The New York herald., 1876-12-02
why tho Republicans should show
Fair Play.


honest count to be elected President win
of course be installed, and no American will
be so idiotic as to grumble. When Mr..
Lincoln was inaugurated, in 1861, his fore
most competitor, Stephen A. Douglas, stood
behind him and held Mr.. Lincoln's hat
while he took the oath Of Office. That is the
true and American way, and if either Mr..
Hayes or Mr.. Tilden is fairly and honestly
shown to have majority Of the electoral
vote, in either case we advise his defeated
competitor to attend the Inauguration and
follow the example of Mr.. Douglas.
Meantime everybody has a right to ask
for fair play; for conspicuously honest
count. This concerns not the candidates,
who are of small moment in SO vital a mat
ter but the nation. Are the proceedings in
the disputed States such as ought to satisfy
the nation? Let us see.
! /. In South Carolina the vote has been
declared the State is officially given to Mr..
Hayes. There is reason to believe that on
fair count Governor Hayes and General
Hampton would have been shown to have q
majority; but the Returning Board, entirely
for reelection to State Offices, have by their
| irregular and tricky conduct forfeited the
confidence Of the nation. They were prob
ably satisfied that fair and open scrutiny
of the vote would give the, State to Hayes,
but they saw also that it would at the same
time give the democrats the Governor, and
the Legislature, which elects United States
~. k~.1 Al,o.~ l..
less and unauthorized casting out of demo-
cratic counties, their defiance of the Su-
preme Court. These demagogues care
nothing for Governor Hayes or the repub-
lican party. They care only for their own
selfish fortunes, and their outrageous miscon-
duct has left even the result as to the elec-
toral vote of the State in doubt without
that degree of certainty which it ought to
have. If the Northern republican leaders
were wise they would insist on fair and
conspicuously honest count in South Caro-
| lima, SO as to get the electoral vote of that
State in way satisfactory to honest men.
| g. Take next Florida. There has been so
much petty republican trickery there that
| the vote Of that State cannot now be counted
| for Mr.. Hayes without such public scru-
| tiny as shall be declared satisfactory by
honest democratic witnesses. The republi-
cans claim Florida ; but if it has honestly
gone for Mr.. Hayes ought they not to take
every care to make this plain and indisputa-
BILE? Does not every trick of theirs, every
bit of sharp practice, make it more difficult
for them to satisfy the country of the hon.
esty and fairness of the count? And do
| they not see that this is very serious mat
ter for them?
| Finally we come to Louisiana. The Loui-
siana Returning Board has conducted and
is conducting it's scrutiny of the vote in.
manner so shamelessly and clumsily parti-
san and dishonest that no result it arrives
at will have the confidence of the nation. 1t
has openly allowed the returns to be tam
| pered with it has refused to hear
| evidence on the democratic side; it
has had even the contemplate weak
ness to refuse to send for returns from
democratic parishes, and to refuse applica-
tions made to it to compel republican super
| visors to send in such returns, which they
are Withholding contrary to law declaring
at the same time that if these returns were
not in by certain time it would refuse to
count them. In fact, its jugglery, its trick
cry, its fraud, all have been, as republican
Congressman declared them to be in 1874,
open, glaring, clumsy and shameless. One
of its latest expedients has been to keep out
of New Orleans and away from the witness
stand an army officer who has declared that
in the parish in which he was. stationed with
oops-Morehouse-the election was full,
fair. free and peaceable Is it not very un-
wise for the Northern republican leaders to
permit such things? They claim, and no
doubt in many cases sincerely believe, that
Louisiana has gone for Mr.. Hayes. If
this is so ought it not to be honestly
shown2 Could it not be honestly proved? |?
Can they afford to have their claim
| to the State rest on the secret manipulations
of returning board which begins by refus-
ing to admit democratic member, in viola
ton of the law, and which at almost every
| step of its open proceedings has shocked the
sense of justice and decency of such repub-
| licans as Senator John Sherman and Of the
whole Northern public? Do not the repub-
lican leaders see that, even granting that the
three disputed States cast majorities for
Hayes and Wheeler, they have allowed the
returns to be SO manipulated as to make it
now almost, indeed, quite impossible, to
establish this to the. satisfaction of honest
men? And do they forget that in 1872 and
in 1868 they themselves set precedents for
| throwing ont the vote of States where tho
election returns seemed to be tainted with
fraud? OF course they do not mean to
ssbull-doze" Presidential election?
The Weather.