New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-02-09
A DEMOCRATIC TRIUMPH AFTER ALL.

inc the effect of the decision of the Electoral
Commission not to go behind the returns III
the Florida case. 1t seems to be received as
Republican triumph and Democratic defeat
upon this preliminary issue This Is alto
petber a mistake The decision actually sus-
tains the Democratic view of the question and
sllpport, the Democratic Interpretation of the
rights of the States. Moreover, it adj
ministers a crushing blow to a doc
trine which Democrats have habtually
charged Republicans with maintaining We
have not heard so much about it of late, to be
sure, for the Democratic mind has been occu-
pied with Reform to the exclusion OF every
thing else ; but few years ago every DEM
ocratic newspaper and stump speaker in the
country was full to running over with the
dangers to free institutions growing out OF the
increasing tendencies to Capitalization.
great many honest Democrats were in
Inundated by the word without know
ing precisely what it meant and
many others who understood it were sincere
in their fears lest the rights of the States and
their relations to the General Government
should be lost sight of in a centralized Fed
eTal Government, made strong by encrOach-
ments upon the prcrogatives and powers OF
the States and the gradual absorption and
assumption of their sovereign functions. This
decision ought to reassure them on that point.
In no detail of the complicated machinery
of our Government had the Fathers been SO
particular to separate the Federal and State
Governments as in this matter of the election
of President. In all that bears upon the ques-
ton in the organic act and in the debates
upon its adoption, there is manifest the same
careful regard for the rights of both, and
definite purpose to assign fixed limits to each.
and provide at the same time for their har
moni0us operation. Nothing can be clearer us
has been repeatedly shown, than the intent of
the Constitution to make the State Government
the unit Of political action in the final process
which is the essence of the transaction of the
Presidential election The Federal Govern
mcnt never i'll any contingency recognizes the
individual voter as a factor Ii assigns to
each State, upon fixed rules, its numerical
weight and influence in the number of its
electors and upon the reasonable theory that
each self governing community organized as Il
State is competent to provide for the legal
and honest expression of its own choice,
it has reserved no power of revision or
in reaching that expression. The Federal Gov
eminent says to the State of New-Y York. "YOu
:" are entitled to cast seventy votes for Presi
" dent and Vice-President; for whom do you
L" cast them p The State decides as to its
choice and hands over the result and the Fed
eral Government has not reserved to itself any
right to question further. Nothing could be
more definitely determined than the boundaries
of the powers of each in the matter, and nothing
could more clearly illustrate the harmonious
opcration of sovereign States within "a Federal
Union.
To ego behind the returns" as the phrase
is, and inquire into the technicalitIcs of
the process and raise questions as to the
formaltics or the methods by which each State
had reached the conclusion embodied in its
official certificate of the result, would be very
obviously complete subverson of this prin-
ciple III the Constitution and a more deadly
blow at the reserved rights of the States than
has ever Secn dreamed of 10y the most extreme
advocates of centralized power and a strong
Government. After such an invasion of
State rights, Federal interference upon almost
any prctext would be an easy matter. The
precedent, had it been established would have
been revolutionary and dangerous in the ex-
IRENE The defeat, then, of this proposition to
invade the province and usurp the functions of
the State Governments is III effect the recOg-
nticn of what has been considered a funda-
mental doctrine of Democracy. Ii maintains
the established equilibrium of rights and
powers, and discourages what the Demo-
cratic party has so anxlously regarded
as prevailing tendency to Capitalization.
In this view of it, we cannot forbear
offering our congratulations to the statesmen
of that party upon decision which sustains
their own position with such emphasis, and
which must relieve them in q great degree Of