Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1877-02-02

They knew that without the Senate, MIR.
Tilden, if the House should elect him, would
be towerless, unable to control & single
de par tment. or to get an appointment con-
frmed. They knew that if the President oil
the Senate should open and count the votes
and declare Mr.. Hayes elected, he would be
inaugurated, with all the forms Of law on
| his side, and with the possession which has
been declared to be nine-tenths of the law.
They knew, in short, that the desperate and
revolutionary game blocked ont by the more
foolhardy Democrats had not the ghost OF
chance of success They had nothing to
lose, and good chance to win BY the plan.
OF course they went in for it, and have had
not the slightest difficulty in securing for it
the substantially unanimous endorsement Of
the Democratic party. in and out of Con-
gress.
But why should the Republicans on the
committee have become parties to such a
one-sided bargain? Some of their supporters
have insisted that it was solely high, pure,
noble maguanimity. They believed that
HAYES was elected but they knew that half
of the American people-the democratic
half-did not believe it, or did not propose
to own that they believed it as long as they
could make anything by denying it. So, to
insure their acquiescence they generously
conceded the ground on which the Republi-
can party, at least the Republican party out
side OF the Senate. had planted itself; and
agreed to submit result they believed to
b, already decided, and decided in their
favor, to an uncertain arbitration. Now
there are Rspublicans-we know Of such in
the party-there have been such before now
in Congress from Vermont-whose minds
naturally work in that way. They are SO
constituted that the objection of an opponent
has more weight with them than the objec-
ton of friend. They desire to be so fair,
that they concede every vantage ground to
the other side. They are not partisans, and
if there must be purely party success, they
prefer it should be the success of the other
party But the three Republican Senator
who have controlled this thing, are not
men of that stamp. Senators Edmunds,
Conkling and Frelinghuysen, are strong
partisans They have not been in the habit
of conceding advantages to the Democrats,
or regulating their course by Democratic
objections. The talk about ''magnanimity"
on their part. towards Bogy and Cox and
Fernando Wood and Sam Randall and
Proctor Knott and John Morrissey and
Samuel j. Tilden and Hewitt and Fitzhugh
and Wade Hampton and their followers.
may as well be dropped.
What, then, were their motives?
We do not know. Possibly personal
motives may have mad some inau
ence. Mr.. Conkling, for one, did nothing
to prevent New York from going for Til
den last November He may still feel that
the party which did not appreciate his
claims to be its nominee, does not deserve
success. Possibly the love of powor-for the
way in which this unpalatable measure has
been driven through Congress is q splendid
instance of the exercise of great ability and
power has had something to do with it.
But the results Of the plan are OF more
consequence than the motives Of its contrivers.
We have supposed from the first that it
would be carried, and VIC have said that the
people would accept its decision. There
will be acquiescence and peace. There
would have been acquiescence and peace
any way The Democratic threats of revo-
luton have been mere buster. That SEN
sitivc indicator, the gold market, by its
steadiness has shown that the capitalists Of
both parties knew that the talk of war
was but empty talk. Tho country is not
ready for another civil war, and there has
been no serious danger of it. There will
be acquiescence but there will be, for
there can be, little or none OF the customary
cheerful yielding to the clear will Of the ma
jority. If this plan could give, in the words
Of its friends, - an unquestioned title"
to either candidate, We should be tempted to
overlook its defects but that seems to us
impossible. If Gov Hayes is declared elect
al tl.a nf tho naporrata f.r fnur
years to come will declare, as now, that
be was the choice of the minority and not
of the majority and that his title is of
possession merely, not of right. They will
recognize him, a. the White Leaguers have
Gov. Kellogg, in Louisiana, but only be-
Cause they are not ready for q new rebel
lion.
II Gov. Tilden gets the certificate OF the
Commission. the Republicans of the land
will acquiesce-they have never in thought
or purpose intended anything but acquies-
cence in the result which should be do
clared under the forms of law Bat it
will not convince them that the Mississippi
plan - Is fair and free mode Of conduct
ing elections: or that there was fair and
free election in the six Mississippi counties
which east all told eighteen Republican
votes; or that the practical disappearance
of the Republican party in Georgia, Alaba-
ma and Arkansas was due to honest and
peaceabe change Of opinion on the part oil
the Republicans OF those States or that |
there was not bull-dozing enough in LOuisi-
ana to nullify an honest Republican MAORI
ty OF fifteen thousand or that there were
not stupendous Democratic frauds in North |
Carolina or that Cronin was a legal Elec-
toral College. They will permit Mr.. Til
den to hold his Office unmOlested; yet they
will regard him as elected, not by the fair,
free and honest majority which alone can
compel cheerful submission, but by violence
and fraud. This Commission Of fifteen |
lawyers can consider disputed facts and
balance legal bubbles, and announce a de- |
cision but they cannot make men over, or
remove fixed convictions. or destroy preju- |
jices
The chief results of the plan will there
fore be, the fresh assertion Of the right Of |
Congress to control and decide national |
elections the establishment Of dangerous
precedent and possibly prolongation of |
Of the existing uncertainty as to the result
Of the election. The business of the country |
has powerfully urged the adoption of this
plan, as a means Of speedy determination Of
the national controversy. But there is
nothing in the law which limits the Com
mission in point of time and if they con-
,ludc to 90, "a Mr.. Thurman has said they \
viii into all matters of law and fact, six
months hence NAV find them still in session.