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Show A Washington dispatch states that Attorney General Williams says that the $;3j,000 paid to Davenport from the treasury ot the United States for election purposes was to procure a correct list of the voters of New York city, and that the payment of this 61U11, which covered a period of nearly five years, saved the government many thousands of dollars, though he fails to explain how this saving waa effected. He defends the legality of such payments under acts of congress to prevent fraudulent voting. This story is very weak. How could the completion of the New York lists require a period of five years, and in what manner has money been saved to the government by this interference interfer-ence with the Xew Ycrk ballot boxes? It is likely that the investigating committee who has thU matter in charge will go to the bottom of it, and find out just what purpose this large sum of money was expended for in a peaceful state of the Union, without any direct authority of law. It is reported that the president will be called upon to testify as to his connection con-nection with this electioneering buai ne&a. It is to be hoped for the dignity of the office that he may bo able to clear himself from the imputation of using tho public money directly and illegally to influence an election at which he was a candidate. |