The NY Times and Washington Post Agree: Mail-In Voting Was Rigged From The Very Beginning By Corrupt Democrats To Deny The Civil Rights Of Republicans and Keep Black Americans In Chains!

"Democracy Dies In Darkness--Now More Than Ever!"

"There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know."--Pres. Harry S Truman

Mail-in ballots were part of a plot to deny Lincoln reelection in 1864

by Dustin Waters, The Washington Post, Saturday, August 22, 2020

"Traveling to Baltimore in the fall of 1864, Orville Wood had no way of knowing he would soon uncover the most elaborate election conspiracy in America's brief history.

Wood was a merchant from Clinton County in the most northeastern corner of New York. As a supporter of President Abraham Lincoln, he was tasked with visiting troops from his hometown to "look after the local ticket."

New York legislators had only established the state's mail-in voting system in April with the intent of ensuring the suffrage of White troops battling the Confederate Army.

The results of the 1864 elections would heavily affect the outcome of the war. Lincoln and his supporters in the National Union Party sought to continue the war and defeat the Confederacy outright. Meanwhile antiwar Democrats, also referred to as Copperheads, looked for an immediate compromise with the Confederate leaders and the end of the abolition movement.

Troops from New York were allowed to authorize individuals back home to cast a vote on their behalf. Along with their mail-in ballots, troops would assign their power of attorney on slips that required four signatures: the voter's, the person authorized as a recipient, a witness to the signed affidavit and a fellow officer. These documents would be sealed in an envelope and shipped back home to be counted in the final vote. This was the process that Orville Wood intended to uphold, he would testify in court later. He quickly found out what a challenge that would be.

Wood arrived at Fort McHenry in Baltimore to visit with the 91st New York Regiment. There, an Army captain suggested that there had been some "checker playing" when it came to the gathering of soldiers' mail-in ballots. These suspicions of fraud were echoed when Wood visited wounded men at the Newton University Hospital. The rumors of wrongdoing led Wood to the office of Moses Ferry in Baltimore.

Ferry had been selected by New York Gov. Horatio Seymour to help oversee the voting process for New York's enlisted men. Seymour had vetoed the initial bill to establish mail-in voting and would go on to run against Ulysses S. Grant in the 1868 presidential election.

Wood masked his suspicions as he entered Ferry's office, portraying himself as a strong supporter of Lincoln's opponent, George McClellan. This was enough to gain Ferry's trust, he testified later.

Ferry told Wood that the votes from New York's 91st Regiment had already been tallied: 400 for McClellan and 11 for Lincoln.

Wood returned to the office later and, following Ferry's instructions, began forging signatures of the 16th New York Cavalry. Meanwhile, a clerk sat across the room signing ballots from the roster of names Wood had brought with him from home. Wood asked to personally deliver these fraudulent ballots, but Ferry said they would have to receive final approval from his colleague in Washington - Edward Donahue Jr.

Donahue soon arrived in Baltimore and met with Wood. It was revealed during this conversation that around 20 co-conspirators were already at work in D.C. to aid in the plot to deliver votes to McClellan. The following day Wood watched as Donahue and his crew formed a sort of assembly line, passing blank papers along to one another to be signed with the names of active enlisted men, wounded and dead soldiers, and officers who never existed.

In addition to operations in D.C. and Baltimore, the scheme extended back to New York. Donahue had received rosters of soldiers from military officials and members of law enforcement. A letter from Gen. J.A. Ferrell read, "Inclosed in this package you will find tickets, also a list of names of the actual residents of Columbia County, now members of the 128th Regiment. With my best wishes for your success."

A letter from Albany Sheriff H. Cromdell offered to send additional men to assist in Baltimore. The letter read, "All is well here, and we are confident of complete success. It is unnecessary to say that all here have entire confidence in your skill and abetting, and hope you like your help."

Also discovered in Ferry's office was a list of around 400 names belonging to sick and wounded soldiers under treatment at a nearby hospital. In reference to the roster, Ferry joked, "Dead or alive, they all had cast a good vote."

Ferry, Donahue, and their fellow conspirators found humor in their work. One accomplice mocked the outcry he expected from abolitionist newspapers following the corruption of the election. The men bragged about their past successes in fixing local elections back home.

Together, the men had shipped crates of fraudulent votes back to New York. But their scheme was over. Wood reported the operation to authorities. Ferry's office was searched, and on the morning of Oct. 27, 1864 - less than two weeks before the election - he and Donahue stood trial before a military commission.

Ferry offered a full confession that same day, even offering up the names of others involved in the scheme. Donahue proved more of a challenge.

Following the first day of the trial, a reporter for the New York Times wrote, "The honest electors of the state of New York have escaped an extensive and fearful fraud, a fraud in keeping with the proclivities of the party in whose behalf it was initiated, but one that, if unexposed might have subverted the honest will of the people and left the state and the nation at the mercy of those who would make peace with rebellion and fellowship with traitors."

