The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1876-11-29
SHALL THE PEOPLE RULE.

pended upon the official returns of Louisi-
ana, South Carolina and Florida, deep
anxiety touching the result and touching
the future of the Union has taken possession
of the public mind. From that day think
ing men of both parties who bare for their
country even moiety OF the love they bore
for party have been heard in tones whose
sincerity could not be doubted to say, in
words that Enthusiastically came from the
| heart, that they hoped the result, whatever
| it might be, would be such that the popular
| judgment of the country would recognize
that it was true. Republicans and democrats
who love the institutions under which they
live and desire their perpetuity, alike have
said and still say that they are more con-
cerned that such result may be reached as
will merit and receive public confidence in
its truth and fairness than they are as to
who shall be president and vice president
Still more recently, as the complications
thicken and the prospect grows more threat
ening that wish grows more anxious, until
now it comes from the heart with the inten-
sity of prayer.
| Who will pretend to foresee the evils
that in this juncture would result from
the placing of either candidate in the
presidential Office il majority of all the
people of the land believe him TO have been
placed there by fraud and not by right.
Before the canvass opened public confidence
had been shattered by successive shocks.
Exposed corruptions in the national legis-
| Iatrra and in tho administration and fbe row.
authorizing OF the state governments in the
south by fraud sustained by military force,
had led people to believe that the bands
of society were slackening and that govern
ment was fast tending to disintegration.
When the election had passed and the popu-
lar frenzy had little abated we found our
selySs face to face with a still more startling
danger. Though the republican majorities
of 1872 had fallen off more than half a
million of votes; though it was apparent
that the democracy had clear popular ma
Jority of some three hundred thousand votes,
and that the moral power of the popular
will had left the radical party and gone over
to the democracy, still il was found that the
electoral result Depended on the votes of
Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida; that
With their solid vote Governor Hayes could
still be elected, and the will OF the majority
defeated. No doubts were entertained as to
how each one of those three states had in
fact voted, but painful doubts at once sprang
up as to how their votes would be counted.
In each of them all the machinery of state
| government was in the hands of desperate
political adventures, who, it was believed,
would hesitate TO commit no political crime
that would prolong their lease of power. In
Louisiana the returning board stood invested
by law with extraordinary powers-powers
dangerous even in the hands of honorable
and enlightened men, for by means of them
ballots might be cast aside at discretion and
the popular will set at naught. But in that
state the personal composition of the re-
turning board was of the worst possible sort.
1t was composed of men convicted of
previous Justification of election returns,
men who had stolen offices and revolution
lied the state by fraud and who were so in
famous that no result they might certify
could be expected to command the conf
dence of the people unless il might be adj
verse to themselves. If the result of the
vote of that state actually were unknown
aud in doubt still the return of that in
| famous board, if favorable 10 their party,
would create no presumption in the public
mind in favor of its correctness. 1t would
have as little weight as the declaration of a
known thief that he had not stolen when he
had had a tempting opportunity to steal
But the actual result in that state is not
uncertain. 1t is known to every one that
the democratic candidates for electors have a
majority of the aggregate vote as returned
from the different parishes of from seven to
nine thousand. But it is said that this ma
jority was obtained by intimidation" and
it is feared and greatly feared, that under
this vague and indefinite plea the parish re-
turns will be so,,manipulated by that board as
that not only shall Louisiana be again dis
franchised by them, but that false and
usurped government shall be imposed upon
the other thirty-seven states. 1t is fully be-
leyed that Florida has cast majority of its
vote FOR the democracy, but it is feared that
Governor Stearns and BIS minions will fall
sify it,
While the vote of South Carolina was con
coded TO be doubtful within the past
few days, it remains still as doubtful
though il has been returned for the
republicans. If in the end the vote of both
Florida and South Carolina shall be given to
the republicans the result of the presi-
dental election in the United States will be
absolutelyin the hands of that Louisiana re-
turning board. Can these desperate scoun-
drels, with that heavy returned majority
against them, so manipulate it under any
conceivable pretehce as TO give the VOTE of