A. It will be forty-three years on the 18th of the present month. Q. You were born there?-A. Yes, sir. Q. What is your business?—A. Woolen manufacturer. Q. You may state whether you know of any intimidation of employés by their employers in the city of Lowell in connection with the last autumn election ?—A. I do not. Q. State any instance, if you observed any, wherein any intimidation or coercion was exerted by Democrats, or any parties, in the interest of General Butler upon others.-A. I considered the last State election to be one of considerable importance, or of at least sufficient importance for me to give my time to it for that day. In fact, I was a member of the Talbot Central Club of Lowell, and the duty had been assigned to me of looking after voters, or "rallying" voters, as we call it. I attended to that duty in the first part of the morning and then returned to the polls. Our polls open at nine o'clock and close at four in the afternoou. My own ward is the one in which General Butler resides. I took my station near the rail by which the voters passed to the ballot box; perhaps I was six feet from the ballot box. At my side stood the chairman of the Democratic city committee of Lowell. In fact, he and I stood together nearly all the day until the time of closing the polls. At about the noon hour, when the working people came in to vote, very many of the men who came up to vote seemed to me to be employés of the Middlesex Company. That is the company of which General Butler is a director. I don't know how they intended to vote at all, but I know that I noticed in the hands of several of them tickets other than the regular Democratic ticket. In several instances they were, I thought, Greenback or Labor Reform tickets. As they came up to the chairman of the Democratic city committee that gentleman snatched those tickets from their hands, told them that they did not want to vote that ticket, but that the ticket that he offered them was the regular Democratic ticket and was the one that they wanted to vote. They took the ticket from him and, to the best of my knowledge, deposited it in the box. Q. That was the Butler ticket?-A. General Butler's name was upon the regular Democratic and also upon the Greenback ticket, but there was a difference between the two tickets as to the candidate for Congress, one having the name of John K. Tarbox for Representative and the other that of Mr. Stevens as the nominee of the Greenback party. That was the only case of direct intimidation, if you might so term it, that came to my notice. Q. I saw a statement in some of the public prints that you had been an intimidator in connection with the election in some way.-A. I saw that statement the next day after the election. General Butler, in an interview with the correspondent or reporter of the Herald, said, among other things, that he had been informed (I believe that was the language) that ex-Mayor Stott had forcibly taken one of his workmen to the polls and made him vote for Talbot against his wishes, or something to that effect. I afterwards read accounts of it in the New York Tribune or some of the New York papers, in which the writer even went so far as to represent that I had taken the man from the factory, brought him to the polls, and had gone with him up to the ballot box. Q. You may state any circumstance that did take place.—A. As I have said, I considered the election to be one of sufficient importance for me to give the entire day to it. Governor Talbot was a warm personal friend of mine, and some time previous, in talking with him in regard to the election, I asked him what I could do to assist him. I asked him," Would it do you any good if I were to take the stump a while?" I suppose he was aware of the extent of my abilities in that direction, as he did not accept my offer very readily. He said that the trouble with this election was that the Republicans seemed to be too quiet; that we wanted personal effort put into the campaign, and that if the influential Republicans of the State would put their shoulders to the wheel there could be no doubt of the result of the election. I thought it important, therefore, to give my time to the election that day; and, as I have stated, I stood near the polls as the voters came up, not with a design to intimidate any, but for the purpose of stopping any who might come with a false ticket in their hands; that is, with General Butler's name pasted over Mr. Talbot's. Now, if you do not know it, I do know it, that in Lowell a majority of the voters are very ignorant, and when one of that class comes to vote and gets to the voting place, where there are perhaps one hundred and fifty persons present, he is immediately surrounded by vote distributors on every side, and, if he does not know by the names upon it the ticket that he wants to vote, he finds it pretty difficult for him to select it. Consequently, I knew that many men voted contrary to their wishes. The Republican ticket, as you gentlemen have probably learned from the testimony you have had, was a peculiar ticket; one that could be seen of all men. I stood by with the Republican ticket and when I saw a gentleman come with that ticket (in fact, having been there all my life, all the gentlemen of the ward were known to me) I would say, "Have you the regular Republican ticket?" In some cases they would answer" Yes," and go on. In other cases, upon a ticket being unfolded, the fact would be disclosed that the name “ Benjamin F. Butler" had been pasted over the name "Thomas Talbot," and I would say, "You see they have pasted that ticket." They would throw down the ticket in disgust, take one from me, and put that one in the box. Toward the close of the day I stepped out toward the center of the ward As he came room, and just then a man in our employ came in to vote. in he was fairly beset by these ward distributors, who completely covered him over with ballots. I suppose that he had nineteen or twenty when he got to where I was. I said to him, " John, this is the regular ticket." These men around him said, "No interfering with this man;" and I took him by the shoulder and said, "Let this man alone, let this man vote as he pleases; " gave him a little push and he went toward the polls. I never knew what ticket he voted until one day about a month afterwards when I asked him, "John, what ticket did you put in the box the other day?" He replied, "Why, I put in the regular Republican ticket; I always vote that ticket." So far as my own connection with the intimidation or bulldozing of voters in Lowell is concerned, that is the gist of it. Q. This man has been always, or for many years, a Republican ?—A. As far as my knowledge goes, he has always been a Republican. Q. And you understood him to be a Republican at that time?—A. I did. Q. State any doings you have observed on the part of Democrats which were calculated to intimidate voters; anything which shows any intimidating or class influence over the Irish vote of your city by the more intelligent individuals of their own race or from other sources ?— A. I hardly know that I can call it intimidation. I think that with us, in Lowell, nearly everybody is allowed to vote as he pleases. But I have noticed that of late years the vote distributors of the Democratic party are largely of the Irish nationality, young Irishmen (either hired to distribute the tickets or doing it because they prefer that party), who would surround those of their associates or of their own nationality who came into the ward-room and fix their tickets, so to speak. That is the phrase they use, I believe, "fix the ticket." If there is any one running on some other ticket whose name they want to substitute for another, they "paste it," as they use the term. The men coming to vote would be surrounded by these men, who would quite keep control of them, oftentimes, until they got quite up to the polling box. It those voters were approached by Republicans or given a Republican ticket, whoever made the approach would be simply driven away, though only by language, of course; by expressions such as "You can't have this man," or words to that effect. As far as intimidation is concerned, I consider that there is none in Massachusetts. Q. On either side?-A. None on either side particularly, except in an instance such as that which I have related that came under my own observation in regard to the chairman of the Democratic city committee. Q. Is there not, comparatively, a larger laboring population in your State than in any other of the manufacturing States?—A. I am not able to speak as to that. A large proportion of our operatives are females. Q. What is the present population of Lowell?-A. About fifty thousand. Q. Is that next to Boston the largest city of the commonwealth ?A. I think that Lowell and Worcester are very near together, and that the difference is in favor of Worcester by a few hundred voters. I think we have on the voting-list about 9,000 voters Q. You have been connected with the manufacturing business all your life? A. Yes, sir. Q. And necessarily have an extensive knowledge of it throughout the State. At that election or at the Presidential election of 1876, did you know of any intimidation of the operatives on the part of their employers?-A. I never did. |