Pulitzer_ A Life in Politics, Print, and Power - James McGrath Morris [77]
Field was not the only one on the Post staff that Pulitzer knew. John Cockerill, whom Pulitzer befriended at the convention of 1872, had signed on as Hutchins’s managing editor. Under Cockerill’s rule, the Post packed in more news per square inch than any other paper in town, wrapping it around punchy editorials. The paper was an immediate hit. “It was the marvel of Washington journalism,” Field said. “The newspaper world of the continent, who had no idea any good could come out of Nazareth, gaped in astonishment when this bright, saucy, vigorous bantling pranced blithely into the ring.”
Journalism, however, was not on Pulitzer’s mind. He had come to Washington not as a reporter but as a lawyer for an election dispute. In Missouri’s Third Congressional district, the Democrat, Richard Graham Frost, had been designated the winner, with one vote more than his Republican opponent, Lyne Metcalfe. But Metcalfe persuaded the courts to award him the seat, successfully claiming that Frost’s supporters had changed a “7” to a “9” in one of the poll books to supply the winning margin. Now Frost’s only remaining recourse was an appeal to the House Committee on Elections. To pursue this, Frost hired Pulitzer, whom he knew as a colleague in the St. Louis bar.
The Committee on Elections began its work in late January. Pulitzer asked the members to order that ballot boxes, roll books, election returns, and other documents be brought from Missouri to Washington. They turned him down and told him that the place for any recounting should be Missouri. The decision was a signal that he faced an uphill fight. He would have only one chance to make his client’s case. The committee set February 20 as the last day it would hear any remaining arguments for why Metcalfe should not be seated.
While awaiting judgment day, Pulitzer turned to the Washington Post. Already, the paper had given front-page coverage to the dispute and was pushing Pulitzer’s argument that the race could not be decided without a recount conducted in Washington. Now Pulitzer gained access to the paper’s editorial page. The resulting article was vintage Pulitzer.
If the Committee on Elections should deny Frost the seat in the House, the Post editorial began, it would simultaneously decide that he was “a perjurer in several divers and sundry particulars.” A decision favoring Metcalfe would mean that Frost had lied under oath. “We do not know how the Committee will act, but we do know that there is not even a political antagonist in the Third Missouri District who would dare to question R. Graham Frost’s statement under oath. In fact, those who know him prefer the simple word of R. Graham Frost to the oath of many, if not most, men. Nor do we, in the least, doubt that Mr. Frost was swindled out of his seat by a series of extraordinary frauds.”
The editorial had little influence on the members of Congress. On the appointed day the committee listened patiently as Pulitzer read from several affidavits and begged for additional time to build his case. The following day, it unanimously turned down Pulitzer’s motions for more time. The seat was Metcalfe’s.
Despite this loss, Washington suited Pulitzer. In the time he had spent there since the fall of 1876, he had developed a busy social life. In the first month of 1878, he was among the guests at a glamorous reception given by the Spanish legation at Wormley’s Hotel in honor of their king’s wedding. A week later, he was dancing to Jacques Offenbach’s music at the Willard Hotel. Pulitzer also helped support