Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1876-11-18

! the application of the Democratic committee,
| allowing FIVE members from each party to be
present during the canvassing of the returns
The report is current that the returns from
| some of the wards In this city will undergo a
| revision and reconstruction to secure district
! judgeship for the Republicans, but the report
! cannot be traced to a reliable source. The
| Democrats are in good feather tonight over
the news from South Carolina. Business
| continues extremely dull. with no prospect of
an Improvement until the present political
! dispute is adjusted and the election Of Presi-
/ dent conceded by the opposing party. The
/ belief seems to be very general that the re-
/ turning board Will repeat their performances
! of 1872 in effect, ahd declare Packard elected
| governor.
| Second Note from the Democratic Com
mittee.
NEW ORLEANS, November 18, 1915.
To Hon. John Sherman, Stanley Mathews, J. A.
Garfield, VIM. d. Kelley. John A.. KassOn, T. ".
StoughtOn, c. Irwin Ditty, J. II. VonalOn. Eugene
Hale, M. 5. Quay, VIII 8. Cumback, =. T. NOyes,
Job T. Stevenson, John COburn, Lew wallace,
John Tuttle NJ. A. MGrew, J. A. Chapman VIM
R. Smith, Abner Taylor, s. R. Haven: J. NJ
Beardsley, c. B. Farwell, Courtlandt Parker, Sid
ney Clark, J. c. Wilson, and others:
GENTLEMRN-W are in receipt of your
answer to our letter of the fourteenth instant,
in which you inform US of your determina-
ton not to confer with us for the purpose Of
exerting such influence as we may possess in
| behalf of such canvass of the votes actually
cast at the election in Louisiana, as by its fair
ness and impartiality shall command the ac-
quiescence and respect of all parties. We
sincerely regret the failure of our attempt to
secure the cooperation of the citizens from
other States in furtherancc of the purpose
which, as we supposed, had brought
them hlther at this Juncture. We regret
all the more, because your refusal to confer
and cooperate with us appears to be based
upon a serious Misrepresentation of the Ian
guage, no less than the spirit of our Commu-
nicatiOn. 1t can hardly have escaped your
notice that our statement of the result to be
attained by the cooperative action which we
sought to bring about, was a simple repro
duction of the language of President Grant,
at whose request we understand you are here,
in his recent order to General Sherman.
That language was deliberately used, no
doubt, in view of the fact about which. as
we conceive, there can be no dispute, that the
first and most essential prerequisite to an
honest and Just declaration of the result of the
recent election in Louisiana, is a fair and i'm
partial canvass of the votes actually cast, and
it seems to us that you do the President great
injustice in supposing that in speaking of the
votes illegally, as you certainly do us inius-
tee by the imputation of desire to insist
upon a narrow and vicious Interpretation. In
our Judgment the expression, Votes actually
cast, ~ of necessity designates votes legally
cast, and as 4 consequence of such votes only
did we desire to secure fair and impartial
canvass. We beg leave to say, therefore,
that you are mistaken in the belief that we
sought unduly to narrow the basis on which
We invited your cooperative action; and YOU
are no less in error in attributing to us a pur-
pose to interfere with the legal authorities of
the State in the discharge of their duties to
claim rights and TO arrOgate to ourselves
powers which we do not possess. In writing
our letter, we were fully aware that both the
organization and action, whether Judicial or
of the returning board of Louis
lana were beyond any authoritative control
from without, and that it would be the hight
Of arrogance and folly to attempt to alter the
laws of State of which we are not citizens,
or to obtrude our Interpretation of these
laws upon those whose duty it is to admin
lister them. But we had supposed, neverthe
less, that there was an influence which might
be rightfully exerted by citizens of this re-
public who are strangers IN this State, and
we had taken it for granted that your pres
ence here In response to the suggestion Of the
President was a recognition of this fact. We
had supposed that it was not improper for us
to remind the authorities of this State, by our
mere presence at least, that there are
certain rules of fairness and Justice
which underie all constitutions and laws,
and upon whose observance must depend the
acquiescence of the people of all parties In
the declared result of the Louisiana election
are rules such as these, but no man ought to be
judge in his own case; that the decision of
any contest ought not to depend upon the
mere arbitrament of the parties thereto; that
before such decision Is made both parties
ought to be fully and fairly heard; that all
questions of law ought to be decided in con-
fOrmity with its established general principle |
and all questions of fact upon evidence duly
presented and weighed under the rules which |
are of universal recognition In all the States
Of this Union; that the trial of all causes in
yOlvIng public interests at least ought to be
public, and that all the proceedings reported |
for the purpose of determining the issue in !
the present electoral contest ought by their |
manifest impartiality, to disarm the suspicion |
that the forms of law have been perverted into |
for the violation of its spirit In this
we may be permitted to observe, |
that while undoubtedly, as you say, a sedulous |
incubation and cultivation of the habits of !
obedience TO the forms OF laws Is vital to the |
preservation of constitutional liberty, it is no |
less important that refusal to Yield such /
bc not provoked by using these
forms as means for subverting the very ends
for which they were designed. Without n-
to question the sincerity of the be-
lef which you arc at pains TO express,
that you know Of no reason to doubt thatthe
Louisiana returning board viii make a per
fectly honest and Just declaration Of the re-
suits OF the recent election in Louisiana, we
leem it not improper to remind you that the
presence IN this city of so many citizens from
al parts of the Union at this moment seems
% be evidence of widely prevalent distrust
If the action Of this board, and that such dis
rust has this foundation at least, that the
of the board has not been changed
,ince its returns were set aside by congress
;ional committee, of which the Republican
candidate tor the Vice-Presidency was a
member; and this distrust is not unnatural,
n view of the fact that as we understand one
IF the members Of the returning board
, a candidate, voted for 1t the
-r""nt election, another The holder of an
,fice Of profit and trust by appointment of