Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-02-01
The Compromise

The strongest and most effective |
objection urged against leaving the
count of the Electoral vote to the |
President Of the Senate, is that the |
choice is thus left to one man. Our
very able correspondent, Mr.. Red
path, showed that the compromise"
does the same thing. The Democrats
choose and the Republicans z OF
the '.compromisers." These balance
each other and would never make a
choice. They must choose 18TH
man. lie will be the Dictator who
names our President and our Vice
President. The Constitution does not
make him Dictator, and the people
have not chosen him, nor have the
States. As TO the President of the
Senate, he is chosen by the people and
one Of the duties named as his is that
he shall open the certificates of the
Electors, and the purpose is to count
them. He does not make the certih-
Gates. The States make them and put
them into his hands. He is not to de-
eide who is President, but whom the
States have chosen President. When
the President of a public meeting
takes the vote of the house, he does
not say the question is yea or nay, but
he announces, after counting, whether
the house has voted yea or nay. IT
tic meeting has chosen tellers to open
the ballots and count them, the tellers
do not decide the question voted up
on, but they announce what the meet
ing has decided by counting the
vote. 1t is just so with the President
of the Senate He is, under the Con.
stitution, the teller to count the votes
of the States, and then announce how
the States have voted. In our opin-
ion there is no constitutional way TO
take that duty out of his hands, and if
done any other way it will not be con-
stitutional. A Supreme Court, acting
upon unbiased judgement would set
such count aside. Neither Congress
nor the people would yield TO any
such patch-up arrangement If they
were not s'suaded' like Sambo in the
South. Sambo voted for Tilden to
avoid threatened assassination. Bu-
chanan. was elected to the Presidency
by the votes of those who feared the
South would make war upon the
Union. For thirty years that threat
had influenced many votes. 1t may
have postponed war but when the
war came the loss OF life was thous-
anu IoId greater than 1T would have
been had the evil designs of evil men
been crushed at the outset. So now if
the assassins OF Louisiana and the
perpetrators of a villainous attempt in
Oregon, and those whO continuance
them, were gwen TO understand lnal
they are criminal and that instead OF
sBHs dt4s tRRggttFF aSgfffHh t tbeYn ss h d
Guilty would be easily settled. But
when we have yielded and given our
selves into their hands how can we
II. pc for the restoration of our liber-
ties without more waste of treasure
and other vast fields of slaughter.
However, the "compromise" is now
made. Compromise Was there ever
more complete selling out of one
party to the other? 1t is done. There
is no way to undue it. What will be
the immediate result 1t was suppos
ed the fifteenth man would be Judge
Davis AS he is now a chosen Senat.
or, chosen by the machinery of party
politics, TO make him the Umpire
would be highly improper. And yet
VIC dlC ~ SUSPICIOUS bhthe 1iO Ah"A -
a put up job that We believe it posi-
bic he may be chosen. If he is not
chosen, the fifteenth man must have
Republican antecedents, for the re-
naming three Judges OF the Supreme
Court are Republicans. If there is
no secret arrangement by which
Hayes is to be sold out the chances
are still favorable for his election. The
trouble IS that devilish purpose
must have devilish end, and if there
were no devil in the purpose there
was no need of the invention. The
counting should have been done as il
hiss been done heretofore. We car
only await the result, not even know.
ing when it will arrive.