The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1876-11-24

Under the above caption Col. n. X. Nc
Clure, the fearless and able editor OF the
Philadelphia Times, an Independent Re
publican journal which is admitted on all
hands to be one OF the best edited and best
conducted papers in the country, very
plainly deleniates the disastrous effects OF "a
false and fraudulent count of the votes
polled in either or all of the States now in
dispute. Col. Mcclure says:
1t seems impossible for the nation to es-
cane the false and fraudulent return, under
color ot corIuptly conceived. enacted and
executed law, of Rutherford B, Hayes as
President elect. Chandler and Cameron
are in accord with Kellogg and Packard,
who have been condemned and spurned by
I the highest Republican councils of the
country, and the President will be content
j with the shadow of the law. while its sub
stance perislIes before the mastery of wrong.
Who can afford it?
Can Rutherford B. Hayes afford it? He
is esteemed an honest man. III all the
/: eat and bitterness of the conflict his in
teA rity was not successfully aSSailed.-
Amt !Ip his most effective champions were
those who believed and taught that he
wouId M Ike n better and purer admnistra-
ton and LlcIe were tens of thousands who
voted for Iim with either strong or hesi-
tating trust in his sincere devotion to the
right Not one Of AL such of his support
ers will for nom. Mt sanction his accept
ance Of the highest /. nnor of flee people,
when It is borne TO him, as it must be, by
a monstrous pollution of the ballot, and a
revolutionary defiance of the popular will
Of mis- countrymcn. 1t is possible that be
might thus reach the PresidenGv, but it
would be only to meet with the SuIl. VI obe-
Gience of n great people, until they can
stamp their terrible execra:ions upon his
conscious usurpation OF their noblest au-
thority
Can Republicanism afford it? Tt has
written the brightest annals in the history
of mans best eilioits for man. 1t taught
the Republic its grandest duties when the
conflict came for the triumph of liberty or
bondage, and it presented to the world the
sublimest picture of the patriotism of
free people. 1t could have ruled, from
generation to generation, the country that
was disenthrallcd under its government,
and none would have been more sincerely
its friends and partisans than both races of
the now dcsolated and chaotic South. But
it bowed to mean ambition and to the hun
ger of the spoiier its garlands have faded
under the blight Of the wrong doer, and its
columns are beslimcd by the track of the
crawling iobber. 1t has bad line upon line
of earnest admonition, but it has followed
its corrupt pretenders, and discarded its
faithful friends because they were just. Its
majority in the Northern States, which
gave it birth and victory. is now over half
a million less than four years ago, and the
nation has entered a solemn Judgment of
three hundred thousand majority against
its further abuse of power. And it was
done fora rarty.that is not loved, but for
leader who is trusted as better than his.
Ill 1an
to a regencrated Republicanism if tenn
porary Democratic triumph can effect such
regeneration but the party that violently
assumes power against the honest and law
ful expression Of the people, must welcome
death with victory. 1t will fall like the
Son of the Morning, to rise no more. Can
Republicansm afford thus to die?
Can capital and business afford it? Dis
trust in government is destruction to bust
ness, to credit, 20 prosperity. The violent
resistance to real or imaginary wrong may,
like the tempest, give pure and whole
some atmosphere but the subverson Of
free government by palpable fraud. will be
like the subtle poison that courses its way
to the vitals of the Republic. Even the
color of law, behind which fraud may take
refuge, will but deeper. and widen tie de-
spair of the people and teach 20 all that the
laws of the noblest government of the
world are but the shield of lawlessness. 1t
will be the accepted deliverauce to man
Kind that free government has perished
from the earth. It's form may linger for
years to come, but its life, its inspiration,
it's grandeur must wither upon it's own
long worshiped bat now desecrated altar.
1t viii end hope, progress. thrift ; it will
wound credit, close the markets of the
world against us, and flood us with the
millions of obligations for which, in our
better and purer days, we have been trust
ed. The pail of doubt will hang over every
enterprise, and capital will seek safety by
withdrawal from the uncertain protection
OF an uncertain government.
Can the nation afford it? 1t needs no
prophetic pen to foretell the early overth
OF the present political domination of the
country, even with all ;he arbitrary power
| it can WELD for its protection against the
popular will. An0 when overthrown. what
then? IL usurpation is sanctioned now in
Louisiana and Florida, who will gainsay
its exercise in Pcnnsy ylvania or New York
, or Massachusetts when the next political
power is called to account by an outraged
people? If might, not right is to be the
law Of to day, who shall say it may not be
! the law of Democracy in the future that
now inevitably belongs to it? If contempt
for justice in the execution of our laws shall
not be taught as precedent for those who
shall reach power hereafter, what will be
let OF free government that an honest peo-
pie can worship or respect? Who will not
point to the countless graves of our war
riors on the hillsides aud in tho valleys of
the South, as weird reprJach upon pa
triotism that will not, in peace, maintain
the freedom that was rescued in the valley
of death Who can afford it?
WHAT DOES IT MEAN Col. Jas. F.