Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-12-01

Now as relates to the South Carolina
counts, the case was before the Supreme
Court, and the board was ordered to show
reason why it should not give an honest
count They defied the court, threw out
Democratic counties enough to count in
the Republican nominees. The BULLE-
TIN says it wascounted as returned, which
is untrue-C Conservative.
1t will not do to attribute all the
mlsstatements of fact that burden
the columns of our contemporary to
mcndacity; for some of them are due
to pure stupidity and ignorance. The
above paragraph is an example. 1t
is not too much to say, that the casu-
al reader of the public prints, not to
speak of the editor,who has not kept
the run of current events for the past
few weeks any better than is indlcat-
ed by the above statement, is fairly
amcnable to the charge of stupidity.
The Conservative taxes us with
falsehood IN stating last week that
the face of the returns in South Car
DINA showed the election of the
Hayes and Wheeler electors. Now
We do not suppose that 1t is necessa-
ry to demonstrate the truth of our
statement to the great majority Of
readers, but for the benefit of the
few who may be affected with infirm-
ity of perception similar to that Of
the editor Of the Conservative, we
clip the following extract from the
Springfield Republican,:
In South Carolina, the supreme court
having directed the canvassers to confine
themselves to ministerial duties, and sim
ply to count the 10 al returns, The ,fgureS
hoe a mall ma o. ity f r tie Hayes c'e'
TO s, the choice of two democratic con
gressmen out of five, small democratic
majority in the Legislature, and two dem.
ocrats and three republicans of the general
StdtC tlShCl, uSluC llOll SoNCl uOl anu
lieutenant governor, whose votes are to be
considered by the Legislature.
SO much for the charge of false
hood. Now for the statement of
our cotemporary,t that "the Board was
ordered to show reason why it should
not give an honest count" This le
not literally true. AS stated above,
the Supreme Court in the exercise of
more than doubtful authority, as
sumed to dictate to the Board in
what manner it should conduct the
canvass. The Board, choosing to re-
gard this dictum of the Court an I'M
warrantable interference with it's le-
gitimate functions, paid no attention
to it, but proceeded with its work,
finished it, issued certificates to the
officers elect and adjourned barely
within the limits of the time fixed
by law. For this they were cited be-
fore the Court for contempt,and,upon
their failure to appear, were arrested,
fined and imprisoned for contempt,
only to be released a day or two aft
erward on writ Of habeuS co,pus
issued from the U. S. Court. In the
exel else Of their discretion, the Board
did throw out the returns OF two
counties where there were evidences
of wholesale frauds, but this was not
necessary "to count in the Republl-
can nominees" for electors, for as be-
fore stated the majority for the
Hayes electors on the face of the re-
turns as received, without altering
or subtracting a figure or raising a
question of fraud, was 23O for the
lowest candidate on the list. This
was the substance of our statement
last week, and for this the Conserva.
tioe ignorantly arraigns us for lying
We suggest, that the next time il
attempts to fasten falsehood upon
the BULLETIN, that it procure the as.
sistance of somebody with sense
enough to digest the daily news and
get an intelligent idea Of its import.
BY this means it may avoid airing
its ignorance.