The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1877-07-20

elementary knowledge that fraud yitiafes all
proceedings. even the most solemn: that no
form Of words, no amount Of ceremony, no
solcmnify Of proceeding, can shield II from
exposure or protect ~ structure from as
saiilt and destruction" But the eight were
a. deaf as adders 10 the voice Of reason and
Justice. They would not permit the fraud
10 be assaulted, much less 10 be destroyed.
They stood over II 10 shield II, protect II and
save n, interpreting the broad mgi- 81 their
authority 10 cover Il against every attack.
The eight persistently denied their power
or that 81 Congress 10 do what they were
commanded by the law to do-that Is, de-
eide who were duly appointed. They would
only decide that certain persons were named
as Electors by Returning Board. They
would not understand that the appointment
by the people might be one thing. and the
action o. the Returning Board another, or
that the latter, even n evidence Of the
former, was worthless II IL was fraudulent.
THE FULL EXTENT or THE OUTRAGE.
After all, there was but one question be-
fore the Commission: Had the American
people right 10 elect their own Chief Mag
istrate. They had the right. Their ances-
tors struggled for il long, fought for II Of
ten, and won II fairly. Being imbedded In
their Constitution, IL can not be destroyed
except by force strong enough 70 over
throw the organic structure OF the Govern
ment itself. Legislative enactments or ju-
dicial decisions are powerless either TO
strengthen or impairit The legerdemain OF
law-craft, the catches Of special pleading,
the snapperadoes OF practice, do not help US
to decide matter like this. A great nation
must not be impaled upon pins point.
Precedents which might bind Court Of
Quarter Sessions determining the settlement
OF pauper can not tie up the hands OF the
Supreme Legislature lst defending sSs whole
people. When Granville, In 17G6,
cited the authority Of divers eases to
show that America might be taxed without
representation, Pitt answered: : come
not here armed at all points, with the stat
fend the cause Of liberty. can acknowl-
edge no generation for any procedure, law
or ordinance that Il repugnant 10 reason
and the first principles OF our Constitution.
rejoice that America has revolted." So
spoke the defiant friend Of our race in the
presence Of a hostile Parliament ten years
before the Declaration OF Independence.
Add now, after this long interval of time,
we behold our greatest right--the right on
which all other rights depend-successfully
assailed in our own Congress with the same
small weapons that Grenville used. IL
brute force had crushed IL out, we might
have borne the calamity with fortitude; but
10 see 1t circumvented by knayery and petit
logged to death, Is too much to be endured
with any show Of patience
II the majority Of that Commission could
but have realized their responsibility 10 God
and man, II they could only have understood
that in free country liberty and law are in
separable, they would have been enrolled
among our greatest bencfactors, for they
would have added strength and grandeur TO
our institutions. But they could not come
up to the height Of the great subject. Party
passion so benumbed their faculties that a
fundamental right seemed nothing 70 them
when Il came In conflict with some argument
supported by artificial reasoning, and drawn
from the supposed anai"gies Of technical
procedure. The Constitution was, in their
Judgment, outweighed by void statute and
the action Of corrupt Returning Board.
Let these things be remembered by our
chldren's children; and II the friends OF free
government shall ever again have such a
contest, LET them take care how they leave
the decision Of IL 10 a tribunal like that
which betrayed the nation by enthroning the
Great Fraud Of 1876. J. s. BLACK.