Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1876-12-06
Inc rrttm dn.
NoNTPELIER VT.
WEDNESDAY. DECEMBER +, 1876.
The Presidential / lection.

The meeting of the electors to-day 20
vote for president and vice president is
another step in the presidential contest
and levives an interest which had for the
last two weeks somewhat aba'ed 1t is
by no means certain what tO-dav> vote
will be. and it is plainly the democratic
plan to prevent if possible to-day action
from being final if the result is not in IA
vor of Mr.. Tilden.
But whether final or not, to-day's action
of the electors excite. intense interest
throughout the country. In the first place
the democrats hope to be able to pick up q
vote somewhere. And srangest Of all,
numbers of the so-called independent
rlr>s have been advocating the plan of
having some clcctor who was chosen to
vote for one candidate vote for somebody
else. Papers that are dreadfullv worried
about Southern ruturning boards doing
their honest duty, have not he,tatcd to adj
vocate Il plan which would rs etfrctuallv
overturn the choice of the people, as ex-
pressed by their ballots r. the most Q Earring
dishonesty on tie part Of election officers,
high or low. The men that it was hoped
to capture by this clap trap or more sub
s.antial and it must he said, as honorable,
reasons range all the way from James Rus
sell Lowell of Massachusetts to Tim IIur-
lev of South Carolina. lcwd fellow who
used to be u workman in the Lhallcstown
navy-vald and has since had employment
less honest.
Then there is the dem pcratic hope that
the governor of Oregon will prevent
postmaster Watts from casting Il vote for
Hayes and we presume they will try 10
have Aldrich's vote for Tildcn in this
state counted. In Nebraskt there is a
miserable muddle, the constitution rrulir-
ing the leg stature to canvass the votes
for electors and the governor having
failed till Saturday to call session for
that purpose. The democratic House will
if possible throw out the vote Of Colorado:
in fact the only objection to " returning
boards having full power to reject votes
is made when The republicans have control.
The sJuatioi in the three doubtful south
ern states is substantially As follows: In
South Carolina the Hayes clector, have
their certificates. the SUI RENE Coart iailed
the men who issued the certificates. and
Judge b md let thein ont of lil When
the legislature met last week, Unted
.tt,
tol, and ii now appear, exceeded their in
structions. rs they kept ont several demo-
crais claiming seats in the House.
The d,m"crus then orr tnlZd Is House OF
their own Iii Carolina Hall, but on Thurs
day took their pllce> in representative
hall, ami for some days two no .~c> con-
vened IN the sun. room Bat Monday the
democrats who have obi incl some lc
lessons of n'.'o reru1iy;tn>. again re-
tire.l to Caloi!nt Hall, and Yesterday the
s nate and republican house threw oa
one OF two 60 ,nti'.s and declared Cham
berlan elected governor.
SO there IRE Two hoI,rs AL two claim
ants 10 The governors char. Yes crd,.> the
Supreme Court WIS listening To arguments
for an order preventing the republican
el, clors from meeting, and there were
thousands of armed whites in Columbia
really to enforce any order of the supreme
Court in that direction
1t is sud that Florid, is republican by
Al minority and will be so declared Tie
cinvassers have had II fearful pile of atfi-
wits and swearing before them, in one
case one Bolton swearing rs to Il return.
again making Aft l;tvit that his first oath
WAS false, again making affidavit he was
drunk when he sworc the second time, and
finally taking the stand and swearing to his
second statement With such evidence
fore it 4 board must get somewhat in
doubt and certainly deserves more ch,rtv
than it is apt to get from whichever party
is defeated.
In Louisiana the republicans have
brought on much testimony rs to outraoes.
the worst story being that of Elizl Pink
ston which is denied but not dsproved bv
the democrats. Their way out of the diff
ficulty is that the murder of her husband
WAS not political; II theory that does not
explain what it aims to. Ii is generally
thought that both the louisiana and Flor
ida boards would give certificates to the
Hayes electors. Until the question is de-
determined however, it is needles, to py-
anime the grounds on which they act
There have been newspaper demonstrations
enough of how the southern elections, went
each paper proving beyond possibility of :,
doubt that the man it want, to be elected
is elected.
The plan proposed by Carl Schurz that
Congress should Immediately propose a
constitutional amendment, put,inr the
counting of the presidential vote into the
Supreme Court. which amendment could
be ratified 10y {. sufficient number of states
before February. is Il good solution of the
difficulty. 1t is one. however, that p,rti
sans in Congress, on both sides nav not
be ready to adopt.
But it is certainly true tn It neither can
dldate can be placed in the presidential
Chair without Il very general suspicion
that he owes his election to fraud or yio-
lence. We therefore need Il high and I'M
ptrtial tribunal to determine the matter
20 rs to satisfy the country that the most
correct solution ;.tlainabc has been reach
c l. But the present prospect is that things
will drift. and if they drift peacefully it is
very possible that Tidcn VIII be the nrxl
president and Wheeler the next vice-prcsi-
dent. But at least till o-day voting is
heard from Mr.. Hayes is Il very prominent
candidate for president and Mr. Hendricks
Is fr from being out of the vice pre,iden-
tal race.
The presidents message comes too late