Litchfield enquirer., 1876-12-14

The New York Tribune of the Sd inst.
 prints two letters giving the opposing
 views oi two Republicans regarding the presidential crisis. They so ably represent the divided opinions held by those men
 who voted for Hayes that we glye them entire:
 To the Editor of the Tribune.
 SIR: It seems to me that one view of the present political complication which be-
 ieve to be held by very large number of citizens whose only interest in the mat
 ter is that of honesty and fair dealing,
 has had too small recognition in the press.
 Among thinking men whose vision runs
 beyond the little to-day of a campaign
 and the scarcely longer to morrow of an administration, and whose
 measurement of the importance of
 events is not limited to the present. and immediate roach of causes, but runs on to
 their larger consequences in history. there
 is much profounder feeling, I believe,
 than has yet found expression in the ut
 terauces of the press They do not view it now as at all "a questiontwhi candi- dates ought to have been elected or which
 party ought to have been successful. All
 that belongs to the past. It was made
 the sub bject of exhaustive argument in a
 long and vigorous campaign; was debated,
 If not with calmness, at least with great copiousness, and then reference of the
 whole matter was had to all the people of the States. One way or the other it has been decided. That question has been settled. What you or or anybody else thinks as to the merits of parties or cap- didates Is now of little consequence and of no possible pertinence. After the verdict is rendered, argument is waste of words. What we are getting at now, or should be getting at, is not the procure
 ment of a statement of results on what we conceive ought to be the fact, but the discovery of the actual fact and the hon. est straightforward statementpof results. Anything else, any deviation from a di- rect and sincere purpose to reach the cold actual truth at the bottom of all the re- turns, is simply the quibbling and petti- logging of partisanship; and, considering the magnitude not only of the interests presently involved, but of the conse- quences flowing out of the transaction, Is, I make bold to say, high crime againt this and against all free government an offense against law and justice, a des- tructive if not fatal blow at mans belief in his own capacity for self government. If free institutions and popular government are not delusion and a snare; if we do believe in the rule of the majority. and believe as we profess that it's errors are short lived and that we can trust to it's ultimate honesty and wisdom, we have but one thing to do after an cleo tion, and that is to see to it that we have an honest count and true return. We can not afford to seem to be consenting, or to appear even to be indifferent, to any course of procedure which shall have the least color of suspicion or fraudulent in- tent in matter of such importance. There can be no juggling of returns, no trick cry or chicanery or sharp practice by elee- tlon boards in the matter of choosing a government of forty millions of people, which will not do infinite damage to the And if any of us think we can consent 10 party success at any such cost, or that we can be indifferent while the transactions are in progress with out being participa tors in the crime against humapity-for it is that and no less-we are making a mistake greater tenfold than that of the men who stood by and saw the govern ment endangered without lifting hand to help, or givingit the first word of sympa- thy or support. At the worst they only consented or were indifferent to the breaking asunder of the Federal Union by violence; we shall be folding our hands before the encroachments If polit- ical corruption and rot that must make popular government stench, and dem- ocracy byword and hissing among na- tions.
 I do not believe this to be, as one of your contemporaries has expressed it, merely thesettlement of dispute between two classes of betting men. That. seems to me like be-littling the controversy with the purpose of making any unfair advan- tage that may be taken appear of small consequence. Nor do consider it mere question of candidates or parties. It goes deeper than politics; it touches the very foundations of public morality, and is in the closest relations with that condition of private and individual morals which make society pure and wholesome and inn part a vigorous vitality to the State. It brings the Republican party of the coun- try, the party of moral ideas, whose boast has been of its virtue in administration. not less than of it's valor in war, face to face with the crowning temptation of it's whole career; the temptation to perpetu. ate it's own power by the perpetration of a great wrong. Let me be utterly frank upon this subject. l do not think the Democratic party facing the same temp tation, and falling before 1t as I am cer- tain it would, could do anything like the injury, or administer anything like the shock to the faith man has. in his self governing capacity, which would be effec- ted by the yielding of Republicans. For 1t is from the record of the party and not from any partisan bias that the convic- tion springs that nothing better can be expected from that source. But would have you mark that the Republican or ganization, notwithstanding it's tempor- ary alterations and local wavering from the standard of high political morality, has not only always condemned the cor rupt practices and criminal methods of it's opponents, but has claimed for itself, and compelled recognition of the claim. purer patriotism, superior virtue, and higher character. A great many of us who voted for Hayes and Wheeler did so because we had faith Tn the honesty as we'll as in the intelligence fo the Republican masses, and were repelled from any confidence Tn the opposition by the facts of it's own history Knowing the weak and wicked spots in the Republican line, the ras- calities and misgovernmeut of so called Republicans at the south, and the cor rupt and dishonest practices which, under a loose administration, had inflicted taint upon official life; we still put our trust in the honest intentions of the mas ses of the party who seemed to be in ear- nest in working out reform; and upon the strength of the professions of the plat form, and the still more satisfactory ut- terances of the candidates, we sustained the party and voted the ticket as the best hope of the country. But what is to be- come of our confidence and our trust when we see the party to which We gave our faith itself taking the position which MT. Greeley called receiyership of sto- len goods. and calmly sitting down to the enjoyment of the fruits of a crime it so lately denounced? It was on the strength 0f itS virtuOua h0rror of cuOh rrootiooO