Arrests in New York and Washington continued to mount as Donahue returned to trial. Following Wood's damning testimony and supporting evidence, Donahue begged for mercy from the court. He was a young man, newly married, with no previous record. He visibly wilted as he realized the weight of his current situation, no longer expressing the defiance with which he had entered the proceedings.

The judge advocate addressed the tribunal, saying that Donahue had engaged in one of the most gigantic frauds ever attempted in America - "a fraud which, if it shall be successful, will, in my opinion, have produced a disruption of our entire country, and our war for the preservation of the Union will be practically at an end and futile."

In the months following Lincoln's victory - he won 221 electoral votes to McClellan's 21 - anti-abolitionist newspapers attacked his legitimacy, calling the trial another aspect of a conspiracy conducted by the president to ensure his reelection.

The commission that oversaw Ferry and Donahue's trial recommended life in prison for the two men who sought to corrupt the election by mail. The president, who would soon be slain, approved.".......

Oct. 28, 1864  FURTHER DETAILS.; From Washington Further Arrests A Number of Parties Implicated. The Frauds on the New-York Electors in the Army. Arrest of New-York Election Agents.

Special Dispatch to the New-York Times.

BALTIMORE, Thursday, Oct. 27.

Some days since it became apparent that the Copperhead managers in the State of New-York had conceived and were executing some system of frauds, by which they expected to carry the State at the Presidential election, by overriding the will of the legal voters. Measures were immediately taken to discover the nature and extent of their frauds, and in a short time the authorities had in their possession evidence sufficient to justify the arrest of two of the Copperhead State agents, who were carrying on their operations in Baltimore and Washington. Yesterday, the Secretary of War issued an order directing the Military Commission, of which Gen. DOUBLEDAY is President, to immediately proceed with the trial of EDWARD DONA HUR, Jr., and M.J. FERRY, who were hold as prisoners at Baltimore. The Court met, this morning, at Barnum's Hotel. Col. JOHN A. FOSTER, of the One Hundred and Seventy-fifth New-York Volunteers, acting as Judge-Advocate. ALEXANDER N. HARVEY, Esq., of Buffalo, was present, to watch the proceedings and to assist in eliciting the character and ramifications of the alleged frauds. The prisoners being arraigned, the following charges and specifications were read, to which they were required to plead:

CHARGES AND SPECIFICATIONS PREFERRED AGAINST EDWARD DONAHUE, JR., AND MOSRS J. FERRY.

Charge -- Conduct prejudicial to the welfare of the service. Falsely personating and representing officers and soldiers in the United States service, and, in such assumed capacity, falsely and fraudulently signing and forging names or officers and soldiers in such service. Specification -- In this, that said EDWARD DONAHUE, Jr., and M.J. FEERY, being ostensibly authorized as the agents of the State of New-York for the purpose of receiving the votes of the soldiers of the United States, electors of the State of New-York, at the general election to be held on the eighth day of November, 1864, did falsely and fraudulently personate the officers and soldiers who have been, or now are, or who purport to be, in the military service of the United States, and did falsely and fraudulently sign and forge, and also caused to be signed and forged to the blanks issued under and pursuant to Chapter 253 of the laws of the State of New-York, passed April 21, 1864, entitled "An act to enable qualified electors of the State absent there-from, and in the military service of the United States, in the army, and navy thereof, to vote," names purporting to be the names of officers, and soldiers in the service of the United States, and qualified electors of the State of New-York, and absent therefrom; said blanks being issued under said laws and intended to be used for the purpose of transmitting the vote of the soldiers signing the same to his proper attorney, to be used at the general election to be held in said State on the 8th day of November, 1864. All this being done by the said DONAHUE and FERRY with the intent and for the purpose of having such blanks so signed, used as and for the act and deed of the officers and soldiers whose names purported to be signed thereto, and in fraud of their rights as such electors; all this at the cities of Baltimore and Washington during the month of October, 1864."

The Judge Advocate, after reading the charge and specification, called upon the prisoners to plead. Mr. FERRY stated he plead guilty to a part of the charge and specification; he had signed some papers, but not all with which he was charged. Upon being informed that he could plead the exact facts, and understanding the nature of his plea, Mr. FERRY stated he desired some time to recruit his health and to obtain counsel. He named a gentleman in Baltimore, who was sent for. DONAHUE then objected to be tried by a military commission, and also to being tried separate from Mr. FERRY. He then plead not guilty to the accusation, and asked delay in order to obtain counsel. He desired REVERDY JOHNSON to be sent for, but he not being in the city he asked a sufficient delay to enable him to send to Albany. The court complied with this request, and adjourned until to-morrow morning at 10 o'clock. DONAHUE then telegraphed to Hon. SANFORD E. CHURCH, New-York, and to PETER CAGGER, at Albany, with the expectation that one of those gentlemen will be present to act as his counsel.

