The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1868-08-28
To Correspondents.
The Presidential Election and
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thu south.
AS the Presidential election approaches, the
Republicans become more and more alarmed
ut the prospects of defeat. So fearful were
they, in the Inauguration of their reconstruc-
ton schemes, that South Carolina would
travel back to her old mode of selecting cleo
tors of President and Vice President, by the
the Legislature, that they forced provision.
in her constitution, prohibiting such step.
At that time they thought that the negro
vote would secure them every electoral vote
in the South, and therefore this wholesome
and wise provision was permitted to be en-
grated upon the organic law of that State
But what do We see now An effort to in
duce all the Southern State Legislatures to
20 back to the old and antidemocratic South
Carolina mode of electing by the Legislature,
instead of by the popular vote. This change
of tactics. is clearly because the pre-, ent
Southern State Legislatures are Republican,
and the. probability, and indeed almost GER
tainty, is that the popular vote OF these
States, at the coming Presidential election,
will be Democratic.
The former mode Of selecting electors in
South Carolina has furnished opposition par
ties for fifty years with attacks on the Demo
cratic party. During electioncering cam
paigns this very policy was the constant sub
ject of the most violent assaults and was
constantly kept before the people as the very
strongest evidence Of the anti-republican prin-
ciples of the Democratic party, at least in that
State. Now, however, when the Republican
party see plainly that they cannot succeed
by appealing directly to the people, they hes
itate not to fall back upon this much abused
mode, which they have guarded against in
South Carolina, on account as they said, of
its unjustness, although the very Legislatures
upon whom they propose to cast this power
were not elected with any view to the Presi-
Dental election.
While we see many Of the less impor-
tant Republican journals urging this policy,
there is some consolation in knowing that
the ADLER and more respectable journals Of
that party condemn this course in toto. This
is the course OF tho Chicago Times and Cleve-
land (Ohio) Herald, two Of the most able of
the Republican journals of the country
That their views may be read we append them
hereto:
From the Chicago Tribune, radical
The republican party is indebted to Gov
ernor Smith, of Alabama, for his veto of the
bill transferring the choice of presidential
electors from the people to the Legislature
A party which should resort to such means
to maintain its ascendency anywhere would
deserve to be beaten, and would be beaten at
last, however successful the expedient might
prove in the first instance. Desirable as the
election of Grant and Colfax is, it would be
dearly purchased by the sacrifice of the cardi-
nal principle of republican form of govern
ment, the principle that the will of the ma
joritJ, as expressed by proper methods and
at proper times, must govern. Disastrous to
the best interest of the country as the election
ofSeymour and Blair would be, it is better
that they be chosen by fair means than that
they should be defeated by foul ones Had
the bill passed by the Legislature of Alabama
become o law, and had Grant electors been
chosen under 1t, no man could have been sure
that they were the choice of the people of the
State The Legislature was chosen by pop
ular vote, to be sure, but for different pur-
pose, and at different time.
No other State except Florida, we believe,
has undertaken to change the law touching
the choice of presidential electors, and it is
not too late for Florida to retrace her steps.
If her Governor be a wise and patriotic man,
he viii follow Governor Smiths good exam
pie, will convene the Legislature at once, and
recommend the repeal Of law by which a
slight temporary party advantage might be
gained, but at the cost of an abandonment Of
principle, and of the establishment of a dam
gerous precedent
From tho Clcreland Herald, rad.
The Legislature of Alabama have gone
home without taking action on the Govern
or's veto of the electoral bill The matter,
therefore, goes over until the next session OF
the Legislature, and as this does not take
place until the day before the presidential
election, the question is settled so far as Ala
bama is concerned. We hope this check will
put an effectual stop to the entire movement
and that to Florida will be left the bad emf
nence Of being the only State in the Union
whose action proves that revolutions can 60
backwards, and that the path of republican
progress may travel in vicious circle back to
South Carolina anti-republicanism
The excuse made by the Florida republicans
tuciE uCtfOu ID u very WCuk OttC. AuCy
claim to be stronger in the State than ever
before, and that their majority of ten thous-
and at the last election cannot be overcome
by fair and legitimate means. With a fair
election they claim that Grant electors would
be chosen by an Overwhelming majority.
We repeat what we have before said--bet-
ter that the whole Southern vote should be
lost than that the vote Of the North should
be endangered by the appearance of design
TO secure single State by finessing policy
which if adopted throughout the South, would
lose the party thousands Of votes in Northern
States where they cannot DO spared. The
three votes of Florida, or the votes of all the
Southern States entitled to vote, are of little
consequence compared with the votes of thu
three leading Northern States, in two o
which, at least, there are no votes to bt
thrown away.
The republicans have the Southern Legis.
latures now, but cannot expect Always to hold
all of them. Suppose . democratic Legisla.
tare hereafter elected in Southern State, OF
an accidental democratic Legislature in o re.
publican Northern State as Is the case now
In Ohio, should follow the example of Florida
and take the appointment Of presidentia
electors into their own hand. Would thert
not be strong temptation for such Legis
lature to say, with Shylock, 1.-THE villany you
teach me viii execute, and It shall 60 hard