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Certain telegraphic communications regarding the Presidential election of 1876, which were delivered by the Western Union Telegraph Company to the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections, to aid in the investigations of the election frauds. While in the possession of this committee in 1878, some 700 of these dispatches were taken and made public, chiefly through the New York Tribune. They were sent by friends of Tilden, the Democratic candidate, and purported to arrange for the payment of certain moneys to ensure the carrying of South Carolina and Florida for Tilden. The latter in an open letter denied all knowledge of the dispatches.