The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1877-02-07
COUNTING IN A PRESIDENT.

OOUNflNG IN n FkEslDENT.
In very many respects the court that will
commence its sessions to-day in Washing
ton will be the most august assemblage of
which history gives any account 1t is
clothed with power under the law to deter
mine who shall be president and vice presi-
dent of republic numbering more than
forty millions of people, and it is also
clothed with power to reverse the sovereign
decision of the people made on the eth of
November last at the ballot-box. Within
few weeks past it has been thought
advisable by some to proclaim TO
the world that in this supreme mo-
ment of the country's need, all ideas of
party should be sunk in the patriot, and
that this sublime climax had been reached
by the passage of the bill creating the arbi-
tration tribunal. We should like to believe
that the millennium in politics has dawned
but we do not-and our beresy is strength
ened by the fact that the great arbitration
tribunal is made up of political partisans
and still further strengthened by the addi-
tional fact that the plan from the
first contemplated such a court In say
ing this We do not propose in the least to
disparage the honesty, judgment or patriot
ism of the gentlemen composing the
committee. 1t might, as matter of justice.
be proper to say that judges of the supreme
court ought to be elevated by the dignity of
their office above partisan politics. The
same might as properly be said of all Judges.
But the fact remains nevertheless that even
supreme judges are human, have human
frailties like other men, and like them are
influenced by preconceived notions OF right
and wrong-party affiliations, associations
and predictions. The partisan complexion
of the committee is thus distinctly marked,
as will be seen by the following list of those
who compose it:
SENATOR'S.
AG. Thurman, Ohio. q. F. Edmunds. vi.
L. r. Bayard Del. o. =. Morton, Ind.
f. t. Frelinghuysen,
REPRESENTATIVES,.
III. B. Payne, Ohio. q. f. Hoar, Mass.
=. Hunton, Virginia. j. A. Garfield, Ohio.
Josiah G. Abbott.
SUPREME JUDGES.
n. Clifford, Maine. s. +. Miller, Iowa.
;. j. Field, California. VIM. NJ. Strong, Penn.
j. L. Bradley, n. j.
The committee acting with the senate and
house of representatives commences its
arduous task to-day. 1t is worthy of remark
that Notwithstanding the members of the
committee were probably selected on ac-
count of their ability, patriotism, ex-
perience ond familiarity with the matters to
be submitted TO them, eminent legal tai
AMI oDl =
crops out the fact that partisanship is re-
garded as an important factor in the con-
trovery. 1t is sufficient to say in this con-
nection that the democrats have employed
Judge Black and the radicals Mr.
Evarts, an evidence that the minds of the
committee may be DETECTED in the direction
of party success, and that forensic eloquence
in its grandest displays will not be wanting
to modify or distort facts as the interests of
the clients of these advocates and their asso-
ciates may demand.
1t is possible that the minds of the
gentlemen composing the committee
are made up and will undergo no
change, but we should regret to be
forced to such a conclusion in regard
10 the attitude Of the supreme court judges,
since the testimony in regard to Louisiana
is such as ought to make even Morton give
up the contest and declare Tilden and Hen
bricks elected. The country will watch
with the most intense solicitude the pro-
gress of the count More, far more than
who shall be president for the next
four years is involved. Admitting, and
we do it freely, that the country
will abide by the decision of
the committee, it will remain no less
truth, more enduring than brass, that if
Hayes is counted in it will be triumph of
villainy the most audacious known to his
tory, sacred or profane. Such verdict
would weaken the confidence of the people
in the decisions of the ballOt-box, and would
go far in fixing the belief irrevocably in the
popular mind that there is something in
the government OF more power and conse-
quence than the sovereign will of the PEG
pie when constitutionally declared, which
in this instance would be fraud,