The news and herald. [volume] (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1876-1881, 1877-01-11
THE WEAKENING CONSPIRACY,
Grant Lowering his Key--A Fair Finger
III the Presidential Pie.
Correspondence of the New York Sun.

Correspondence of the New York Sun.
There will be no war The wo-
man thut hesitates is lost. The
Republican confedorates hesitate.
They will lose.
The question is arithmeticnl as
wollas Presidential. If Mr.. Morton
succeeds in whipping into party
traces every Republican Senator,
Mr.. Hayes will be declared Presi-
dent. If nine Republican Senators
value conscience and country higher
than party, the will of the people
will be respected, and Mr.. Tilden
J. will be peaceably inaugurated.
Nine Republican senators-that is
the question. There are twenty
nine Democratic members in the
Senate; the other fortysix were all
elected either rs Independents or
Republicans. If the Republican
confcderates lose but nine members,
the Conservatives will have a ma
jority of the Senate; u majority
that could Immediately displace Mr..
Ferry; q majority against which
tho conspiracy could never succeed.
The Presidential problem, therefore,
practically resolves into the simple
question whether these needed nine
senators will be forthcoming. My
s> answer, based upon close observa-
ton, direct information, and person.
al conversation with members of the
Senate, is that these nine will be
found on the right side when they
are really needed.
Put down Roscoe Conkling for
one. Though carefully bent upon
avoiding any public avowal of his
position, there is not the slightest
reason to doubt what that position
will be. It will be in favor of honor
and honesty and on the side of tlc
law and Constitution. It will be
for the right of Congress to scrutin-
iZe the electoral returns and reject
those that are fraudulent. 1t will
be against the power of either the
Vice President or the Returning
Boards to IN Ike President Those
who enjoy the confidence of Senator
Conkling know perfectly well that
those are his views, though he has
obvious reasons for keeping them
in reserve until the proper time
arrives.
Put down James G. Blaine as an
other. L see an incrcdulous smile.
"What! Jim Blaine?" Yes jim
Blaine of Mime know
whereof L speak. Strange us it may
hn
spicuous men to thwart the con-
spiracy and to prevent the counting
in Of Mr.. Hayes will be his two
: most prominent rivals for the nomi-
nntion-will be two men who have
totally different motives and charac-
ters, who are themselves not friends
but old and unrelentins enemies. [
do not speak of Blaine with tho
same de, gree of positivcncss with
whi III speak Of Conkling, for the
simple reason that the one is more
uncertain than the other But
to-day, from trustworthy informa-
tion, it seems probable that Mr..
Blaine will take Mr.. Conklings
position in favor of IN honest count.
shall analyzc his motives some
other time. Suffice it to say that
they are sound, and if he does
take that position, the generous
American people will be likely to
forgive and forget certain trlnsac
tions, at present neither fully ex~
planned nor fully examined
There will be no difficulty about
seven followers if Conkiing and
Blaine take the lead. 1t is thought
more than probable, almost certain,
that Senator Robertson, of South
Carolina, Alcorn, of Mississippi,
and Hamilton, of Texas, will be
among them. It is known that
Senator Jones, Of Nevada, entertains
the profountlest admiration for the
b.lity and character of Mr. Conk-
Ing, AMI it is probable that MIR.
Aones, as well as his colleague, Mr..
Sharon, and such men as Harvey,
Hitchcock, Wadleigh, Christiancy,
Paddock, Burnside, Dawes, and
even Edmunds and Frehnghuysen,
would be strongly influenced by
Mr.. Conkling's views.
But the greatest influence, after
all, in favor of the peaceablo inau
gu;ation of Mr.. Tilden is tho force
of public opinion, the silent but
s.liont power Of right, the daily in
creasing evidence of the monstrous
fraud committed by the new con
federntes in order to count IL
Hayes?
Let me briefly present some
evidence of the effective operation
of these moral forces upon th'
minds of some of the most import
ant of tho new confederates let mt
show conc:usively that u chang'
has come over the spirit of thell
dream; that confidence in the sue
, cess of their plot has vanished, ant
Aserious doubt has taken it's place
Hero are few facts:
Grant talks in an entirely new
key. In recent conversation no ha