Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-02-22
ELECTORAL COMMISSION.
Address In Opposition 80 CrOnin'
CeFGf6Snle.

ScNehAANUtcs
WASHINGTON, February % The cleo.
toral commission met in the Supreme
Courtroom at 10 o'clock. Hon. Stanley
Matthews made an address in opposition
to the Cronin certificate, No. 2 Com.
mencing with a denial, they had as
serted in the florida case that a certi6-
cate was final aud conclusive, and said
they had undertaken to draw a line Of
d%emarkation between the act of a State
and federal authority, which took the
matter up after it had left the State.
They also undertook to draw a line be-
tween things aud proofs, between the
certificate and the thing certified, to
show hat the certificate was but the
shadow, the thing certified being the
substance, and where the certificate did
not show the thing certified, truly it
could be corrected, 1t was a surprise,
he said, to fud that their adversaries
had not only taken their position on
the Florida and Louisiana cases, but
had gone beyond it and accepted the
dogma which they had improperly as.
cribed to the side with which he was
identified. He maintained that they
stood today on the ground they had
occupied in the beginning and which
had been hallowed by the decision of
this tribunal, viz that a certificate
based on tho returns was con.
elusive evidence of an election
In the Florida and Louisiana CAGES the
offers to go behind the returns were
menaciug, aud the offers grew stronger
AMI larger as the certainty obtained that
they would not be called to make them
good, and a great deal OF patriotic indig.
nation was INDUCED in at the alleged
counlenancing of fraud and wrong.
Matthews read an extract from the de.
cision Of Justice Field in the case of
Bradley VS.. Fisher, in which the ten.
dency to complaint by the party de-
feate1 ia shown going on from com.
plant to charges of improper motives.
He entered his protest against the
hollow %preteutions to morality that
had been msde the substratum Of
the complaint in this case. Cronin
had been mounted on a pedestal
for public admiration by his inventor as
a model Of purity and honesty of cleo
tons, and there was no offer to prove
that he was paid three thousand dollars
under pretense of expense to Washing
.on; there was no offer to prove the con-
tents Of supposed h~ieroglyphic charac.
ters that could not be read; there was no
offer to prove that this was the result Of
a deep-laid scheme TO defeat the will of
the people. He wondered when his
friend (Hoadley) referred to Webster and
Worcester, last night, he did not pro-.
duce that little pocket dictionary aud
show the correspondence between tram
mercy Park, New York, and Salem, Ore
gon. He commended that the governors
certificate fell to the ground when it was
shown that 1t was not a warrant to the
electors for the performance of their du-
ties. The law of Oregon required that
the votes for electors should be given,
received, returned and canvassed the
same as for members of congress, aud 10
the case Of members Of congress it was
the duty OF the Secretary of State to can.
vass the votes, and there the statutatory
directions ends. The statute in relation
to electors further provided that the
Secretary Of State should certify to two
lists, showing who had received the high.
est number Of votes, and there the csn-
vass ended. The constitution and law
stamped that record legal and the con-
stitutional result Of the election.
Judge Strong said that counsel had
now consumed two hours each, and still
the question of the sdnissibility Of evil
deoce was before the commission. he
thought that it should be received now,
subject to the judgment Of the commits.
sion as to its effect.
The proposition was adopted, bu;
neither the papers called for in the sub
rena duces tecum, served upon the post
master-General, were at hand, ncr were
the witnesses present, and the commits.
sion took a recess.