Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1877-02-28

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22.-The clecto-
raj commission met in the Supreme
Court room at ten o'clock.
Mathews made an address in Op-
position to the Cronin certificate No.
2, commencing with q denial that
they had asserted in the Florida case
that certificate was final and conclu-
sive and said they had undertaken to
draw line Of demarcation between
the act of state and federal authori-
ty, which took the matter up after it
had left the state. They also UNDER
took to draw q line between things
and proofs, between a certificate and
a thing certified to, to show that q
certificate was but the shadow of the
thing certified, being the substance
and that where a certificate did not
show the thing certified truly, it could
be corrected. 1t was surprise, he
said, to find that these adversaries had
not only taken their position on the
Florida and Louisiana cases, but had
gone beyond it and accept dogma
which they had improperly ascribed
to the side with which he was identi-
fed. He maintained that they stood
to-day on the ground they occupied
in the beginning and which had been
followed by the decision Of this tri-
bunal viz: that a certificate based ON
the returns was conclusive cvidenc.
of election.
In the Florida and Louisiana cases,
offers to 60 behind the returns were
made and offers opened stronger and
larger as certainty obtained, that they
would not be called upon to make
them good, and great deal of patri-
otic indignation was indulged in at
the alleged countenancing of fraud
and wrong. Mathews read an ex-
tract from decision of Justice Field
in the case of Bradley VS.. Fisher, in
which the tendency to complaint by a
party defeated is shown, going ON
from complaint, to charges Of i'm
proper motives. He entered his pro-
test against the hollow pretensions to
morality that had been made the sub
stratum of complaint in this case.-
Cronin had been mounted on q ped
estal for public admiration. There
was no offer to prove that he, Cronin,
was paid $1,000 under pretense Of ex.
pense to Washington. There was NO
offer to prove the contents of suppos.
ed hieroglyphic characters. That
could not be had. There was no Of.
fer of proof that this was result OF
a deep laid scheme to defeat the will
Of the people. He wondered wher
his friend Hoadley, referred to Web
ster and Worcester, last night, he die
not produce that little pocket diction
ary and show the correspondence,
between Grammcrcy Park, New
York and Salem, Oregon. lie con
tended that the Governors certificat,
fell to the ground when it was showl
that it was not q warrant to elector
for the performance Of their duties
The law of Oregon required that tn,
votes for electors should be given OF
received, returned and canvassed
the same as for members Of congress
and in the case Of members Of con-
gress it was made the duty of thu
Secy. of State, to canvass the vote
and there the statutory directions
end. The statute in relation to cleo
tors, further provided that the Secy
of State should certify to the list
showing who had received the high
est number Of votes and there th,
!: convass ended.
The constitution and law stampet
} that record legal, and the c0nstitu
tional result Of tho election. The,
had made profier of the thing itsell
not the proof Of the thing, but tn
actual and substantial result OF Oh
| canvass, that was the appointment q