The above clip, from the Judge Julius Rockwell Papers at the Lenox Library, is from a letter written by David Davis (campaign manager to Abraham Lincoln, Supreme Court Justice, and U.S. Senator from Illinois) to his brother-in-law, Judge Julius Rockwell (at one time a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts). The date of the letter is June 25, 1878, and is written on company stationery for Swayne & Swayne, Attorneys at Law, Toledo Ohio. Davis and Rockwell were married to sisters Lucy and Sarah Walker, whose father was Judge William Perrin Walker; at the time of this letter, Rockwell and his wife were living in the Walker family homestead in Lenox.
Davis writes in a free-wheeling style, describing his new son-in-law, the failure of the Illinois corn crop, and his disillusionment with Senate life. But the comment that would most spur Davis to say to Rockwell, “my free comments are for your eyes alone” would be his admission that “that Tilden was cheated” from being elected President. Ironically, Davis was the one man who could have prevented this outcome.
The 1876 presidential election saw the highest voter turnout in U.S. history, as 82% of eligible voters cast ballots. Democratic candidate Samuel Tilden won the popular vote by 250,000 votes. He was one vote shy of winning the 185 electoral votes necessary for victory. The Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, needed 20 votes – and 20 votes were disputed, from the states of Florida, South Carolina, Louisiana, and Oregon. In particular, reports from the three southern states were filled with tales of voter fraud.
The Democrats in those states claimed a majority of the votes; the Republican claimed that African-Americans were whipped into voting for the Democrats, when they were not outright murdered, in a practice termed “bulldozing.” Republicans demanded that in precincts where there was evidence of bulldozing that the results of that precinct, or parish, should be thrown out. Before December 6, 1876 (the date the Electoral College was to formally vote) the three states states sent results from two sets of electors, one composed of Democrats and the other Republicans.
Congress, unable to resolve the dispute, voted on January 25, 1877 to create a special Federal Electoral Commission created, with 15 members – 5 senators, 5 representatives, and 5 Supreme Court justices. The polictical leanings of the legislators were evenly balanced. Four justices were chosen for geographic diversity, and they were charged with choosing the fifth justice. There was every expectation that Justice Davis, the most politically independent member of the Court, would be the choice. In anticipation of that selection, Democrats in the Illinois state legislature elected Davis to the U.S. Senate. Davis agreed to fill the seat – but in doing so, he resigned from the Supreme Court, and the Electoral Commission. The justice who was then chosen as the 15th member of the commission was a Republican, who threw all his votes in favor of Hayes.
Remarkably, when Davis writes this letter, it is 1878, and yet the investigations of election improprieties are still ongoing. No wonder that the people “want the presidential election & the memories of the war buried out of sight, so they can work out their own affairs.”
Coincidentally, one of the members of the Electoral Commission was New Jersey Senator Frederick Frelinghuysen, a Republican, who would later become Secretary of State for President Chester B. Arthur. Frelinghuysen’s widow, Matilda Griswold Frelinghuysen, would hire the architectural firm of Rotch & Tilden to design a summer cottage at the top of Kemble Street in Lenox – right next door to the Walker family homestead.