The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1876-12-20

govern America, and our central committee,
as the organ of great party, and in accord
ance with the will of free people, has re-
solved that presidents should not be elected
by corrupt returning boards, but by
the ballots of legal voters. If the
choice of the people can be
abrogated Dy dishonest men sitting as re-
turning boards then are elections a sham and
a cheat, and the people should no longer be
deceived by being permitted to participate
in them. If their results are to be set aside
at the ipse Dirt of the Wellses and the An
dersons at the bidding of Morton, Chandler
and Grant, backed up and sustained by the
federal army, then in Gods name let US have
no more of them. but humbly bend our
necks and receive the yokes of our masters
The central committee asserts that Tilden
and Hendricks have been elected president
and vice president, and that people who
are strong enough to elect a president are
powerful enough to place him in office.
This is true, and if those who were
elected to these offices in November are not
inaugurated in March it will be because the
men who cast the ballots which elected
them are cravens and towards The radical
leaders believe that rather than incur the
difficulties necessary to maintain their rihgtS,
the people will sink their manhood and I'M
complainingly receive whatever these lead
ers may place upon them. These leaders
came into power amid the throes of civil war
and believe the army and the navy are pro-
per instruments TO use in governing free
people. In eleven years of peace they have
not forgotten that which they learned in
four years of war, and they still think that
the people will submit to be governed as
they were during our civil strife In
this they are mistaken, as they will
| discover ere long. In the language of the
central committee, the army must not be
used to elect presidents, nor to prevent those
duly elected from being inaugurated. The
people are above the army, for they are the
sovereigns of the country and have the right
10 make and unmake armies. Those who
elected Tilden and Hendricks by popu-
lar majority of 300, 600 and respectable ma
| jority of the electoral vote, had it been cast
as it was chosen, will not consent that the
army shall be used to nullify and make
void their sovereign will. The American
people have often been warned of the danger
of a standing army, and if it can be success
fully used TO make president of one who
has been defeated by the people, the warn
| ings of these patriotic men have indeed
been in vain.
1t fifty becomes Indiana, the home Of
| Thomas A. Hendricks, to lead Off in mat
ter of such momer tous importance as that
OF determining whether fraud or the people
shall make our presidents. Her gallant
democracy in October carried the flag OF
economy and reform triumphantly through
the campaign, and thus opened up the way
for the election OF Tilden and Hendricks in
November. On the 9Th OF January-that
day memorable in the annals of our coun-
try-this same democracy will meet here al
the capitol, and it's resolves aud utterances
will be such as will open up the way for the
| Inauguration in March OF the men whom the
people elected in November