Morey letter

The Morey letter was a letter that appeared during the 1880 United States presidential election. It was purportedly from James A. Garfield, the Republican presidential candidate, and suggested that Garfield was in favor of Chinese immigration. It was subsequently declared a forgery.[1]

the morey letter

Origin

The Morey letter was thought to be a forgery emanating from Democratic Party operatives, and produced a backlash against the Democrats. While never proven, there was much public speculation at the time that Stanley Huntley, journalist at the Brooklyn Eagle and creator of the Spoopendyke humor stories, was the author of the Morey letter. Huntley himself had made fun of the question of who wrote the letter in one of his stories.

the story

Garfield received a telegraph on October 20th, 1880, asking the soon to be president and congressmen at the time about a letter he wrote regarding the Chinese question. The Chinese question involves the question of the railroad companies immigrating Chinese people for work. Later that same day, he received the text of the letter. The letter was written on House of Representative official stationery dated January 23, 1880. The letter was addressed to H. L. Morey of the Employers Union in Lynn, Massachusetts. Henry Lee Morey was a politician, who lived from 1841-1902. the letter stated, “individuals and companies have the right to buy labor where they can get it cheapest”, And it goes on to touch upon how the treaty with china should stay in effect until the end of Americas manufacturing needs are fulfilled from the cheap labor.[2]

The following day a newspaper out of the busy city of New York, entitled The Truth, featured the letter in that day’s paper with a quote from a reporter saying that a friend of Garfield’s had confirmed that the handwriting was indeed Garfield’s. democrats used this letter to their advantage and started to print and circulate the letter wherever they could. They were able to get over half a million copies out. The democrats put the letter in store windows, and sent it to areas with a great deal of Chinese immigrants, where the issue would have the most controversy. The letter was an October surprise that the democrats thought would flip the vote to their favor. They even called the letter “Garfield’s death warrant”.[3]

When all of this was happening, the republicans were playing defense and so was Garfield. Garfield requested a photo reproduction of the letter, and once he laid eyes upon it, he felt confident to deny that he wrote the letter. Garfield publicly denied that the letter was his hand writing. He stated that it was a “manifestly bungling attempt to copy [his] hand and signature”. During this time, the republicans also sent an investigator to Lynn, Massachusetts to try to find any trace of the letter. The investigator could not find H. L. Morey, or the location of the Employers Union. Shortly after this, Garfield wrote and told the republican national committee to reproduce a letter of him denying that the letter was his.

Garfield’s real letter did not get published by any newspaper for about a week, and was often printed side by side with the Morey Letter. this fueled the democrats to say that the delay was evidence of Garfield’s guilt. Most voters eventually thought the letter was a forgery, and just another political trick to win votes.

References
  1. Gyory, Andrew (October 24, 2004). "The Phony Document that Almost Cost a President His Election". History News Network. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
  2. "Garfield's death warrant. That letter in which he advocates an extended Chinese immigration --- He advises that employer's union of Lynn, Mass., "that the question of employees is only a question of private and corporate economy" ---Read, Workin". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  3. "Garfield's death warrant. That letter in which he advocates an extended Chinese immigration --- He advises that employer's union of Lynn, Mass., "that the question of employees is only a question of private and corporate economy" ---Read, Workin". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.