, 1876-12-17

s.
not accidental, but deliberate, is claimed oy
the fact TINT the ss Committee of Detail " in
the Constitutional Convention reported as
part of the scheme that "Congress may
determine the time of choosing and assem-
bling the Electors, and the manner Of certify.
ing and Transmitting their rotes." This pro
vision was rejected by the Constitutional
CONVENTION, and the action is the strongest
argument We have seen that the trainers OF
the Constitution intended to exclude Con-
gress from every possible interference with
the election of the President, and to render
it impossible for that body, having the rever~
sionaryrig to choose aPresident, to become
the agent for defeating an election by the
people.
The case as it now stands is this: Mr.
HAYES has 1856 votes certified and directed
| to the President of the Senate. That officer
will open the returns, verify the certificates,
and declare the result AL constitutional
procedure ends with this. Any further
action will bo revolutionary, and can only be
sustained by resort to violence. Are the
Democrats Of to-day prepared to undertake
the responsibility for revolution? Do they
understand what it 1neans? It will not
| stop at the withdrawal of the House
of Representatives. It will not stop at
the declaration Of the House that it will
not recognize the Electoral votes Of
| Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida. It
will not stop at the declaration Of the House
that there has been failure to elect. It
will not stop at pretended election of Mr.
T11DEs by the House. It will not stop at q
| pretended Inauguration Of hr. TnDEN
| under color Of such fraudulent cleo
ton. Every step taken will be an
| advance toward revolution, anarchy, and
| civil war. Every movement will hold out
new encouragement to the desperate Office
seekers, who will gather boldness from
familiarity with seeing the law overridden.
Every additional act outside Of law will
render the retreat to the forms of law the
| more difficult. Every advance in the revolu-
tionary project will rally new adventurers
and scaemers who, with false ambition and
the villainous hope Of personal gain, will
push the party leaders nearer and nearer the
precipice, till the plunge into the abyss of
civil war will be sudden and inevitable.
Revolutions do not go backward The men
who to-day talk of interference with the
count Of the Electoral vote may not all ap-
preciate or understand it, but they are sound
ing the alarms of civil war as surely and Us
loudly as if they marched through the streets
~ MI sFo 1,.,,-,, t,aok
recruits for TnDES's army.
It is time to call the halt on the Demo-
cratic revolutionists, as the Nation has done.
The people Of this country want 70 civil
war, and least Of all a war that shall be, not
like the last one,-section against section,-
but neighbor against neighbor; not war
where one army marches into the territory Of
united foe, but one in which the gun and
the dre-brand Will be employed in every
State, and every city, and every town, and
every quiet little hamlet, in the whole length
and breadth Of the land. That is the signal-
light Of danger which stands at the end of
the road where the fnger-post points to
revolution. That is the logical result of
any movement to determine the result
forms Of law. If these forms are
wrong, if the constitutional provision is de-
fective, If the Returning Board system is
out of harmony with the spirit of our Gov
eminent, the people have it in their own
power to correct the evils in lawful way |
If it is 8 fact that Mr.. TuDEN has been de- |
frauded out Of his, election by the Returning
Boards Of certain Southern States, TINT fact
will become patent enough within the next
four years, and react upon the Republican t
party, however little the party or its7eaders
may have been to blame for it. Let the
Democrats who have the peace and welfare
of the country at heart refer their people t3
the election of 1924, when JACKSON re-
ceiyed one-third more popular votes than
ADAMS received, "a much larger popular ma
jority relatively than Gan be claimed for
TMDEN now,-but acquiesced in the election
of ADAMS according to the forms Of law.
JACKSON was rewarded subsequently by two
terms Of the Presidency and the dictation Of
his successor, and it was thirty years before
the Democratic party was displaced from the
power which its conservatism brought it.
Aao 'AA4N4e0@A0A W AA6A" 0AA1A PA4AoAAACA4b VI
wrong may be safely intrusted to the Ameri-
can people acting deliberately and lawfully
but no party that goes outside Of the law
and thus sows the wind Of revolution can ex-
pect to resp anything but the whirlwind
nor can that party which keeps within the
pale Of the law be expected to stand aside
and stink away because revolution is threat
ened.
The New York Herald very properly calls ABE
HEwrrr's late "bob-tai1 address," which ZAck
CHANDLER so promptly tramped out, bombast
md falsehood. It laughs at the impudence OF
lie assumption that the two Houses Of Con-
gress have nothing to do on the 14th Of Febru-
lit next except to meet in joint convention and
lcc1are TlLDEs and HENDRICKS elected. The
Herald sarcastically adds:
cnur4a preAfdenr TrT xTi11 ha eyrnffHad Inf |