The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-31 00:00:00

THE ELECTORAL VOTE iN 7HE SOUTH

Under the Conititution the Legislatures of States
have a right to cast the State vote in the Presi-
dential election, which once was the traditional way
of choosing electors. The Constitution directs the
Legislatures to superintend the elections, and though
formerly some of these Legislatures settled the
question by making the nominations themselves,-
the system was dropped, as it was considered more
in accordance with the spirit of Republican insti-
tutions for the people at large to send to the College
their Representatives. The Legislature of South
Carolina, for instance, always reserved to itself the
power, and even in New York it was the law from
1792 to 1824. Some chose the Senatorial electors
only by a general ticket, the district electors being
confined to electoral districts, and it was not till the
administration of General JACKSON that the general
ticket was substituted. The attempt now made to
revive the old castom in the 1 ttely reconstructed
States is justified by many Republican papers on
the plea, first, that it is Constitutional ; secondly,
that the men disfranchised by the 14th Amendment
declare their determination to vote at all risks,
which, being interpreted, means a riot ap-
proaching in magnitude to a renewal of the
civil war, countenanced by the highest Execu-
tive authority, and against State Governments
many lawyers pronounce usurpations ; and finally
because the election of General GRANT and a firm
Government would soothe irritation, promote
material prosperity, and do more than anything
else to obliterate the traces of the war. But all
this is begging the question, for they assume that
the Southern " malignants" will act in one way,
and that the Republicans, if they can seat their
candidate in the White House, will act in another.
WADE HAMPTON is a Representative man of the
South—a Southerner of Southerners, and even he
distinctly repudiates the use of force ; so do all the
leaders in reply to the accusation made against
them by the Republican party; and the Democratic
State Convention of North Carolina on the 14th
instant adopted resolutions declaring their inten-
tion to use legitimate and peaceful means only to
overthrow their political opponents. The accused
then deny the charge of being about to draw the
sword to secure a right of which Congress has de-
prived them. Of course the Copperheads dispute
the third reason, maintaining that the effect would
be exactly the reverse, being a mere continuation
and confirmation of the present system, which they
say has totally failed. It is then an open question
whether the assumption by the Legislatures of this
power would lead to good or evil, supposing that
the whites quietly submitted to what they consider
a usurpation. The Alabama Legislature passed
the bill, but it was killed by the Governor's
veto, and the Chambers adjourned to the first
Monday in November, the day of the election. As
yet the Legislature of Florida is the only one which
has passed such a bill, and it has adjourned to the
same day, when, in accordance with the law just
enacted, it will assemble to choose the Presidential
electors. Whether the other reconstructed States
will follow the example of Florida remains to be
s3en. At this distance we cannot estimate justly
the necessity for the measure, but, judging from
what we can see, we sincerely hope that no such
additional apple of discord will be cast into these
distracted States. The Alabama Legislature has
removed by enactment political disabilities from all
whom the State Constitution allows to vote, and
even Governor BROWNLOW has recommended a
similar Act to be passed by the Legislature of Ten-
nessee. This is true wisdom, and will prove so
when brought into practice. Remove all political
disabilities; keep up the United States garrisons ;
and under their protection permit every man quali-
fied by the Constitution in all the States whose re-
presentatives are admitted into Congress to cast his
vote for the PRESIDENT. If the negroes go with
their old masters a strong Democratic majority is
the worst that can happen even from a Radical
stand-point, and that is better than a civil strife or
a smouldering discontent liable at any moment
to burst into -flame, resting as it will on the dan-
