Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1877-02-21
SENATE.


WASHINGTON, Feb. 20.
No business was done this morning,
but at l !: 80 the Senate repaired to the
Honse chamber.
HOUSE.
Gibson offered an order that the
Hayes electoral vote of Louisiana be
not counted.
Hurlbut moved to strike out the
word "not."
New said he had supported the
electoral bill and willingly accepted
the responsibility therefor. He would
oppose the Commissions decision, but
cOunseled no delay.
Seelye said that in the case of the
Louisiana election, corruption on one
side seemed as heinous as cruelty on
the other side was horrible. He
found it quite impossible to say which
of the two sets of electors from Louis
lana expressed the true will of the
people. It would have been hard to
find wiser and more candid men than
those who had pronounced the decis-
ion of the electoral commission. He
appreciated the strength of their
position. Congress could not be too
jealous of the constitutional right of
State to choose its Presidential cleo
tors.
Joyce declared the whole scheme of
the election Of the Presidency grand
fraud of Gramercy Park. II had been
a superb democratic cheat from be-
ginning to end.
| Mcmahon said the decision of the
commission in the case of Louisiana
was worse in its consequence to the
American people than the decision in
the Florida case. AS to Oregon no
democrat looked forward with much
hope to the decision there.
Price protested against the wrong
and violence embodied in the decision,
and argued that the whole subject
should be referred back to the COM
mission.
WatersOn rose amid breathless ST.
lence and said the acceptance of the
inevitable with resolution and digni-
ty is the rarest form of courage known
among men. 1t is made harder in
this instances by conspicuous double
dealing and foul play. Two courses
are open to the majority on this floor.
On the one hand passionate outcry,
at once impotent and childish; on
the other hand without offering need
less distractions to the progress of
events, an earnest, manly, but tenn
perate protest against what we be-
lieve a great and gEievous wrong.
In my judgment the latter is clear
and 'bounden duty. We owe it to the
necessities Of the case. We owe it to
the country. We owe it to our
selves because we were duped
by false pretenses into snare,
furnishes no reason why we should
forget the obligations that press upon
honorable men. In the very act of
passing the Electoral Commission
bill we provided for the contingency
that has come upon us. / voted for
that measure in perfect good faith.
The result is against me, and, dctcs-
tible as l must think the means that
brought it about, accept it as f.
nality. l shall go to my post and
shall tell them all, for as now adj
vised they know only part, and when
they have taken time for reflection,
they will, am very sure, illustrate
the wisdom and grace ofmoderation,
doing nothing that does not become
good citizens. Life will still 60 for
ward. In spite of all this there are
many things to live for yet in this
rough world, and among the rest
that day of reckoning-dies irdc,
dies lila, when the dark shall be light
and the wrong be made right.
Danford defended the decision as
one which outside Of party feeling
would meet the approval of the whole
American people. Although there
had been investigating committees
into the elections in Florida, Louisi.
ana and Oregon, which had found
much crookedness, yet in all the
words spoken, letters written, telc.
grams sent. there had not been traced
to the president elect, or to any mem.
Der of his household, one word that
would bring the blush of shame to
the American people. Applause.l
The speaker here announced thai
to-day's legislative session had began
and after prayer and reading of the
journal, debate was resumed.
The debate closed at one and the
House then voted on Gibson's reso.
luton that the decision of the Com.
mission be not agreed to. Adopted.
Yeas l72, nays 80, a party vote ex-
cept Seelye and Pierce, of Mass,
voted with the democrats. A mes.
sage was then sent to the Senate that
the House was ready to meet that
BODY in Joint convention