The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1877-03-22

the democrats OF Indiana, Hi
nois and Ohio in Congress were
resoiute and firm; but it Is, after
all, very doubtful whether they
could have gotten any large por,
ton of their men to have left then
work at home and gone out to
fight to put any nan III office,
Nor am ] disposed t. believe that
very large portion Of the repuD-
l,can people desired to fight but
nevertheless the power OF enforcing
the DEGREES of the Senate was more
complete than if an army on both
sides had been raised. T. with
the whole power of the Govern
ment sustained by 25,OG0 troops,
little reflection will show to YOU
that 1t would have been but a lit
tie while before the old CRY OF
Rebels rebels trying to destroy
the Government woud have bee L
raised, and We Of the South would
have been left alone, fighting again
against the whole arm and power
of the other side. / world have
been willing myself to have made
any sacrifice and submitted to any
pain or personal harm, even of
Tered up myself if it could have
done any good, but ! was not dis.
posed to call again upon our peo-
pie at home, VINO are now trying
to struggle out of the truhIe and
ruin of the past, 10 come up from
their plows, their workshops and
their homes to 90 out again, to
fall upon the field of battle il
cause that looked hopeless. There
fore, ! gradually came myself to
look for some legal outlet whereby
the question might be settled IN
honor and fairness.
i said that l came to the conclusion
that there would be no war, though /
did not at first think 50, and have given
you my reasons for it. Now, if there
had been no war, what would have been
the result if the Senate had declared
for Hayes and the House for TiidtM :?
| will state to you the result briefly.
and what | state to yon Grant was PIE
pared tu carry oct, and it had been tie.
clared over and often il the redu'lic;.u
papers vi TINS city and other Northern
cities.
So soon as the Hous, had declared
tho election OF Tilden, the President OF
the United States would have issued
his proclamamation declaring that the
House MAS III rebel ion against She Gov
ernmeut, and naming certain persons.
most vi whom are irum the South ns
guilty OF treason, aud plotting TO 80
ttGil5il II government against tll, right
full government. These men would
have been arrested and confined III
gone prison for while. sheir seats de
clared 'aca'at III the next CongresS anu
their opponents III the last election
wunid have been brought 10 Washing
ton and installed in their seats, thereby
giving 4 republican House To- Hayes
have been treated Ill the same way
But few. if any, Northern men would
have been heated in TINS manner, be-
cause the desire would have beou. to
have renewed the old feeling Of uni
mostly against tho South under the CRY
of treason and rebellion, which would
have united the North and placed the
entire country once more, both e4ecu-
tive and Congress, under the control of
the radical parry and the worst portion
OF that party. SO that if We had under
taken to install Tilden, unprepared as
we We're for war, and unsustained as
our Southern people would nave been
by any considerable number OF North
ern democrats, it would have resulted
in the loss of Tiden. the loss of the
House and the total destruction of the
democratic party, If not of the liberties
of the people. These We're the consid-
erations which moved the democratic
Congressman to consent to the calling
in of five members of the Supreme
Court to sit with members of the Sen
ate and House, equally divided in pol
itics, to whom should be referred the
whole of these questions, they being
made the judges of what evidence, if
any, should go before them, giving
the Constitution and the laws to go by
in forming their conclusions. This was
the best that we could get the only
chance for Tilden), and though from
the beginning there was possibility
that we would lose Tilden under it, yet
it was better in my Judgment as a
peaceable legal solution, if Hayes did
get in. than that he should be put in by
the military, with the total loss, of what
we now have in Congress, and the
prospects of The future.
The Comm ssion was established and