3.-Minor applications.

By law any alien having resided in the United States five years, including three years next preceding arriving at the age of 21 years, may be naturalized without having made a declaration, in some court, two years before admission to citizenship, of his intention to become a citi zen, such declaration being required in most other cases.

It must be manifest that many thousands of certificates of naturalization were fraudulently issued as upon "minor applications," to avoid the necessity of the previous declaration. Out of 10,093 naturalizations in the supreme court in October, 9,711 profess to be "minor applications," leaving only 382 for "soldier" applications; and of those having made previous declaration-.16

16 Evidence, 7594.

Days on which witnesses appear and the number of times each witness appears on the naturalization papers filed in the supreme court, county and State of New York, during the month of October, 1868, from the 8th to the 23d of said month, inclusive.

Total.

230 258 144 277 241 356 230 139 181 184 216 186 107 2,749

Number of papers examined....†1,089 700 915 766 557 841 788 617 933 909 755 659 564 10,093 1,053 670 851 742 541 813 757 595 899 874 726 642 548 9,711

Number of minor papers.....

*Numbers marked thus (*) show a difference from the paper heretofore sworn to, for the reason that said paper was made a part of the evidence before all the naturalization papers of the dates therein were examined, except as to James Goff and Patrick Goff, when the one was taken for the other.

† 590 of Cetober 8th and 9th were examined by Mr. Glassey.

In the superior court an examination of 17,572 applications17 shows

17 Evidence, 7671:

that 13,541 were "minor," leaving only 4,031 on "declarations of intention" and for "soldiers." It is not possible that there could have been any such number of minor applications.

There was a republican naturalization committee, with an office at 25 Chambers street, organized "for the purpose of aiding applicants for naturalization in getting their papers, to which the various ward clubs and associations" sent parties, and for whom applications were made." 18 "The whole business of naturalization of the republican party" was transacted through that office. This committee refused to employ any "professional witness," 19 and they kept a careful record of all persons naturalized.

The total number was..

Of these there were "minor applications".

On previous declaration of intention.

Soldier applications...

2,085 1, 237 549

299

Less than 60 per cent. of these were "minor applications." Mr. Jarvis, the clerk of the common pleas, testifies that of the naturalizations in that court in 1868, "about one-half were minors”—he "made that estimate."20 But assuming that 60 per cent. is a legitimate proportion, then, of the 10,093 applications admitted to be in the supreme court, only 6,056 would be "minors," showing 3,655 fraudulent; and of the 17,572 applications examined in the superior court only 10,543 would be "minors," showing 3,000 fraudulent; making an aggregate of 6,655 fraudulent, on this ground alone, in the naturalizations of 24 days !21

4.-Extensive preparations.

Although in every county of New York there is a county court in permanent session22 authorized to naturalize aliens, yet for some reason many naturalizations for various counties were effected in the courts of New York city. The supreme court for the first time in its history engaged in the work.23 Notwithstanding the fact that the annual average number of naturalizations in the city in all the State courts was only 9,207, yet there was printed by the New York Printing Company, on the order of the clerks of these two courts, or their deputies, between September 16 and October 23, 105,000 blank applications 18 Evidence, 4880.

19 Evidence, 4824-4880. For democratic professional witnesses see tables in preceding notes, and 93, 7606, 7648, 4664, 1369, 1425.

20 Evidence, 2012. He accounts for many minor applications of prior years by reason of the registry law of 1865, requiring the production of a certificate of naturalization even of persons who were citizens by the naturalization of their parents during their minority. But this cannot well be deemed the true construction of the law. Evidence, page 326. As three years elapsed since this law was passed, it could not materially increase the "minor applications" of 1868.

And see Evidence, 4172, 7504, 7523, 7557, 7550. Judge Garvin swears:

4484. Q. How did the number of minors who applied for naturalization this year compare with the number who applied the previous year? A. I do not know that there was any larger proportion of minors this year than other years.

21 Henry Lyle testifies:

4769. Q. State, if you can, what proportion of persons for whom you procured certificates of naturalization was on blanks for applicants who came to the United States under 18 years of age.-A. They were all, except two or three.

4770. Q. State whether any persons for whom you made out applications did really come to the United States under 18 years of age.-A. Perhaps a few of them did.

4773. Q. Among the applicants for whom you procured certificates of naturalization on the ground that they came to this country under 18 years of age, were there any very old men?-A. Yes, sir; a great many.

22 Evidence, 7555.

23 Evidence, 1952.

for and 69,000 certificates of naturalization; 24 of which there were for the supreme court from September 16 to October 22, 75,000 blank applications and 39,000 certificates of naturalization, and for the superior court 30,000 applications and 30,000 certificates; showing a purpose to issue, if required, 69,000 certificates. These were not all procured at once, but on different days, ordered from time to time-in the supreme court 10,000 certificates being procured as late as October 20, and in the superior court 10,000 as late as October 15.

But this does not seem to have supplied the demand. Various naturalization committees and offices established under the control of Tammany Hall were supplied with "several thousand" naturalization blanks to be used in the courts, which were printed for these offices.2

The fees of the clerks of courts on the applications which passed through these offices were arranged by "red tickets," to be subsequently paid by Tammany Hall, of which over 40,000 were furnished to the committee.26

These preparations for extensive naturalization are inconsistent with any legitimate purpose.

