Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1860-07-04
Resignation of Francis P. Blair.

IhiS dble anu nOneSt hepuDncdn whose
title to the seat in Congress, which had
been fradulently given to his opponent Mr..
Barrett by the political knaves at ST
Leuis, was 50 tr~iumphantly proved when
submitted to Congress; has with his char
acteristic manliness resigned his seat and
referred the question back again to the peo-
pie of his district. From his letter to his
constituents, VIC make the following ex-
tract.
take the first moment after being sworn
in as your Representative in the present
Congress, to inform you that with the close
of the session | resign the trust, to submit
to your own sufrages, now indicated by
the constitutional tribunal against the
frauds of the last election, a renewed choice.
l contested the seat which Mr.. Barrett took.
not to expel him and hold it myself in viz
tue of the decision of the Representatives
of the people, but to refer the question of
right again to those Immediately interest
ed-to YOU.
The attitude which / submitted to take
to accomplish a result just to you, and, l
believe, useful to the country, has been to
me one Of humiliation, of anxiety, of ex-
pense, of labor. 1t is one, | must truly
declare, | would not have assumed merely !
to change places with my competitor. 1t
was my conviction that the executive pow
er installed at Washington by fraud and
corruption, had resolved to p~erpetuate it
self by the systematic application of such
means which induced me to resist them,
overwhelming as they were, in my own
case.
Mr.. Buchanan in~augurated in his own
election the plan of carrying elections by
fraud, violence, and corruption. The Pen
nsylvania election in 1856, which led the
way to his success, was effected by taking
the polls in Philadelphia by DULLES, and
under their control voting thousands of
fraudulent votes on forged naturalization
papers, and other false pretences. These
facts were established by the decision of an
impartial judicial tribunal, which tested
the validity of that election in the case of
Mr.. Mann, one Of the officers defeated by
those frauds. and who ousted his opponent
on the proof of them. The work thus be-
gun has been continued at selected points
ever since, to support the power thus in
stilled. | shall only allude to a few IN
stances where the hand Of the President
was made distinctly visible. His compile
ity with Calhoun in the Kansas election
frauds, to enforce the Lecompton Constitu-
ton, is made notorious by inuumerable
circumstances, but he establishes the fact
by his own signature, in his private letter
TO Gov. Walker, made public by tie Co
vode Committee, in which he says he will
''contriye" to keep the troops ordered to
Utah under Harvey, in Kansas until after
the election The were kept there, and
voted, in vivlAtion of law, to sustain the
Lecompton fraud, and to intimidate the le-
gal voters who would resist it. ;
We have not space for the whole letter,
but can assure our readers that it is filled
with instances Of the Presidents duplicity;
as clearly proved as this in the Kansas af
fair.
Commenting upon this letter, the n. Y.
Courier and Enquirer says:
No honest mar who has at heart the
honor Of our country, can read this bill of
Indictment against the President of the
United States, without finding his checks
with The blush Of shame that such
things should have occurred; and that feel
ing of shame will only be increased when
he reflects, that although such corruption
as Mr.. Blair portrays, has been prOred to
exist, yet such is the general Generalization
Of the Party to which the Executive be-
that the House Of Representatives,
dares not impeach him. No man of any !;
party, pretends to doubt the corruption of
existing Administration; or that the
President has fostcred, encouraged, and {
been a party to such corruption. Nobody {
doubts that he has disgraced himself and
country by prostituting his high posi- {
ton to acts of downright bribery that he !
been a party to the most p~alpable frauds ;
upon the people and the Government that {
he has aided in bribing with the public
treasure, the people and their servants and
that he richly merits impeachment and deg
radiation And yet such is the general de-
m%oralization of the Government under his =
of affairs, that there exists
sufficient virtue in the peoples Repre-
sentatiyes. to vindicate the country from
the disgrace brought upon it by its Chief
Executive Officer and his u~nprinciplcd myr-
{
Mr.. TOombs. a Democratic member Of
the Senate. said two years since, that he I
believed ours. the most co. rupt Gov,ram,nt {
in the world. President buchanan has {
the charge. and the Covode Com I
have brought home to the very !
doors Of the Executive, the evidence of this
corruption, j
N