New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-01-04
EEIIDGGiS PROPOSAL.

Mr. KellOgg's letter to the ub-Commlttee
of the House of Representatives is an extra
ordinary production. He processes to De
grieved at the discovery that there Is no IN
tention at present of reopening the question
of the legality of his claims TO the Office Of
Governor, and he declares that nothing would
afford him greater satisfaction than to submit
the transactions of 1872 to the test OF
thorough investigation 1t has probably
escaped Mr.. KcllOgg's memory that the cir
cumstances of his intrusion into office were
explored by n committee of the Senate nearly
two years ago, and his own political
friends were forced to report that he had no
title whatever to the place he occupied. Ii
was discovered that by the violence OF the
Federal Administration, first instlgatng ana
then sustaining by force of arms the void ana
iniquitous orders of an unprincipIed Judge,
canvass of the votes cast ut the election oil
1872 had been prevented, and that Mr. Kellogg
had been established in authority by the
fraudulent action of an illegal Returning
Board which never had any returns IN It's pos
session, but arrived at results by process OF
estimating So clearly was the wicked
transaction exposed that Mr.. Kellogg found
not one defender in bitterly partisan
Senate and he would have been turned
out with little ceremony had the
Senators been able to agree upon the
manner of filing his place. The report OF the
Senate Committee in 1873 still stands as
verdict against the Louisiana usurper and the
people will not allow Congress to forget it.
What does Kellogg now prOposef Not that
the genuine returns of the election of 1872
shall at last be counted, but that the Com
mittee shall repeat the old farce by making
new series of estimates and calculations. For
instance, he says, you might take the returns
of 1872 as made by both Boards (thOugh he
very we'll knows that his Board never had
any returns), and contrast them with the
figures of this year. Then you might cipher
out the increase of population, $he ratiG
of blacks and whites, the numbers registered,
and so on, and after making various allow
ances, deductions, guesses, and multipllcauons,
YOU might find out what the result might,
could, would, or should have been two years
ago. Or suppose you accept the canvass OF
1872 as correct wherever the two Boards agree,
and where they disagree just borrow the re-
turns of 1874 and make believe that they rep
resent the vote of 1872. "Thcs3 aspects OF the
"case,r the so-called Governor naively adds,
"will / believe so very far to elucidate the
"rights of this controversy"
There is one solution which apparently has
not occurred to Mr.. Kellogg, though we trust
it may not escape the attention of the Com
mittee. Suppose, by way of new experiment,
Messrs. Kellogg, Packard, and the rest stand
back and let the honest votes of the people
be honestly counted. We have had altogether
too much of this ciphering and comparison
and so-called compromise between truth and
lies, and Kelloggs pretense that there is any
hard problem to be solved is sheer i'm
pertmence. Nobody proposes to compromise
with him; we only demand that he shall get
out and VIC greatly misunderstood Messrs.
Foster, Phelps, and Potter if they turn them
selves into a Committee of Arithmetic men
for his accommodation.