The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1839-12-31
THE NEW JERSEY ELECTION.

The N. Y Com. Advertiser gives the following
succinct statement all the important facts con-
nected with the New Jersey election, which has
been so fercely contested in Congress:
The facts in the of the New jersey election
which has been made the pretext for all this uproar
and confusion, lie in nut shell; and there is not
man. woman child in the nation, no with II
proper understanding of the facts, would hesitate
to bestow the most unequivocal language of con-
domination upon the iactious conduct of the admin.
isration members of Congress in this matter The
facts substantially these:
At the Congressional election Of New jersey, in
October Of last year, there was conccntra ed effort
by the partiZnns of the national administration 10
carry in the destructive candidates. at any and eve
ny hazard, matter how Illegal and dshonoraJle
The means. Frauds, gross and monsrous, We're
committed wherever there raScaiily enough Or
the one hand, and negligence enough on the other
TO allow of them. In the towns of MilyiIie and
South Amboy, frauds We're so obvious as well as
outrageous, and the election in those towns was 50
illegally conducted that the county returning of.
ficers set them entirely aside. lad the votes Of
those towns all been counted five Of the admins
tration candidates would have been elected. and
one of the Wings. Had the polls Of those towns
been purged of the Illegal votes, and ali the legal
votes had been counted, the entire wing deega-
ton would have been elected. But for gross ilIe
gaty and fraud, the returns of the entire towns
set aside by the county canvassers.
The laws ofNew Jersey direct the county clerks
carry the respective county returns to tho Cover
nor, who, with his Privy Council, is required to
cast up the whole returns so received, and on us.
certainng which of the candidates have received
majortes Of the votes the Governor is dii ctet /,
furnish the said candidates with their certificates Of
election, under the broad seal of the State The
Governor and Prvy Council have no right bv law
to look behind the returns received from the proDcr
returning officers of the counties. The duty Of the
Governor an his Privy Council ends with the cau.
vass of the county returns as received and the
certificates of the Governor, under the seal of the
State, forms tho only legal and constitutional eli.
dence of membership upon which member can
take his seat. Without such certificate, no mem.
Der can lawfully take a seat. And with such Ger.
uhcate, no member was before denied his
scat.
But it suited not the jacobins, in and out of Con.
gress, to allow The observance of the law. a clam
early raised in New Jersey against the
course pursued by the Governor and his Council
1t was insisted that they ought to have gone behind
the returns made to them, and to have counted
the votes Of Millville and south Amboy -ilIesal as
well as legal But IN no event had the Governor
right to do any such thing. Had be been con.
WINGED even, that every in thoee towns
was legal one, and that the elections had been in
other respects legally conducted he still could not
,l,ave gone beyond the returns furnished by the
county returning officers. The clamor upon the
subject, however, great, that the Wing
members who had received their certificates, not
withsanding the fact that by subsequent leglsa-
tive investigation the imputed frauds had been full.
ly established, proposed to the confidence, aud
the sincerity, of the desiructves, by Il frank and
manly offer to bring the question again before the
people. With this view, they offered to resign if
the destructive candidates would also resign their
pretended claims, and appeal to the people by
new election But no These dear friends Of the
people had not faith enough for that.
They had faith, however, elsewhere, if not in
the people They felt that il fraud could not ri.
umph in New Jersey, 1t could prevail some where
else and they have not been mistaken. By tam
pering with recreant Secretary of the Prvy Coun
Gill; who is also Secretary of the state, the rejected
candidates possessed themselves of tn returns OF
the illegally held elections of Mllville and south
Amboy authenticated by the seal of the said re-
creant Secretary, and armed with certificate fur
nlshed by him, illegal in itself, entirely unknown
TO the law, by officer who had more right TO
interfere in the matter than Chinese hoppe, these
modest entlemcn present themselves at the door
of Congress nay, they rush Immediately into the
hall-claiming to be the true representatives OF tho
very people whose own decision OF the conrover'
sy they had shrunk from inviting
Such is q Just and true history of this extraord-
nary CASE down to the day appointed for the assem-
bling of Congress. With its subsequent history
our readers are pretty well acquainted.