The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1877-02-14
RirI,nlullll llspatfll,
"WEDNESDAY s.. FEBRUARY Ia 1871
The Commission.

The Commission.
We put not the slightest reliance III any
statement that Is made which holds IL TO De
even possibis that the DEMOCRATS In Con.
gress consider themselves free from The OBJ
Neation 20 respect and acquiescc'in the de-
c,sious OF the Electoral Commission. The
agreement to the act appointing tho COM
mission and defining Its duties was IN Tue ne
highest degree solemn and binding, and we
have not the slightest fear that It VIII not
be SO regarded by the Democratic party.
The ebnIlitions Of irritation Of excitaoie
persons are not surprising. Nor rs It sur
prising that persons who were OF the hlss
aud the last opposed to the Commission
shouId take occasion to claim credit for
good Judgment and forecast in their oppo'
sEtion. They fatter themselves. They were
impracticable at first, and so they are SUN.
Indeed. the career Of the Commission Is NOT
ended. and there is no telling what 1t may or
NAV not do. And although wefor one are not
very hopeful Of q decision altogether graft
fyins 10 us, we arc still sure OF desidera-
tuin that the end will be reached through
conformity to civil proceedings and law.
That indeed IS irrational blessing which we
cannot too highly appreciate when we Know
that the Commission was the only mode OF
avoiding browning act Of usurpation that
would have been sustained by the military
force OF the Government, welded by Press-
dent GRANT.
To avoid this fearful blow to republican
liberty the Commission was instituted.
Since it's establishment the proofs have ac-
cumulated high as mountain to prove that
bat for this Commission the next President
would have been selected by usurpation
and inaugurated by force. The Republican
members Of Congress have, whenever they
spoke at all, unanimously sustained the
usurpations Of the President and his inter-
ference by the use Of troops, and through lu-
dicial usurpations in the South. They have
(including Senators EDMvNDs and FRELING-
BUYsEN and Representative HoAR, and every
conservative Republican in Congress)
unanimously claimed that the certificate OF
the returning board was final, and that Con-
gress could not so behind it, and SO every Re-
publican on the Commission Judges and alD
voted In the case Of Florida. So here is the
Republican party sustaining every usurpa-
ton and every fraud. The Republicans
sustain GRANT, and they sustain the return
ing boards, and thus the gigantic frauds OF
the presiden tial election in the three dis
puted southern States are declared to be
beyond the reach OF judicial inquiry. In
deed, the leading Republicans, following
Senator SIBERIAN, defend the frauds them
selves. .... .... ..:-
No man is so great fool rs to con-
tend that it was possible that the
two houses Of Congress could have
agreed upon the question as to whether
TILDEN or HAYES had majority OF the
electoral votes. Upon the disagreement
Of the two houses, what thcn2 The House
of Representatives would, upon the pre-
sumption that there was no election blythe
people, have gone into the election of u
President. The Republicans would have
declared that the failure OF the two houses
to agree was not such case rs that contem-
plated in the Constitution. The people had
not failed to elect; it was only that the two
houses failed TO find the way in which they
voted. The president OF the Senate, to
whose hands had been consigned the re-
turns from all the States, would have Eeen
urged to count them and declare eoko acuS.
elected. He has declared that he would
have done this, and that person so declared
by him to be elected would have been
escorted into office by force. We do not
suppose that any considerable number Of
people in the United States doubt that but
for the institution OF the Commission all
this would have happened.
Now, let all those who would have avoid
ed the Commission and carried the process
OF the count Of the electoral vote in Con-
gress to the conclusion. thus ending in the
events we have described, reflect upon the
matter. With TILDEN elected by the House,
and HAYES pronounced President by Mr..
FERRY, backed by the ,chote poaeer Of the
Government, what would they do about it?
Had not the whole country been informed
b. leading Democrats Of the North, in-
GLIDING persons aoho spoke for Mr.. liIden,
that resistance could not. be thought CT
Indeed, that was matter that should not
have been talked about at all. III events had
happened that provoked resistance, then re-
sistance would have followed. But to shut
it off in advance had the effect OF ,preclud-
ing it altogether from the public mind, and
giving immunity to usurpers and wrong
doors, who could no longer apprehend re-
sistance from 0. passive people.nUdi, - Il
but In truth, when men come to consider
domestic strife, it is not q matter that pre-
sents itself with any clear way through and
beyond it to condition peneficent and sal
utary to society. 1t is thing not to be
locked upon with reference to expediencW
If is resorted to at all 1t must spring from
the uncomfortable nature Of the evils to be
resisted. On this subject there is variety
of opinions always to be expected. One
section is always more, ready for conflict OF
arms than another. Some States or towns
OF great wealth have too much property to
hazard to think Of bloodshed.
But in our national condition the greatest
obstacle is found in the division Of the
whole country into parties. One party
would have sustained the outrages we COM
plain Of, and the other party, il resisting
those outrages, would have had to- fight that
other party, thus arraying neighbor against
neighbor, and the work Of throat-cutting
woald thus have become intensely domestic.
II ,S.,k~