Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1876-11-21
ALEXANDRIA,VA VA.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER u, 1876

United States, is the fact that many or
its leaders are ignorant Of its most salient
features. They seem 20 blind Sin reference
to its practical requirements, even i'll matters
of grea, personal and party moment to them
selves, that one may reasonably doubt
whether some of them have ever read it.
What could be more plain than the ex-
press constitutional provision that No Sch
ator or Representative or person holding an
Office of trust OF profit under the United
States shall be appointed an elector." 1t |
may reasonably be thought that any seutle
man who aspires to be an elcctor, and accepts
Il nomination for that position, while at the
same time he holds an Office OF trust or profit
under the United States, must be ignorant OF
the especial features OF the Office to which nc
aspires, and therefore utterl y incompetent
to discharge it's duties. Moreover, as the
leading politicians select such electors, they
themselves must also be ignorant of the or
yanic law on which the election Of President
depends
1t is notable that all the democratic cleo
tors who have been selected have the proper
constitutional qualifications for the office,
showing that the Democratic leaders IN every
State were both we'll acquainted with the
Constitution and desired to observe its re-
quirements.
The plain truth is that the radical leaders
have become 81 warped from constitutional
precedents by the customary exercise OF
war powers" and other displays of force
outside of Constitutional limits, that there pre-
walls among them general carelessness
about the Constitution and the laws; and
for this reason the Importance Of thoroughly
understanding that instrument Is not suftl-
GENTLY recognized among the file OF the
party Even Gen. Grant, whose thorough
ignorance of constitutional obligations has
been shown by the facility with which
he disregards them, began his admin
istration by the appointment Of a cabl-
net out of which two members were ineli-
gble- The only claim which Gov Hayes has
to the Presidential office must be by means
of the vote of nineteen qualified electors, who
have not been chosen, added to four or five
unqualified electors who have been. If this
usurpation shall be carried out then the
democratic knowledge of the Constitution
will be indeed useless antiquarian learning
Notwithstanding the acknowed ged fact
that throughout the entire South the excite
ment consequent upon the late presidential
election, as compared with that in the North,
was 80 little as to be the subject OF general
remark, and that the feeling in that section
now is that Of quiet submission to whatever
the north, in it's power, may determine upon,
the radical newspapers, for the purpose OF
course Of strengthening their cause by stir
ring up buried sectional luminosity, speak Of
the objections that are made to the fraud
they are attempting to consulnmate as the
opposition of the rebels of the South and as
a revival Of the rebel spirit, and confne their
vituperations to people from that unfortunate
portion of the old Union while some Of the
''independent" newspapers, such as the New
York Herald, with supererogatory supercil-
iousness, advise the southern democrats to
keep quiet if they wish to retain the favor
of the North. Now it is perfectly well
known to the radicals and their abettors that
the South is keeping quiet and intends to do
so no matter what may happen. 1t has voted
unanimously for the man the northern dem
ocrats told them to vote for, and has, by its
votes elected him President of the United
States. That is all it has done or is going
to do about it." 1t has fairly elected
Northern President-it is for the North to
see that he is inaugurated.
If the moral character of the members of the
returning boards in the States cursed by such
appendages were above reproach, and were |
they not partizans, and personally interested
in the result of the late election, their suspi-
cious conduct and their refusal to submit |
their work to the inspection OF the public,
would justify every assertion concerning the
frauds they have and are perpetrating that
has been made If they intended acting