For the supreme court, which never naturalized before October 6, up to that day 45,000 blank applications and 14,000 certificates were procured, and although this is nearly 4,000 more than the records show to have been issued, yet 30,000 additional blank applications and 25,000 additional blank certificates were procured, 10,000 of which were within three days of the time the work of naturalizing closed.

Charles E. Wilbur testifies:

2168. I am president of the New York Printing Company, and have been since its commencement, two or three years ago. We printed naturalization blanks for the various courts this year as follows: For the superior court: October 2, 10,000 certificates of naturalization; October 8, 10,000 certificates of naturalization; October 15, 10,000 certificates of naturalization; October 3, 10,000 applications; October 16, 20,000 applications of four or five different kinds. I believe they were delivered to the officers of the court; that is our custom. We printed for the supreme court: October 6, 5,000 certificates of naturalization; October 12, 5,000 certificates of naturalization; October 15, 10,000 certificates of naturalization; October 20, 10,600 certificates of naturalization; October 6, 25,000 applications-5,000 each of five different kinds; October 12, 5,000 applications; October 13, 10,000 applications; October 16, 5,000 applications; October 19, 5.000 applications; October 22, 5,000 applications. They were delivered, I believe, to the officers of the court. The aggregates are: for the superior court, 30,000 certificates of naturalization and 30,000 applications; for the supreme court, 30 000 certificates of naturalization and 60,000 applications. I know no reason why there should be more applications in the supreme court than in the superior. I should suppose there would be two or three times as Eany applications needed as certificates. I do not recollect our having printed naturalization certificates for the supreme court prior to this time. There may be many blanks on hand in the offices of the clerks of the courts; there are none in our office. The company is a stock company.

4138. I wish to state that in addition to the number of certificates of naturalization and applications printed by the New York Printing Company, of which I gave evidence before, I have found that on the 16th of Sep. tember we furnished to the supreme court 10,000 applications and 9,000 certificates, and on the 19th of Sep. tember 10.000 applications.

We did not furnish blank applications to any other parties than the clerks of the court. We did not furnish any to the Tammany committee.

Evidence, 3331, 3355, 3362. Moses D. Gale, chairman of the Tammany Hall naturalization committee, testifies :

We had an office at the corner of Centre street and Tryon Row, in the basement. It was in a lager-beer saloon kept by a man named Pfeffe, at No. 1 Centre street. There was a branch office

at Tammany. 3336 Q. How many persons were employed at this particular office, No. 1 Centre street?-A. I think in the Beighborhood of 20.

3362. Q. How many sets of naturalization blanks did you procure and furnish?-A. That I cannot say; I certified to Mr. Pickford's bill and referred it to the finance committee. Blanks were ordered as they were wanted. I should think there were several thousand of them.

*Gale says:

A. My impression is that there were over 40,000 tickets furnished to the committee. How many were left I do not know."-Evidence, 3361-3377.

All this must have had some purpose.27 And this purpose was so well understood that certificates of naturalization in large numbers were issued for aliens residing in other counties who never appeared in court.

II.-SPECIFIC EVIDENCE OF VARIOUS FRAUDS.

1.-Naturalization certificates fraudulently procured or issued in October, 1868, to persons never appearing in court.

That certificates of naturalization were issued in great numbers from the supreme and superior courts28 especially the former, and were delivered to persons who never appeared in court or took any oath of allegiance, and all of which were therefore fraudulent and void, is proved by evidence so abundant that it would be impracticable here to refer to it. In the language of one of the witnesses they were sent broadcast all over the city."29

The fact was notorious,30 and could not be otherwise.

INDIVIDUAL INSTANCES.

Individual instances in great numbers were proved," but it was impracticable to pursue the inquiry further in a field so extensive.

30 Evidence, 276, 296, pages 26-28; Evidence, 2847, 3088, 3768.

31 Evidence, 263, 305, (2,) 334, 180, (5,) 413, 425, (14,) 442, (several;) 468, (12,) 488, 493, 509, (4,) 516, (2,) 630, (9,) 637, (2,) 740, 767, 775, 784, 925, (4,) 1032, 1068, 1080, 1086, 1107, 1122, (5,) 1133, 1252, (3,) 1469, 1783, 1806, 1966, 1978, (20,) 2061, (30,) 2099, 2103, 2264, 2416, 2779, 2805, (14,) 2932, (several;) 3299, 4132, 4163, 4599, (15,) 5543, (5.) 27791, (25,) 2930, 3299. Marshal Murray proves 150 to 175 surrendered and destroyed. Evidence, 12, 604, 607, 614, 617, 624. See Evidence, pages 31, 32, 34, 35, 40, 41, 43, 44, 46, 47, 85; Evidence, 1846.

Theodore Allen, 9171, says:

James Goff and his brother were engaged in procuring naturalization certificates. I saw a number of papers that were sent to Connecticut. I saw the two Goffs have 500 naturalization papers that they had sold for 50 cents apiece to send to Connectiut. I suppose 1,000 were sent to Brooklyn that I saw them have. They contracted for these papers, they said, at 50 cents a head. They were to send them to Brooklyn and Hartford, I believe.