Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1877-02-10
From the New York Tribune
The Florida Decision.

The fIOrida DecISlOn.
The decision of the Tripartite Com
mission in the Florida case is great vic
tory for the friends of Gov. Hayes. masked
however in such a way that democrats
feign to regard it as not quite crushing
defeat of Mr.. Tilden. On the main ques-
ton, SO far as the Commission has decid-
cd at all, it has adopted the principle put
forth in the address of Mr.. Evarts. 1t has
rdled against the preposterous pr etense
that ii has been constituted a sort of supe-
rior and supervisory Returning Board, with
power to test the honesty of the canvass,
and declared that it cannot go behind the
certificates presented to the two houses by
the President of the Senate. In other
words. the action of each State govern
ment in the appointment of electors is
final; the State may act improperly, but
no power of review has been lodged in
Congress; and the State government, so
far as the Commission can take cognizance
of it, is represented only by its supreme
executive authority. Following this prin-
ciple, the Commission strikes out all the
allegations Of fraud, etc, and agrees TO
consider as evidence the three sets of re-
turns opened in the presence of the two
houses on the LIST of February. These
are: /. The votes of the Hayes electors.
accompanied by the certificate Of Gov.
Stearns; 2. The votes of the Tiden
electors, which have the certificate only
of the Attorney General of the State; 8.
The supplementary papers forwarded by
the present Governor, Drew. designed to
authenticate and confirm the action of the
Tilden electors, and including record of
the proceedings in the quo warrant0.
1t has still to be decided which of these
sets of papers contains the electoral vote
of Florida, but there cannot be much diff
ference of opinion as to what the decision
will be. The first of the three has all the
conditions of regularity. 1t is in due form.
and 1t has the certificate of the Executive.
The second is fatally and obviously defec-
tive, and unless there can be found some
thing in No. 3 to strengthen it, the Com
mission is not likely to waste much con-
sideration upon it. In the proceedings of
the Florida courts the democrats profess
still TO find some few rays of hope. but
they are still hoping with sick hearts and
against their better reason. All the indi-
cations are against them, and in effect we
presume there is no expectation anywhere
that the famous quo warranto can save them.
Nor is there any comfort, so far at least as
Florida is concerned, to be extracted from
the resolution of the Commission to hear
evidence as to the eligibility of electors.
The case OF HUMPHREYS, against whom
alone any objection was raised, is made so
clear by the evidence we print this morn
ing, that ii is wonder the democrats
should have been at the useless trouble of
bringing him into court.
So with the contest narrowed to the
lines marked out by this decision, all the
most elaborate preparations of the democ-
S1hS W hO eSStiihohy NuiSh
Mr.. d. ID. Field has been trying TO SNUG
gle into the courtroom falls to the ground.
The bullying of witnesses has been in
vain. Lttlefeld and Maddox have lied
for nothing. Gov. Wells ceases to be an
object of interest, and Mr.. Tilden's attor-
ney from the With District of New York
exhibits himself to mankind as the nosest
and most conspicuous failure of the
XLIVth Congress. For of course all at
tempts to impeach the vote Of Louisiana
now are useless. The regularity of the
Hayes certificates from that State is mani
fest, indeed is not seriously disputed.
The last chance of Mr.. Tilden is in Ore
gon. where the precedent established in
the case OF Humphries leads naturally to
an investigation of the question OF Gro
min. Bnt there is no reason to suppose
that the Commission will take any other
view of the extraordinary performance of
the Oregon democratic electoral college
OF one than has been taken by all peo-
pie of impartiality and common sense.
The ITniied States government has expended