LEO.

SECOND DISPATCH.

BALTIMORE, Thursday, Oct. 27.

After the adjournment of the Military Commission this morning, Mr. M.J. FERRY, the most respectable of the two prisoners put on trial to-day, stated to the Judge-Advocate that he desired to make a confession of all he knew in connection with those fraudulent and forged papers. His request was complied with, and his confession was written out in the usual form of questions and answers. When he had concluded the court reassembled, and Judge-Advocate FOSTER made to the court a statement embodying the facts confessed by FERRY, which I have thus condensed:

CONFESSION OF M.J. JERRY, THE STATE AGENT OF GOV. SEYMOUR.

I do not recollect the time when the first papers were forged, but it was in the presence of ORVILLE K. WOOD, of Clinton County, New-York. It was done in my office, No. 85 Fayette-street, Baltimore. I am, and have been for the past two years, the agent of the State of New-York, appointed by Gov. SEYMOUR, to look after the sick and wounded soldiers of New-York. I first saw WOOD on Wednesday of last week at my office. He came and represented himself as an agent of the Central Committee of his county to look after its local ticket. We talked about the way in which votes could be taken, It was agreed that we should sign the names of officers and soldiers, and then send them home to have the local tickets filled in. I made out such papers. I signed the names of soldiers on quite a number of them. I cannot tell what names we signed. The papers are in the bundle now on the table. I did not sign the names of officers, but DONAHUE signed any quantity of them. There was a large package of these papers left with me, which I destroyed. That package contained over 200 that DONAHUE had signed. The idea of forging these papers was first suggested by a man named STEPHEN MAXSON. He is from the western part of the State of New-York -- I do not know from what, county. He is not in the service; he is a State agent. I cannot say at what time it was first proposed to forge the papers, but it was about two weeks ago. I do not think there was anybody present but DONAHUE and myself when MAXSON first proposed to forge papers. There was a man named G.M. BUNDY in my office. He is now in New-York. Also, a man named H. NEWCOMB. I never saw him until he came there. He is a lawyer in Albany. Part of the forged papers were made in my office and part brought there. They were usually brought in a bundle tied up. I do not know who brought them. I had no letters from PETER CAGGER except what were found in my desk. I never knew of any correspondence on the subject with Gen. FARREL, the Commissary of Subsistence, except the package which you have. The package contained a lot of blank envelopes and powers of attorney, with a letter from Gen. FARREL, marked "confidential," which contained a list of names of residents of Columbia County. I did not let any one know that I destroyed the forged papers left with me, but told my associates that I sent them to different parts of the State to be mailed. A young man came from Washington on Friday or Saturday last, saying if I had any spare blanks to send them over to Washington. I am not certain whether he did or did not say anything about there being some men over there who could attend to these matters. I do not know how many forged papers were sent off, but I heard them say they sent them from Washington by the dry goods box full. I do not recollect hearing them talk dispairingly, but they talked quite jubilantly. I sent the forged papers to Gen. FARRELL, with the following letter:

BALTlMORE, Oct. 22, 1864.

MY DEAR SIR: If you are energetic, you will be able to get the within votes all arranged for the 8th of November. I should have done more to them, but I have not time. They are all on the equare -- the same as the blacks get theirs. Neither would bear close scrutiny. ED. DONAHUE said send this on to you, and I have done it. Truly, yours,

DEMOCRAT.
M.J. FERRY, NO. 85 West Fayette-street, Baltimore.

P.S. -- They are all soldiers -- companies and regiments all O.K. Of the rest I have nothing to say. If you have no use for them, send them back.

HENRY NEWCOMB, implicated by FERRY, has also made a complete and full confession. The Judge-Advocate was understood to present a plea of guilty on behalf of Mr. FERRY, and to ask on his behalf the clemency of the court.

The court accepted the plea of the prisoners and thus closed the case, leaving DONOHUE to be tried separately as he desired. Developments made to-day show these frauds to have been carefully and skillfully contrived, and that they have been carried through with the most reckless disregard of law. The disclosures also connect leading and influential men of the State of New-York with these attempts to tamper with the ballot boxes, but I am not now at liberty to give their names, fearing that they might through such information, escape arrest and consequent punishment." (cont. here) .......

Peaceful Democrat Protestor John Wilkes Booth

Peaceful Sucker Punch in Church

"Vote Democrat--It's A Kick In The Head!"

Democrat Thugs Sent to Republican Cabinet Secretary's House in Washington, D.C., 2020

Democrat Thugs Sent To Republican Cabinet Secretary's House in Washington D.C., 1864

"Today, they would let me speak at the Democrat Convention."

"We will, sir--we will."