alstead
on the 28th of September, and on the evening of that day the governor
made a speech at the Music Hall, Cincinnati, in which he referred
to Mr. Campbell having introduced the bill for the purchase of the
ballot box. On the 4th of October, Halstead published in the
"Commercial-Gazette" a fac-simile of the false paper, with the name
of Campbell alone, the names of the other apparent signers not
being given in the fac-simile and nothing being said about them.
On the 8th of October I was informed that it was whispered about
Cincinnati that my name, with many others, was attached to the
paper. I at once telegraphed that if this were so the signature
was a forgery.

When I spoke at Orrville two days later I did not allude to the
subject, regarding the whole thing as an election canard which
would correct itself. In a brief time this became true. The whole
paper was proven to be a forgery. The alleged signatures were made
on tracing paper, from franks on documents distributed by Congressmen.
All this was done by Wood, or by his procurement, in order to get
an office through Governor Foraker. Halstead, on the 11th of
October, published in his paper, over his own name, a statement
that Mr. Campbell's signature was fraudulent, no mention being made
of the other alleged signers of the paper. Subsequently, on the
10th of November, after the election, Foraker wrote a letter to
Halstead giving a narrative of the mode by which he was misled into
believing the paper to be genuine.

It has always seemed strange to me that Foraker, having in his
possession a paper which implicated Butterworth, McKinley and
myself, in what all men would regard as a dishonorable transaction,
did not inform us and give us an opportunity to deny, affirm or
explain our alleged signatures. An inquiry from him to either of
the persons named would have led to an explanation at once. No
doubt Foraker believed the signatures genuine, but that should not
have deterred him from making the inquiry.

On the 12th of November, I wrote the following letter to Halstead:

"Senate Chamber, }
"Washington, November 12, 1889.}
"My Dear Sir:--Now that the election is over, I wish to impress
upon you the importance of making public the whole history of the
'forged paper' about ballot boxes.

"While you believed in the genuineness of Campbell's signature you
were entirely right in exposing him and the signers of the paper,
for if it was