The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-12-31

title, and Of every step taken by his procure
ment or desire IN the long series OF events
which established 1t. 2, He should have main
tanned faithful and scrupulous allegiance to the
principles of the Republican party, by proclaim
ing which the victory had been won, aud TO the
men OF that party whose unprecedented efforts
and courage had elevated him to station OF
the highest honor and power as its representa-
tive. 3. Above all, he should have avoided any
yieldiug or concession to the Democratic party
from which the Presidency had been suddenly,
unexpectedly and exasperatinRly wrested. 1t
is inoonceivable that any wise or honorable man
should be willing to take the Presidency, aud
then safer or effect any taint upon his own
title. Governor Hayes had it in his power at
any moment, from November to March A. to
avoid the responsibilities of the office, but
thought not of doing it, On the contrary, at
every stage in the progress OF the cOuntings
state and national, his active influence was
present through his counsel, agents and inti'
mate friends, pressing forward the struggle
Not declining, but eagerly demanding and TAX
ing the place, it necessarily follows that he was
bound to maintain the integrity of his claim
thereto, and OF the means by which it was made
effectual. Any other course would be sure to
bring deserved condemnation and disgrace up
on himself. the men of the party who had been
prominent in his behalf, and upon the party
itself. To make concession to the defeated
Democracy, and to abandon the principles Of
his own party, would not only proclaim bis
doubts as to the rightfulness of his own cleo
ton, but would also be an admission that such
an election, even il rightful aud honest, was
undesirable for the couotry. If the men aud
principles of the Democratic party were to
control the country, why should they not do so
through Samuel j. Tilden, thsir appropriate
representative? Why the protracted labor,
the high excitement, the dangerous struggle,
the death or ruin of Southern Republicans if
the principles of the Republican party were
to be abandoned, and the Administration to
be made Democratic in all respects except in
name? Wisdom and honor, therefore, it seems
to hne. clearly required that President Hayes
should maintain his own rightfulness of
Piles of his party. Had he done so, in my be-
lief the Democratic cry of fraud would have
been the merest folly; the Republican party
would have remained dominant 10 every North
ern State, and in several Southern States, and
would have swept the country in the recent
fall elections. Instead of all this what do
we see?
Almost the first act of the new Administra-
ton was to fulfil bargain that had been made
during the Presidential count, By which, if
Hayes should be President, the lawful govern .
ment of Louisiana and South Carolina were
to be abandoned, and the mob governments in
those States were to be recognized and estab-
lished. Certain Democrats in the House of
Representatives, seeing that by the recurring e
decisions of the Electoral Commission. and the
regular proceedings of the two houses under
the electoral bill, which they had warmly sup
ported, Hayes would surely be President, had
conceived the plan OF saving something from
the wreck. They had therefore threatened, by
diatory motions and riotous proceedings, to
break up the count, and then opened pegotia-
tions with such timid or 100 eagerly-expecta
Republicans as they could find ready. They
had succeeded beyond their most sanguine ex-
had
aud consulted Gov Hayes. Mr.. Henry Wat
terson, Democratic member, and nephew
of Mr.. Stanley Matthews, had acted as a 60
between; and on the one eide, Messrs Mat
thews, Charles Foster John Sherman, James
A. Garfield, and on the other, L @ 9. Lamar
John b Gordon, Z. j. Ellis, Randall Gibson,
e. A. Burke aud John Young Brown. had
agreed ~ that the count should not be broken
up in the House, hut that Hayes should bs de-
clared and inaugurated President, and ~ that
upon Hayes accession the troops should bs
Withdrawn from protecting Governors CHAM
berlsin and Packard, and that the new admin
istration should recognize the governments of
Wade Hampton in South Carolina, aud +. II.
Nichols in Louisiana. By certain general and
indefinite letters, since given to the public, by
q secret writing now in the hands Of E. A.
