The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1877-04-04

by initiating the fillibustering maneuvrr
that they, too, fully realized the blunder.
They tried to cut their way out Of the .
Slaughter Pen, while their comrades /.
entered into parley with the victorious
leaders Of the Opposition TO secure
terms Of surrender.
%. The public had been told that these
terms amounted to positive and tangible
pledge that if the Democratic memb ers
Cor a sufficient number Of them) would
proceed with the count and declare the
election Of Hayes through the Commits
sion, after the detection Of fraud, and
when it was plain that the result could
only be accomplished by violating the
law,
vile as it was, the troops would be imme-
diately removed from Louisiana and
South Carolina, with the understanding
that the Nichols and Hampton govern
ments should be permitted to assert their
supremacy.
Sd. Candor compeIs US to say that the
letters Of the Hayes managers do not con
tain the pledges in the distinct form in
which the public had been assured they
were given. The letters were a repro
duction of the vague generates in Mr..
Hayes acceptance, which the people
themselves had rejected at the polls as
wholly insufficient to reconcile them to a
continuation of Republican rule. They
were as thin as air and destitute Of sub
stance as water Cruel, and we are amazed
that the palates for which they were in
tended were so easily satisfied. The
pledges expressed or implied in theconter-
ence at 'Wormleys" may have been more
definite, but they were not confirmation
strong as proof of Holy WHIT Of the good
faith Of the Radical schcmers who are so
we'll trained in the arts Of diplomacy
and relied upon fraud and intimidation
to secure from the Democratic leaders
what they had been unable to win from
the constituencies of these leaders at the
ballot box.
4th. As the Democrats were acting 10
a fduciary capacity for the public they
represented, they had no authority to de-
viate from the letter of the law as laid
down in the Constitution and established
by invariable precedent, but having dis
covered the false step that had been
taken, there was no alternative but to
retrace it. Such pledges as the glittering
generates embraced in the documents
herewith printed, while they furnish
abundant evidence OF Eremeditated
deception by the Republican leaders,
afforded no excuse for the Democrats to
go on with the count and become parti-
ceps criminis in the Inauguration of
fraudulent President. If the law was
right and Hayes was fairly elected (con-
trary to the resolution passed by the House
of Representatives, after the result was
declared they ought to have proceeded
without pledges. If it was wrong, they
ought to have maintained their ground
and stood by the Constitution and laws
and the verdict and rights of the people
as declared at the ballot-box against the
lawless demands of the office-holders I'M
til the crack of doom.
5th There is nothing in these revela-
tons to palliate the original blunder
Except the feeble effort to correct it, of
the House of Representatives in abdi-
eating its functions and creating the
Electoral machinery; nor to reconcile
the country to the result which followed
of installing an administration upon
pedestal of fraud. 1t will not be forgot
ten that, Senator Gordon, who has
played part in this Comedy of Esrars,
more creditable to his heart than his head,
said on the 9th of February, II have
g never doubted and / am now absolute
g ~ assured of the fact and from Rep5tb
g lean sources, too, that if the Democrats
g had from first to last presented an I'M
g broken front and given notice of their
" memorable purpose OF resisting to the
:" very last extremity any attempt to
g seat a fraudulent President that the
g Republicans would never have at
g tempted to seat Hayes. I k,so,c this to
" be so" Nor will all this dust which is
being raised after the preparation of
the wrong, conceal from an obseryant
and rejecting public the declaration of
Senator Edmunds who originated and
reported the measure, that It's effect was
ito lift the Republican party out Of the
valley of the shadow of death" to which
the people had sentenced it and to renew
its lease of life until the Democracy can
gather up their demoralized forces and
hurl them once more upon the columns of
the enemy.