"Written to Ellis Meredith by H. B. Tedson [?]in reply to an attack on suffrage in Colo. Comparing their state to NebNov. 27, 1904.Dear Ellis;-I supposed you want the inside facts of certain political deals in Nebraska to be able to answer any accusation of venality that may be brought against Colorado politics as a reflection upon equal suffrage. I will give you a few and you can use them in your own way, if deemed expedient. About 1890 we had three governors of the state: Powers, Populist, who claimed to have been elected, Boyd, Democrat, who claimed the same, and Thayer, Republican, who held over because he said he did not know that either of the other two was elected, and Boyd was not a citizen. Both Boyd and Thayer appointed adjutant generals and both had militia as adherents. Thayer held the executive chambers in the capitol building, but Boyd took up his station in the same building with his adjutant-general and militia. Meanwhile Powers, who was probably honestly elected to the office, refused to appeal to the sword, counselled patience to his followers, and in the end, lost the office. Among other enlivening incidents was the breaking down of the door to the assembly hall by a big negro armed with an ax. Said negro was backed by a mob of Republicans. The supreme court of Nebraska declared Boyd not a citizen of the state or U. S. and seated Thayer, who held the office for about 9 months, as I recall, when the Supreme Court of the U. S. decided Boyd was a citizen of the U. S. and state and Boyd became the governor. So far as I know, no state official of Colorado has ever been put in the penitentiary. The state treasurer of Nebraska"
"named Barton, who \held the sack\ at the tail end of a long list of defaulting Republican treasurers, who had passed their defalcations on from man to man, was sent up for a good long term as soon as the republicans lost the state. He served a part of his term, and I had the satisfaction of seeing him in the penitentiary, (he was keeping the green-house there), but has been pardoned. The Omaha Bee, run by Edward E. Rosewater, a Jew, is as rotten and unprincipled as any Denver paper, the Post not excepted. The state of Nebraska knows this to be a fact. The Bee, of course, is Republican. Nebraska has furnished a presidential candidate, but four years ago Colorado furnished, I think, the chairman of four national conventions. Wolcott, Republican; Thomas, Democrat; Patterson, Populist; and Hipp (wasn't it?) Prohibition. I imagine you couldn't touch a sorer spot politically in Nebraska than try by referring to Senator Dietrich. He was indicted for \selling the mighty space of his large office for so much trash as may be grasped thus; \to be more plain, selling the post-office at Hastings. Dietrich lives at Hastings, which is my old home, and I know all the parties concerned in this, but the senator's trial in Omaha enlightened the country pretty generally. Had Dietrich allowed the case to reach trial upon its merits and been acquitted, we would not be justified in saying so much; but the case was dismissed upon his motion, upon a mere technicality; to-wit, that the grafting occurred before he had formally take"
"-3-the oath, and at that tie he was not a U.S. senator, and the statue did not quite reach that far. The rational [presumption?] must be that Dietrich was as guilty as Burton of Kansas, who did not have the technicality to fall back upon and was convict"
"of the state, the irate tax pays took the county treasurer out one dark night, strangled him and threw his dead body into the Niobrara river, where it was found some days later. The treasurer's name, as I remember was Barrett Scott. He was accused or corruption in office. The city of treasurer of Omaha was sentenced; in about 1895 or 1896, to nineteen years in the penitentiary for dishonesty. At Hastings, Adam County, we had a defaulting treasurer in 1891, and at that time I was told there was not one county in the state of Nebraska that had not at some time in its history had a de[fa]ulter in public office. The Adams county treasurer was named Paul, and his bondsmen were called the Paul bearers. In the investigation of the records back to the beginning, which took place in Adams County at this time, one of his predecessors, it was found, had believed himself to be short a few hundred dollars and put that much of his own money into the treasury. The amount was returned to his widow, I think. This was refreshing. I think Silas A. Holcomb lives at Broken Bow. He was the first anti-Republican governor of the state had, elected in 1893?. He was a Pop and elected by fusion and the vulnerability of his Republican opponent Thomas Majors, \Tattooed Tom,\ one of the most conspicuous railroad grafters in the state. He [--] always wore a blue-shirt and was called, by his friends, \He of the Hickory Shirt,\ but the Omaha bee owned by Rosewater personal enemy."
"never referred to him in any other way than, \The Honorable Bilk from Nemaha.\ He hailed from Nemaha County. Holcomb was reelected to the governship and subsequently to the supreme bench. My observation of Fillmore County (where Geneva is) has been gained by passage through it on the train. It is a good farming section, the second county directly east of my own house. Nebraska has furnished one cabinet officer, J. Sterling Morton of Nebraska City, secretary of Agriculture under Cleveland. He is the only cabinet officer known to history who, after he had investigated the workings of his office, advocated the abolishment of the office. He said there was no need for such a department. He is the father of Arbor Day, having originated the idea. I have one of his personal cards. In one corner is an engraving of a tree and beneath the command, \Plant Trees.\ He is now dead. Colorado, of course, has furnished its cabinet officer in Teller, secretary of the Interior under Arthur. There have hardly been half a doz. cabinet officers from west of the Missouri. A friend of mine in Nebraska about eight years ago with another slept in the corridor of the capitol building in front of the door to the governor's room at a time when a bill was before the governor, to prevent it being stolen. In the night they heard a window raised and some one stealing down the corridor. The person came to one of the doors leading into the governor's chambers, when they took after him, but he got away. The watchers were not hired, you understand, simply volunteers, in-"
"interested in the passage of a public measure. in the old days there was always what they called an \oil room\ in the capitol building, where legislators looked upon the wine when it was multi-colored. I suppose it is still there. There was graft in putting down the stone walks in an about the capitol grounds, which came in for its share of exposure. Nebraska has always been dominated by railroads, the U. P. and B. & M. There was never an U. S. Senator elected, until Allen, whose election was not dictated by the railroads, and I think, in fact, Allen's was the only one never no dictated in that state. I have given you all the gossip I can think of at this time. In a nutshell, it shows that there has been just as much corruption there as any place else. Colorado could not have been worse at its worst. Sincerely, T"
, Record was created after a suffrage transcription project. Inscriptions and keywords were created by Digital Volunteers in the Zooniverse crowdsourcing platform. Inscriptions have only been spot-checked but have not been checked one-by-one for accuracy.