Burke, and in other ways, the agreement was
authenticated, and President Grant was i'm
mediately requested by Gov. Hayes counsel
on no account 10 recognize Packard or Cham
berlaiD, but to leave the ultimate decision as
to their fate to the incoming President. After
the Inauguration the bargain was speedily full
filled. AS soon as the electoral vote OF their
states was safe, Governors Packard and Cham
berlain had been notified by Messrs. Matthews
and Evarts to get out. Gov. Chamberlain was
now summoned to Washington aud informed
that he must surrender. he protested against
his takng-off The President hesltated, but
" aue hampton demanded the performance Of
the bargain. Mr. Matthews was sent for
came from Ohio, and within twenty-four hours
the United States lsg was ordered down in
Charleston, and Gov. Chamberlain stamped
out. AS to Louisiana, the ful6llment proceed.
ed more slowly, but none the less surely.
Packard bad made, March 2lst, constitution.
al call for Federal aid, which it was difficult to
withhold from one as surely Governor as
Hayes was President And yet there was the
bargain. As a subterfuge, an unconstitutional
commission. consisting of Messrs, John NJ.
Harlan, Joseph r. Hawley, G. B. Lawrence,
Wayne McVeagh, John @. Brown, was sent to
New Orleans, instructed to gradually destroy
the Packard Legislature by seducing or forcing
its members into the Nichole Legislature. But
they, proving too stuboornly Republican, the
commission telegrsphed the President that
nothing would destroy Packard but the actual
order withdrawing the troops. At the word
the President gave the order, Packard
was crushed, and tue commission returned tri
umphant to Washington to ''be recognized"-
as Supreme Court Judge; another, Mr. Law
renee, by the release of Jake Rehm, the great
whiskey conspirator and defaulter of the rev.
enue at Chicago; Gen. Hawley was offered the
appointment as Chief Commissioner to the
Paris Exhibition, but declined because the
salary was to be only 5000; aud three offices
were rendered to Mr.. McVesgb, bat declined on
the ground that his signal services demanded
more ample recognition; the English mission
was next assigned to him, but circumstances
have made its deliAery inexpedient or impossi-
bic. One other hope remained to Governor
Packard. He had lawful court of justice, and
might appeal to that But there were two va
cancies, and it required all three Of the judges
-Ludeling, Leonard and John E. King to
make quorum. John King was Immediately
appointed Collector Of New Orleans, Packard's
court was struck down, and the Nichols mob
government reigued supreme The bargain was
10 every way fulfilled, and Mr.. Burke had no
occasion, as had bean threatened, to make pub
lie the secret agreement Hayes had been
made President by the fidelity and courage of
Packard and Chamberlain and their DEVOTED
followers, and his administration had trampled
them down.
In further pursuance OF the bargains made
with the Southern Democrats the new admins.
tration has adopted a so-cslled Southern policy
(1) entirely contrary TO the announced princi-
pies of the Republican party, ~ which has
Deen carried out Dy Cne abandonment or Fed
eral intention and effort to protect life proper
ty or suffrage at the South, or to enforce the
Institutional amendments aud (3) has RESULT
ed in the enforced dissolution of the Republ.-
can party at the South, and its demoraliz alton,
division and defeat at the North Senator
Dawes, at Faneuil Hall, Nov. 2, in defending
what he admits to be a change-a rew depar-
ture-bases it upon the proposition that "when
the rebels laid down their arms the states and
the people fell back at once into their old posi-
ton, every one of them with as much power as
before the war. The rebel went from the bat
tie field to the ballot-box and stood tbere equal
to his conqueror." Messrs. Charles Foster and
Stanley Matthews, in their written guarantee
of February &C. 1877, to John b. Gordon aud
John Young Brown, define the new policy
to be to give the Southern states "the right
to control their own affairs in their
own way" and John Young Brown SO de-
scribes it in his account Of the bargain.
By the New York Tribune of September 26
it appears that Governor Wade Hampton is
still with the party and is introduced by the
President to every audience as an honest and
patriotic man." and that az Atlanta Hampton
said of the President: "When saw him car
rying out the policy for twelve years advocated
by the Democratic party [ said l would sustain
him 10 that policy as long as he continued in
that path" President Hayes himself also
calls his new policy only the application of the
principal of "local self government" and thus
eulOgizes the Georgians who are to be entrust-
ed with it.:
"You, here, mainly Joined the Confederate side
and fought btavely; risked your lives herolcaly i'll
behalf OF your convictions. And can any true man