The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1876-11-29

The Asw FORK Sun, an al lie and fear.
less Democratic part .zan pane,
SPEAK s Of our duty il. the possible
Owe it of Mr.. Hayes election to the
or ice of President. While naturally
.ecre Is a feeling Of resistance in ev,
9,y Democratic h eart, who feels that
The has been grie .vously wronged by the
,%usurpation Of che Returning or Can
wasting Boar DIS Of the negro govern
ments Of uIe South, We take 1t thai
: the Sun strikes the keynote which
will guide the more philosophical
people of the country, who in most
ceases, govern the popular sentiment OF
the people. Some have expressed
. grave fears that the government OF
Wouf fathers would be usurpcd by Grant
u. or some other person who might as
sumo to be dictator, and do away
with our free government. This can
not be. There are yet too many pa
triotic and honest mn in the Country,
for such a thing to occur. No man or
any set of men will dare bring about
a revolution which would overthrow
this government or resist its properly
constituted authorities. Although the
public heart of the country IS agitated
and exercised by the bra2en corrup-
ton of those who have sought to set
aside the popular verdict of the PEG.
pie our redress is in the ballot-boX and
being in the ballot, the country is safe,
and future elections will redress our
present wrongs.
The Sun says:
"But these Electoral Colleges are pc
culiar bodies, whose appointment is
committed wholly to the States, whose
certificates when their official cllarac-
ter has been duly vouched by their
States, become by force of the Col!sti-
tuition the sole and exclusive legal evil
dence that the votes of those States
have been cast for such and such per-
sons rs President and Vice-President.
1t cannot be, therefore, that any au-
thority can reside anywhere to try any
question, or to find any fact, that is to
warrant the two Houses in rejecting
the votes of any Electoral College OF
whose authority to give those votes
the State, through Its constituted au-
thorities, has legally Informed Con-
gress. All such questions and all such
facts it belongs to the proper authori-
ties of each State to try and determine,
before the persons supposed to he cho-
sen electors are assembled to give
their votes. Any attempt by the two
Houses, or either Of them, to go behind
the certificates and to determine the
right of the electors to give the votes
which they have certified, when the
State has decided that right by its
competent authorities, will lead to
conclusions in which the people of
this country will not acquiesce.
"Thus if it shall be found on an in
spection of the certificates of the Flee
t0ral Colleges, when they are opened
in the presence Of the two Houses that
Mr.. Hayes has received l85 votes. or
more, that result must he accepted by
the people as the legal result, what
ever may have been the. frauds COM
mitted in Louisiana or any other State
in taking or returning ~orcounting the
popular vote. 1t is perfectly proper
for Congress to ascertain the fact Of
such frauds in all authoritative and
conclusive manncr for the information
of the people. but the certainty that
there ore such frauds cannot affect the
legally certified election. Mr.. Hayes
must be inaugurated and acknowled-
ged as President, even if the legal re-
suit is so tainted with fraud that hon
est men revolt at the very thought OF
what they must submit to. There is
no alternative but civil war and that
forms al unnecessary and inadequate
remedy, and is not to be thought Of.
II Hayes shall be declared President,
with grave reason to believe that he
has not been honestly and fairly enti-
tied to have the electoral votes of GER
tain States, he and his party must
bear the consequences. Those conse-
-quehces, If his opponents are wise,
will be, not that his title to the Office
is to be resisted, but that the people
are to be appealed to to use their con-
.stitutional and peaceful method of re-
dressing all wrongs and furnishing all
-outrages-namely, by the ballot box.
No such appeal can be made if the
country is to be plunged into anarchy
by denying Hayes's title to the office.
Our Government must he preserved
and perpetuated ; and that it may be,
grievOus as the wrong will be that
takes from Tilden States in which he
he has certainly carried a majority Of
the popular vote, we must submit to
that wrong, in the entire certainty
that the party responsible for it will
in due time be rewarded with politi-
cal humiliation.
"We shall therefore deprecate and
oppose any action by the House OF
Representatives looking to any dis
pute of the regular electoral certifi-
Gates from any Of the States. The re-
sponsibility for what is done in the
three controverted States is with the
Republicans, ard there let it rest. All
that the House of Representatives can
properly do in the premises is to ascer-
tain and determine the precise nature,
methods, and extent Of the frauds, and
then leave the question to the judg-
ment of the country, and to the legal
and constitutional remedy afforded by
the next elections"