The national Republican., 1861-07-09


declare WIN. E. Lehman to be the member
elect for the First District! u ~. Y.
But this proclamation was in direct and pal
pable violation Of the act of Assembly which
declares:
q 1t shall be the duty of the Governor, on
the receipt of the returns Of the election OF
members of the House Of Representatives OF
the United States, as aforesaid by the Secre.
tary of the Common wealth, to declare by pro-
clamation the names O the persons 80 RETURNED
as elected in the respective districts, and he shall
also, as soon as conveniently may be after the
reception of the same, transmit the returns so
MADE to the House of Representatives OF the
United States ...rr. So. 49, r.IO
The act is clear and explicit in its terms
It directs that the Governor shall declare, BY
proclamation, "ds names Of tie persons so RE,
TURNED" as elected; and that he shall trans
to the House of Representatives the returns
so MADE" No discretion is left with him. He
cannot go back Of the returns " so made" on
any pretence. He does not sit as judge to
determine, but as a minister to execute, Ger.
tain prescribed functions. . 'NN
The implication carried in the Chronicle,
that Mr.. Lehman holds his seat by the same
right as Mr.. Stevens, who offered the resolution
in behalf Of Mr.. Butler, is incorrect in letter
and spirit. Mr.. Stevens and his colleagues
hold their seats in virtue of the "returns so
made" and the proclamation of the Governor
was not vital act, but merely fixed the great
seat Of the Commonwealth to those returns.
THE "returns so made" gave the seat for the
first district to Mr. Butler; but the Governor
chose, in his case, deliberately to set aside the
legal evidences of election. The Governor
might, with equal propriety, have issued
proclaim alton giving the seat of Mr.. Stevens,
or that Of any of his colleagues, to the defeated
candidates, and the Clerk might have called
their names in the list Of members-as in the
instance now under consideration-on the as.
sembling Of the House; but it would have been,
as it is now, the duty of the House to restore
the member or members to the privileges Of
which they we're deprived by an usurping eI-
ecutive.
The claim Of Mr.. Lehman to seat in the
House, all sophistication aside, rests simply
upon the statement in the Governors procls-
nation, that Mr. Butler is the legally elected
inembsrl' For the very proclamation under
which Mr.. Lehman asks the House to give him
the seat, commences by stating that JOHN NJ
Butler is elected according to the returns filed
soith the secretary ofthe Commonwealth, which
returns the Governor then assu mes, not only
without warrant of law, but In direct contra
yention of law, to set aside. Mr.. Stevens, then,
so far from attempting Ito seat Mr.. Butler
without any evidence in his favor" was en-.
deavoring to secure to him that which belonged
to him by the law of Pennsylvania, and that
which the late Governor ofthat State conceded
to belong to him, even in the very document
by which he pretended to deprive him Of it
But there are other facts which aggravate
this attempted outrage upon Mr.. Butler. On
the very day that the Governors proclamation
appeared, Mr.. Butler notified Mr.. Lehman of
his intention to contest the seat and q commits.
sioner being appointed, the boxe5 used in the
election we're subpansed, and recount was
had This showed that the Byerly return had
not been forged, and Byerly was set at liberty,
Judge Thompson, before whom he was tried
having previously recommended it, on the
ground of the suffciency of the evidence
| against him. The recount showed still further,
that, instead Of Lehman having been cheated,
Butler was the party iraudulently deprived of
votes cast in his favor. And this was what
might have been anticipated, for every election
officer in tie fourth aeard-the ward in which
frauds in Buffers favor were alleged to have
been committed-was hostile to him, being
either Democrat or Believer man. The
judges of election in Mr.. Buffers own "pre.
cinct" were two men whose conviction Mr.
| Butler had himself secured, for election frauds
in 1858. They we're elected while yet in the
penitentiary, and were pardonsd out by this
same Governor Packer, who undertakes to seat
and unseat members Of Congress by virtue Of
his own proclamation, just in time to act as
judges in the then pending election. If they
assisted in frauds for the benefit of Mr.. Butler,
then are lines Of his namesake, in Hudibras, /"
No thief eer felt the halter draw
With good opinion of the law
no longer true.
But we are not left to mere probabilities
In the recount it was actually found that, in
many Of the boxes, the punches of ten ballots
each, into which those who counted the votes
twisted them, contained two, three, or four votes
for Butler, the punches having been counted
as ten for Lehman. Mr., Lehman was SO struck
with the revelations thus made, that he said ID
Mr.. Butler, in the presence of witnesses, I" l am
completely astounded; I can hardly believe the
evidence of my own senses; believe you have
been cheated, Mr.. Butler, instead of me-"
The case should be acted upon speedily by
the House, and this manifest injustice to one
of its legally returned members redressed