The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1877-05-16
rHE pRE>IDENTIAL FRAUD,
Lee The Asi.atien be UMce">i"='

peOpI6 CDHITOHttu Win the Iatt Oh d
q fraudulentIy elected President. Let it
& not be understood that the fraud will
q" be silently acquiesenced in by the
Z" country. Let no hour pass IN ,ohich the
q ,esufpation IS forgotten. Let the agita-
" ton be unceasing, that at every OPP
g portunity the people may express their
adherence Of the outrage. Let want
% of confidence be voted at every election
q in the country" Never were words
more fifty orjustifably spoken. \ tame
acquesence in the fraud will encourage
its renewal, and whenever the Returning
Beard system becomes d permanent fea-
ture Of our government, popular elections
will degenerate into a mockery and a
farce. But it is impossible to ''agitate"
the wrong thai was perpetrated upon the
people in the Installation of fraudu
lently elected President, and at the same
time ignore the agency by which it is
done The Electoral Commission did
the wrong, but Congress made itself, if
not accessory before the fact, auxiliary
to its preparation. 1t passed the law
by which it was accomplished. You
can't arraign man for murder and hold
gultess the party who furnishes him the
deadly weapon. You can't punish the
thief who takes your horse from the
stable and hold guiltless the accomplice
who breaks the lock and makes the larce-
ny possible.
The House Of Representatives which
had large Democratic majority, I'M
questionabIy held the key TO the Presi-
Dental situation. No President could
have been installed without its consent
and in case of failure of the two houses
to agree in the count, the Constitution
devolved upon that body the duty Of
choosing the President. The House was
emphatically the peoples representatives,
charged with carrying out their will as ex-
pressed at the polls. 1t had no discretion.
It's obligation was binding and solemn.
1t was no business of theirs to listen to the
outside threat of what President Grant;
or Mr.. Morton; or Mr.. Smith; or Mr.
Anybody else would do; but to execute the
law; 90 into joint convention and carry
into effect the will of the people as ex-
pressed by their ballots--and if the joint
session failed to agree what the result of
the election was, to obey the Constitu
tional mandate and proceed at once ''to
choose the President" leaving the Sen,
ate to choose the Vice-President. 1t
was not necessary to anticipate resist
ance to this constitutional procedure.
If counsel is to be taken of threats and
brnggadocio, instead of the voice Of the
people as legally declared, and of the
law as laid down in the Constitution
whittier is the government to drift and
where are the safeguards Of Constitu
iional liberty?
Judge Black and other able cons itu-
tional lawyers held that under the Con
stitution it was the prerogative of the
House to elect the President in case ola
failure by the electoral college. All the
Democratic lawyers in the Senate and in
the House held the same opinion. But
the Democratic leaders
without an effort to carry
out this plan. If they had done so it is |
understood that they would have been
re inforced by enough Republican Sena-
tors to have assured success.
1t has been alleged that the Electoral
was a Democratic measure. !
We do not think so poorly of our party |
leaders as to admit the statement. 1t is |
bad enough to say that they assented to
it-voted for it The fact is, it was
drafted By Senator Edmunds of Yer
mont, one of the most Hpcompromlsing OF |
Radicals and :. virulent opponent Of the |
Democratic party and defamer of the |
Southern people. In his letter while
this measure was pending, and during |
the revolutionary process of counting in
the candidate who had been rejected by |
the people, he used this language: "In
q 1876, the Republican Senate passed a
q bill giving to each House the power to
. reject any vote when there would be
@ double returns, the effect of which
50 would be to place the absolute decision
q Of tie present dispute (between Tilden
q and Hayes IN the polger Of the House
& Of Representatives and make he Demo.
g cratic cause certain Of success" This is
the testimony of the author, and the Re-
publican champion of, the Electoral
Commission.
Again it is asserted that but for the
gambling device of the Electoral Com
mission, the President of the Senate
would have counted the votes and de-
elared Hayes President, and that Grant
would have put him into office with the
army. But the force Is taken out of this
plea, even admitting that the Represen-
.atiyes of the people would have been
justified in divesting themselves of their
obligations under such an
apprehension by the declaration OF the
same Edmunds that from the beginning
If the government down to that very
lour in all the disputes that had
arisen over the electoral count, it had
lever been claimed that the President of
he Senate had the power to count the
.ates. And it Was still more efectually
exploded by the vote of 40 TO II in the
Senate embracing majority of the Re
-. Ll;onn,. and Ill the Damocrats nand- |