The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-10-17
FOR PRESIDENT
RUTHERFORD b. HAYES.
The Path of Safety,

The condition of affairs in the South and
particularly in the state of South Carolina
may well excite apprehension. 1t is now
quite clear that unless the general govern
ment intervenes in behalf of the co.ored
voters the fourteenth and fifteenth amend
ments to the constitution will be nullified,
and the elections there will be anything but
an expression of the popular will. And as
an election is merely method of obtaining
such an expression, there might as we'll be
no voting at all as the plebiscite which the
white oligarchy propose with view to OBJ
tanning results which they have prede ter
mined. On the other hand interference and
especially military interference by the gen.
eral government in the affairs of a state
meets deep-seated and reasonable preju-
dice in the minds of almost the entire peo-
pie. They are willing to suffer almost any
inconvenience, nay, even some partial and
temporary injustice rather than resort to
such dangerous remedy. Even in the pres
ent emergency there are Republicans,
TO say nothing of the Democrats, who would
prefer to let the people of the South 90 on
In their own way clear of their diff
culties as best they can at the risk of the TIL
unph Of violence and intimidation over laws
and justice, rather than have federal soldiers
sent to protect the ballot-box in South Caro-
lima. They think that non-intel yention is at
any rate the least of two evils, and that it
is better for the right of self government to
be subVerted in one or half dozen states
than for the general government to establish
the dangerous precedent of making soldiers
the supervisors of elections. They are of
opinion that the electoral vote of the South,
even should it be obtained by fraud and vio-
lence solid for Tilden will not be large enough
to defeat the will of the people as legally ex-
pressed at Northern ballot-boxes. So, rather
than expose the country to the danger of
bloody collisions in the South and partisan
excitement all over the land, they would let
the chivalrous rifle companies complete their
work of taking possession of the cover nment
of South Carolina by armed force.
But is not this the surest road to disaster
Let us suppose case,-one which our Dem
ocratic friends daily assure us in their news
papers is almost certain to occur. Suppose
that the votes of a very few Northern states
lawfully carried by small majorites should be
united with the solid vote of the South OBJ
| tanned by the disenfranchisement of a very
large number of legal voters, who constitute
clear majority in at least four states, and sup
pose further that these united legal and spu-
rious votes should prove to be majority OF
| the whole number and should therefore indi
cate the election of particular person 10 be
President of the whole country for the next
| four years. In that case it is clear that the
danger and strife temporarily avoided by al
lowing the chivalry to disfranchise the negro
would reappear in rather dangerous form.
| Now under such circumstances let the Repub.
| lican Senate and the Democratic House as
sembe in joint convention on the second
| Wednesday of next February to open the GER
tifcates and determine by counting the elec-
| toral votes who shall be President. The
Senate says throw aside the fraudulently OBJ
| tanned votes. The Democratic House of
| course says that the certificate is conclusive,
and that there is no going behind it to find
how or by whom the voting was done.
In the controversy thus arising there would
| be the seeds of dangers more dreadful and en-
| during than have ever yet threatened the ex-
istence of the Republic.
When the electoral vote of 1868 was
| counted both branches of Congress were Re-
publican and extraordinary precautions were
taken to prevent controversy in the formal
act of counting. by passing joint resolution
beforehand, fixing definitely the manner in
which the result should be declared.
| Georgia's vote was the only one
| whose legality was seriously contested
and whether it was counted or not made nc
difference in the result. A majority of che
votes was known to be for Grant with or
without Georgia's vote making part of the
total. Under these circumstances Congress
by its anticipatory joint resolution, instead
of deciding on the vote of Georgia, waived
the whole question by providing an alterna-
tive form for the declaration of the joint con.
ventioa. If Georgia's vote were counted
Grants majority was TO be declared SC
much,-if it were not counted, so many
votes less. But when the February con.
vention was held a scene of consid
cradle disorder arose, and, though the
programme laid out by the joint resolu
ton was finally adhered to. it was not with
out very persistent and bitter opposition CT
the part of Gen. Butler and others who
claimed that the proceedings were unconsti
tutional and that the rights of the HOUSE
were invaded. Suppose now that the House
had been Democratic and that the acceptance
of Georgia's spurious votes would have re
suited in the counting in of Democratic
President whose Republican antagonist woult
otherwise have had majority. In that cast
the country would have certainly wished tha
even at the expense of considerable tempora
ry agitation pains had been taken to secure t
the people OF Georgia the opportunity to giv'
a fair vote. The existence of serious doub
as to who is really the legally elected chic
magistrate of this country is the most alarm
ing contingency which is to be apprehendet
in the working OF our democratic machinery
This doubt has never arisen, though th'
cumbersome machinery of our indirect choic,
of President by means of electors exposes th'
country to great danger of it every four years
This being the case all Republicans and al
those Democrats who followed Scott Lord ii
passing his celebrated resolution declarin