gerous basis of injustice. On the other hand, if
the majority be Republican, the Southerners may
growl, but they will yield. They will combine to
fight their battle at the polls, and, if defeated, sub-
mit to the result. Viewing the question in its worst
aspect to a Radical, Democratic successes in the
Southern States may turn the election in favour of
SEY3IOUR and BLAIR ; but what, in truth, will this
amount to as regards the nation at large? HORATIO
SEYMOUR is a man of first-rate abilities, and of a
pure record. Ile has been trained to public life,
and to govern. On the question of finance—the
American question of the future--he stands in a
foremost place among American statesmen ; on the
question of Reconstruction he will be compelled
by the force of circumstances to adopt in a modified
way the policy of Congress, and to make the best
of the institutions erected. This he will be better
qualified to perform than a Republican, because he
has the confidence of the Southern party now in op-
position ; and in adopting the measures he deems
expedient he will not meet with the violent resist-
ance a Republican wouli in enforcing the same
measures. It is possible that the Democrats could
reconstruct the South better than the Republicans
on the Republican plan—just as in England the
Tories only could carry the Whig measure of Reform.
The mass of people in the United States do not
care a straw either for Republican or Democrat,
except when exciting questions force them to sway
towards that party which they think will best carry
.out their views. To " gerrymander" a district—
to legislate the majority of a State out of their con-
stitutional right—is simply'hateful to these people.
Until excited they are individually indifferent how
the election goes, but they want to get the full opi-
nion of the country expressed, and they regard with
disfas'our the trickery by which &party manoeuvre
the citizens out of their right. But though little
harm can accrue from putting the ballot into every
man's hand in the South, and allowing him to use it
in the Presidential election to the best of his ability,
great harm may result from the opposite course. In
the event of the Republicans gaining by a narrow
majority, and the electoral votes be given by the
Southern Legislatures, the Democrats will unques-
tionably declare the election to be illegal. It is
another question whether they will fight rather than
submit, which will mainly hinge on the strength of
their majority. If the elections prove the Demo-
crats to be backed by the greater portion
bf the nation, they will assume that they
aro the stronger; and there will be hundreds
declaiming that if they submit to the ille-
gal domination of the weaker party, they are
poltroons who deserve to wear the chain of servi-
tude. We cannot shut our eyes to this danger, for
it exists in all its hideous reality. The PRESIDENT
has not recognized as legal the Legislatures which pro -
pose to pass a law constituting themselves the elec-
toral bodies, and many Southerners openly affirm
their illegality. Of all the questions in dispute this
will be the most serious, for most hinges on it.
Another of lesser importance is involved in the
point whether Congress had the power to make a
flew State within the geographical limits of an old
one, as iu Virginia, without the consent of the in-
habitants. Further, has Congress the right to dis-
franchise three States, and refuse their votes when
tendered? These questions will be fiercely dis-
cussed if the Republicans win by a narrow majo-
rity, and may lead to disastrous consequences. In
the event of a large majority such a disreputable
"rigging" of the political market will be useless.
Still worse will it be in the event of a Democratic
majority, for it will give to that party an exagge-
rated sense of its power and a " shocking bad" ex-
ample, which we know from experience the Demo-
crats are only too ready to follo.v. For these rea-
sons we trust that the governing party will resort
to no such expedients to secure a majority, but
leave their cause to the wisdom of the people, and
if defeated, which we think highly improbable, ac-
cept their punishment as the return for no stnall
amount of misgovernment, and learn to be guided
with more wisdom in the future.—Anglo-American
7 Imes.

Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, is writing a new
novel at her summer retreat at Stockbridge.

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" BEADS I WIN, TAILS YOU LOSE."

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

. _
A hoax is an .offence, and a forgery is a. crime,
but if ever the one were allowable and the other par-
donable, it is in the case of the Right Hon. Stuart
Wortley and the Times touching the Credit Fon-
cier. A letter was. forwarded to Printing House
Square, dated Royal Hotel, Lowestoft, August 21,
signed "J. S. Wortley," expressing that gentle-
man's regret that he had ever been connected with
such a company, and that he intended in justice to
the shareholders to pay to a Restitution Fund ac-
count the £lB,OO he had wrongfully received as
commission on unrealized or imaginary profits. Eng-
land, which had settled down to the conviction that
the men with the " toughest things in conscience"
were those of the director class to which the right
hon. gentleman belonged, received the announce-
ment with unfeigned astonishment. The idea
that even one among those who had published
the early reports of the concern was susceptible
of such high feelings as could alone in real
earnest have dictated such a letter, made hun-
dreds of thousands rejoice who had no con-
nection with the company. The revelations of
the last three years have had a deep and pervading
influence on English society. As name after name
which long years before had shone bright and
honourable had been stripped of its glitter, and
held up in its naked deformity to a deceived
and disgusted public, men secretly put the question
Am I only honest by chance ? and are all men
rogues, separated by the line of those who have had
and those who want the opportunity ?" A more
revolting tale could not be told in the annals of any
country than these revelations. The gross selfish-
ness—the insatiate greed—the total absence of
truth—the prostitution of names—the trading on
false representations—the callous cruelty towards
the victims—and the recklessness to any results so
that they escaped with the plunder, have sunk deep
into the nation's heart, annihilating man's belief in
his fellow, and even lea ling honest men to doubt
their honesty. To a public so affected this an-
nouncement was made, and it at once became the
talk in Capel-court, in London clubs, and in every
middle-class household. Ten times the sum would
have been subscribed at an hour's notice that that
letter might be true. Many read it with an absolute
sigh of relief. The paltry sum would not return to
the proprietors of the Credit Foncier even two shil-
lings a share, but it was an oasis in the desert, it was
a welling fountain to a Weary and thirsty traveller.
"My judgment has been harsh," was the exclamation ;
" we have lately seen but the worst side only, and
here is a fine instance of the reverse." Never had
a man a better chance of earning a cheap reputa-
tion ! But.what director of the 'Credit Foncier
could prefer any other god to his golden calf, and
what an idea to wade through all that mire to
grasp his precious (metal) image, and to give it up
because the Times wrote a homily ? The next day
a telegram.from the red-hot right honourable an-
nounced to the world, then fast rising into a swell-
ing chorus of admiration, that the letter was a
forgery, that he hastened with the speed of elec-
tricity to repudiate the audacious falsehood which
for a moment had erected him into—we will not say
what. He intended to be consistent, and a piece of
greater inconsistency could not be imagined than
such a letter from the governor of the Credit
Foncier. What was it he was therein announced
as about to do? Why actually to make restitution !
He has played a game of " Heads I win, tails you
lose" with a set many of whom were fascinated with
the " Honourable" and the "Right Honourable,"
and having deliberately carried this out, hav-
ing pocketed all that was to be got, having
retired to allow others to prop up the rotten
structure, and secured—at least until these
troublesome newspapers and shareholders be-
gan to agitate—the quiet enjoyment, what folly to
suppose he would surrender all because the Times
wrote au article in condemnation. When we
glance at what he did, and what he was accused of
bang about to do, the absurdity of the supposition
is clear. He had played as we said " Heads I win,
tails you lose" with the shareholders ; not actually
tosslng up as little boys in the streets do with cop-
pers, but in this way :—lre accepted the chair on
articles of association, draiva up by those and the
creatures of those who took th?, seats, awarding a
commission on gains, to be estimated on a valua-
tion of assets by themselves. If they over-esti-
mated the assets they derived therefrom a direct
gain in hard cash ; if they under-estimated the
assets they merely delayed their own reward. In
the event of a gross over-valuation they pocketed
a huge sum, and then their policy was to retire as
rapidly as possible on the first plausible pretext, and
if the company afterwards smashed, so much the
worse for it. Hence they occupied the position of
awarding themselves what they pleased, knowing
that if the assets proved comparatively worthless
nothing could be recovered from them, but if they
proved much more valuable they would be entitled
to divide the surplus. If this be not " Heads I win,
tails you lose," we do not know the meaning of the
saying, as it is as plainly as it can be put, that, 1
take the benefit of every rise, but you take the loss
of every fall. Let the right honourable gentleman
ask his—we were going to say conscience—this
question, for we cannot expect him to answer it
publicly, supposing that instead of " stuff" these
assets, or some of them, had turned out rich beyond
expectation, would he have accepted from the rise the
further commission to which he would then become
entitled ? and we may answer for him, as a matter
of course, that be would. Then let him look on
the other side—for there is another side to every-
thing—and he will see that it is not fair that he
should be playing this game with the money of
others, accepting every benefit, but shielded frdm
every loss. 'I he shareholders do not ask him to
lose anything, but only if he has mismanaged or
been unfortunate in the affairs entrusted to him,
that he should not take any of that money himself,
and if he has, under some mistake, that he should
give it back, and it is a striking instance of what we
have come to, that all England should have risen in
a chorus of praise because a right honourable was
for a moment thought to be about to act such a part.
Mr. Grant says that it is impossible to calculate
in the late violent fluctuations—then, let the money
which cannot now be equitably divided be accumu-
lated in a fund, to remain open till such fluctua-
tions have ceased, and the real values of the assets
are determined ; for Mr. Grant should remember
that the shareholders do not ask the directors to pay
for the disastrous mismanagement, but to hold in
suspense certain sums which they unfairly awarded
to themselves as commission until what is fair
can be determined. If they decline, we will at
least have a convincing proof that they played the
game of "lleadsl win, tails you lose," knowing What
they were doing, and bent only on personal gain.

The New Orleans Times asks where Colonel John
F. Deane, whom Governor Warmouth despatchod to Wash-
ington, to urge on the President the necessity of sending
United States troops to Louisiana, got his military title.
It asserts that it must have been in the school-room, as
his solo sphere of action was that of a pedagogue. It
further states that the letter transmitted by this honoured
staff officer places the " carpet-bag" Governor in no en-
viable light. He may have been deceived by malicious
calumniators desirous of perpetuating the carpet-bag rule,
but it maintains that he had misrepresented the state of
the country, and the story of 150 murders within six
weeks was a wilful fabrication, which it was in the best
position to pronounce extremely unfounded.

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