Charges of Corruption in Election of John Lee Carroll

(To enlarge print, click on the picture, then click again when the magnifying glass appears.) From the New York Times, November 3, 1895, p. 3.

Arthur Pue Gorman, born in Howard County, Maryland, had been president of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal before entering politics directly. For decades, he was the Democratic political boss of Maryland, and did much to elect John Lee Carroll governor in 1875. Charges of political corruption in the election emerged at the time, but the state legislature decided Carroll had beaten his opponent, J. Morrison Harris, a "Know Nothing" candidate. Years after the election, several men came forward to admit to stuffing the ballot boxes for Carroll under Gorman's instruction. Despite the prediction that Gorman would be defeated, he served as United States Senator from 1880-1899 and again from 1903 until his death in 1906. As the head of the Democratic National Committee, he engineered the election of Grover Cleveland to the presidency, the first Democrat elected after the Civil War.