Editing Samuel J. Tilden (section)

===Potter Committee===
[[File:STilden.JPG|thumb|right|upright|Tilden]]

In 1878, Democratic Congressman [[Clarkson Nott Potter]] convinced the House of Representatives to create a committee to investigate allegations of fraud and corruption in the 1876 election. Potter was appointed as the head of the commission, which Democrats hoped would implicate Hayes and damage the Republican Party in the next presidential election.<ref>Guenther (1983), 284–285</ref> Rather than produce conclusive evidence of Republican malfeasance, the committee uncovered conflicting evidence that reflected poorly on election and campaign officials of both parties. For ten months beginning in May 1878, the Potter Committee subpoenaed all telegrams sent by political operatives during the election dispute. 29,275 telegrams had been sent, but all save 641 had been routinely destroyed by [[Western Union]]. The remaining telegrams were in cipher, as was common with business and political communication in the telegraph era. ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'' editor [[Whitelaw Reid]] obtained and deciphered many of the telegrams and, in October 1878, he published the story of the Democratic efforts to sway election officials through bribery and other means. The revelation of the bribery attempts undercut the Democratic Party's argument that Tilden had been cheated out of the presidency.<ref>Kahn (1996), pp. 221–229</ref> A congressional committee's investigation into the Cipher Telegrams cleared Tilden of any personal wrongdoing, but the allegations damaged his national standing.<ref>Morris (2003), pp. 250–251</ref>