Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1876-11-03


defeated himl The earnestness. the des.
perate emphasis, with which he thrusts
the promise OF veto before the people,
gives fiat denial to the suggestion that
he has not been a diligent student of the
whole business, and fully aware that, un-
less he could deceive the public by
specious promise, his election was hope
lessly lost
We have already shown that Mr.. Til
den, II elected, will be confronted by
150 Representatives and thrty-two Sena-
tors of his own party, who will be per-
sonal representatives Of the States and Of
the people who hold the claims and who
are supporting Tilden in the full assur-
ance that they will be paid Under that
assurance and conviction he will receive
large Electoral vote that might not
have been otherwise given lie will be
confronted by these Democratic Senators
and Representatives with bill repeating
the prohibition of payment of any claim
against the United States to any person
who had been engaged in the rebellion.
That Is the whole legislation needed by
the South. The repeal Of that simple
prohibition will open the door to the
whole million of Southern claimants
They will ask no other legislation-the
existing law providing all that is needed
to place those claims on an equal footing
with the hundred millions of dollars of
other claims already paid. In support
of that bill, repeating the disloyalty
clause, the Governors and Legislatures of
every Southern State will petition. Tam
many Hall, which will be moved to
Washington with Tilden, will support it;
all the State-sovereignty lawyers in the
United States will approve it; the Demo
cratic Congressional caucus will approve
it; the Democratic party in both branch
es of Congress will approve it, 1t will
become the great measure of the party,
and how can Mr.. Tilden veto it? Will
he, at his advanced age, after having
intrigued for this office of President for
so many years, break with his party at
the threshold of his Administration, and
become another Andrew Johnson-a
President without party? Such veto,
impossible against the united support of
his party, will be opposed to every prin-
ciple of political action ever asserted by
Mr.. Tilden. 1t will be in conflict with
his whole political code. He has fully
advised himself of the inability of a
President to resist the power and coer-
Cion of his own party; he has declared
that no President can do this unless
protected in his independence by an
amendment to the Constitution. In his
letter of acceptance he ridiculed Gov.
Hayes promise to make himself inde-
pendent of party by refusing to be a
candidate for reelection. This, Tilden
claimed, was absurd No President
could put his party in Congress at def
ance. Here is what he said:
While much may be accomplished by these
methods, it might encourage detuSiUe e1pectd-
tions If fIpithheld here the expression of my
cOJtyictiOn that no reform of the civil service
in this country will be complete and perma-
nent until its Chief Magistrate is constitu
tionally disqualified for reelection, expert
ence hGVirlg repeatedly exposed the futaity Of
seJ-imposed restrictions by candidates or IN
citm6entS
. This emphatic assertion of the futility
of promises made by candidates as op-
posed to party discipline and party unity
is of itself the strongest answer to Mr..
Tilden's own eleventh-hour promise, that
if elected he will veto the great leading
measure of his Administration. At
ClCOblOu, III bHdI WI.
Lincoln, if elected, could exercise any
restraint upon his party by the exercise
Of the veto, he thus laid down as the
general law applicable to all Presidents
elected by party. In his letter to Judge
Kent ne used this language;
What will Mr. Lincoln dof Can he be ex.
pected, as President, to understand the state
of things in any other sense than that of his
a.tis tI.
tenlptS to maintain the po,cer Of his party by
the same means Whieh WiU haze acquired il?
Can he emaneipdte himself from the dominion
of the ideas, associations and IN fHeHces Dhich
tciU haze accompanied him ip his rise 10 polUerP
Can he be expected to act in any new direc-
ton with sufficient breadth OF view and firm
ness of purpose!
Can Mr.. Tilden ask any higher patri-
otism for himself than what he insisted
was impossible in any other President?
Can he ask the people to give any
greater weight to his promise to defeat
these claims by his veto, when he but
few weeks ago solemnly declared that
all self-imposed restrictions by candi-
dates were wholly futile? Mr.. Tilden,
if elected, will be elected mainly by the
votes of these claimants, who vote for
him expecting thereby to secure pay
ment. To use his own pointed Ian
guage: "Can he emancipate himself
from the dominion of the ideas, associa-
tions, and influences which will have ac-
companied him in his rise to power?"
What the American people want, in
order to be assured that these claims
will not be paid, is not Mr.. Tilden's
promise to veto the bills, or that he will |
stand alone with a shotgun to shoot any
claimant approaching the Treasury; but |
what the people want is an assurance
from Tilden that the Democratic party,
of which he is the chief, will not make
any change in the law by which the ex-
isting exclusion of these Southern claims
shall be repealed? Mr.. Tilden is but
one man. He admits the existence of
the GLAZING, and the demand for their
payment by the solid vote Of his sup
porters in sixteen States. He admits |
that such payment would bankrupt and |
destroy the Union. All the protection |
he offers is his solitary, unsupported |
veto. He cannot claim the support of
single Democrat. This being all he can |
interpose to defeat this calamity, will
not the people prefer the protection not
only of Hayes, but of the united Repub-
lican party, in Congress and out of it?
The election of Hayes is final and con-
elusive against these claims Chicago
Tribune.