The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1877-03-10
Shall Not Fraud Be Made odiOus ?


The ~ Y Sun Of Saturday morning
inverted all its column rules, and arrayed
itself in the habiliments Of mourning on
account Of the consummation Of the fraud
by which Mr.. Tilden was counted ont of the
Presidency and Mr.. Hayes was counted
in. Whereupon the Baltimore Sun takes
occasion to say:
"We fear that the grief of our New York
namesake "bears such emphasis as might
lead some to challenge it-as did Hamlet
that Of Laertes when he cast himself into the
grave Of the fair 0phelia. Others have re-
grets and forebodings as well as the Neio
York Sun in regard to the wonderful process
ses by which the President elected by the
people is thrust aside and another ''cOnnted
in, but they don't expect the Heavens to be
hung in black, nor do they clothe themselves
in the habiliments Of mourning, as did onr
New York contemporary on Saturday, when it
put long black lines up and down its columns.
The nation is not dead yet by very great
deal, and the people, as we hope and believe,
do not intend that it shall die early. They
will exercise becoming fortihde. and must be
relied upon to right all unatoned wrongs when
the proper time arrives"
"The nation is not dead yet, says the
Baltimore Sun, but the republic is Tho
right of free ballot has been wrested from
the people by fraud, The republic of our
fathers of the Constitution, no longer ex-
lists. The ballot has given place to the
returning board, whose decision in secret
has made President instead of the ballots
of the people. If the word FRAU were
written in characters of fire upon the broad
armament Of the skies and the heavens
were hung in sackcloth, then, perhaps, the
people might have realizing sense of the
enormity of the crime which has been
perpetrated upon them by the basest vii
lainy that ever dared and defed the hot
indignation of a free people, or a people
who once were free. But the tendency
of this half-palliatory language Of the Bal
timore Sun is to bring them, or such of
them as form their opinions from its col
umns, to the conclusion that the otfense is
not such grave one after all. If it has
no words of encouragement for the feeling
symbolized in the columns of its New York
namesake, it should not undertake to re-
press that feeling for, on the watehful
Jealousy and sensibility of the people in
relation to all that pertains to good gov
eminent, to all that relates to the proper
and harmonious working of our political
system, the due observance of the forms of
law, statute and organic, depend the peace,
order and well being of society, and the
stability of the government itself If the
heinous crime against popular suffrage
which has been committed by the Radical
party, shall come to be lightly regarded by
the masses of the people, the scoundrels
who have so successfully perpctrated fraud
upon a fair ballot, will be encouraged to
do it again, and every word tending to
condone the wrong or to lessen the public
estimate of its moral turpitude, is so much
countenance given to that particular kind
of fraud, which, if repeated, will probably
whelm the country in civil war The
guilty culprits ought to be made to feel,
in every possible way, the enormity of
I
their offence, and public opinion ought to
be schOoled to that high sense of virtue
and propriety which would not for one
moment tolerate such wrong and outrage
upon the ballot How shall that be better
done than through the influence of the
press?