The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-09-06

pTOl6 sSes 10 respond.
Applying these principles to the controverted
cases, the commission decided that the persons
declaredtO have been chosen eleCt0rsin Florida.
Louisiana, and South Carolina by the boards OF
officers who were charged with that duty by
law were the true electors of that State: that
the proceedings in Florida. subsequent to the
casting of the electoral vote, by which it was
sought to set aside the prior action of the State
were null, and without Jurisdiction; and that,
in counting the electoral votes, it was not com
petent for Congress to enter into contest over
the title of any of the electors, but that in the
case of Oregon, where the Governor falsely
certified the election of an elector, when by the
canvass and record of the election itself another
appeared and had been declared to have been
elected, Congress had the right and was bound
to receive the fact and reject the false certif-
cate.
The legal validity Of the Presidents title to
his office. invested with every required formal
security, and based on the sOundest and funda-
mental constitutional principles, must, | think,
be unanimously affirmed. But it may still be
said that it is without the essential support of
q moral right.
1t would seem rather difficult undertaking
in matter involving private interest, but sim
ply question involving public right, to attack
successfully a valid legal title to public Office
acquiesced in by the people, who alone have
any rights to it, on the alleged ground of a
moral defect. Certainly no incumbent, with a
perfect legal title, can be called usurper of an
office; and with equal certainty it ought to be
admitted that nothing short of personal par
ticipation III fraudulent practices ciearly proven
which have been used successfully as an instru-
ment of intrusion, should subject any man to
the odious charge. No greater outrage upon
the elective franchise was ever attempted than
that which was involved in the effort to count
the vote Of Cronin as an elector of Oregon.
Yet If, on grounds of technical law, it had pre-
vailed-or what, under the circumstances, was
equivalent the vote Of Watts had been reject
ed, as every Democratic member of the com
mission voted to do-would Mr.. Tilden, on that
account, have declined inauguration-woul
MIR. Charles Francis Adams have scornfully re-
fused to become his Secretary of State? Such
are not within the limits of the
probable.
The responsibility Of political parties to the
people for their conduct, and the conduct of
their leaders and organs in reference to the free
dom and purity Of elections, can not and ought
not to be denied. They must be held to strict
account for the observance of the rules of moral
ity, and for sincere respect for popular rights
in all their political conduct No party has,
perhaps, been altogether free from offenses of
this description; and yet the Republican party,
think, has right to claim contrast between
itself and the Democratic party in this partic-
ular, not favorable to its adversary. The
frauds in Plaquemine parish in Louisiana, in
1874, were never considered by those in whose
interest they were perpetrated; while corrup-
ton of the ballot, as CT every other political
agency, Incorporated in the Tammany Society
of the city of New York, the headquarters of
Democratic party politics, has delivered that
great city and State into the power of a series
of "bosses," who dictate legislation and divide
offices with impartial effrontery. In our own
State we have had recent illustration of its
evil power. Two Congressional districts are
believed to have been carried for Democratic
candidates by repeaters hired and paid out of
the party treasury, some of whom are even
now paying the penalty of their crimes in our
jails and penitentiaries. But the most con-
vincing proof of the contrast is, that the Re-
publican party has systematically sought to
guard and protect the ballot, so as to secure
free and fair elections and to that end, in our
last General Assembly, passed Registry law of
the most Onerous and stringent character,
whose simple and most unobiectionable feat
ures are reproached by the Democratic State
Convention as discriminating against the poor
It is said, however, that the Republican par
ty as q national party, is responsible for the
frauds charged against the Returning Board of
Louisiana if not by previous instigation, then
by subsequent ratification and adoption.
Of the personal integrity of the members of
that board, the purity of their motives, the up
rightness of their intentions no one is called to
be sponsor, because no one is competent to be
judge. I have, speaking for myself. seen no
evidence whatever that justifies the cruel and
unmerciful abuse to which they have been sub
ject. Their imprisonment by the last House of
Representatives as public officers Of State
for merely refusing to surrender public
archives belonging to the st to, no longer in
their possession, and which, if in their custody,
they ought not to surrender, was, to my
mind, not only merely vindictiye persecution,
but was among the grossest violations of per
sonal right, and the grossest indignities
to State authority ever perpetrated under sane
ton of Federal power-a precedent full of
danger to both private and public right. That
they were not personally corrupt in the exer-
else of their official functions In the canvass of
the election Of November, was sufficiently es-
tablished in my convictions by the fact that
they were not corrupted IF they had been
what they are now charged with being, the
probabihtyis that Democratic CHAIR Y would
have been larger than the Democratic con-
science, and would have covered and concealed
their sin as with a garment-even the garment
of praise!
The discussion of this question is not wholly
without practical interest. The peaceful inau-
guration of President Hayes was narrow es-
cape from q great danger, and its practical
lesson to us is to provide by necessary consti-
tutional amendments, against the recurrence of
such a peril. The unsatisfactory mode now
provided for the election of the President and
Vice President of the United States is fully
demonstrated. It does not at all fulfill the in
tention which created it, and has developed
difficulties and dangers against which it pro-
vides no remedy or security.
The plan of an amendment substantially like
that proposed and advocated by Senator Morton
ought without further delay 10 be perfected,
proposed and adopted. The plan abolishes the
electoral college as unnecessary while it pre-
serves the electoral votes of the several States
according to the original law Of representative
proportion, but divides the vote of each State
SO as to secure a safe and more perfect popular
representation. This will diminish fraud, by
lessening the temptation to fraud, and, with
means provided for contested electoral returns,
viii, as nearly as can be, constitute a safeguard
for the peaceful exercise, by free and fair cleo
tions, of the elective franchise. 1t viii prevent
the concentrated votes of large civic communi-
ties, like that of such cities as New York, from
carrying with it the adverse majority Of the re-
mainder Of the State, and thus unduly sup
pressing the legitimate influence OF large mi
norities. 1t will bring the election nearer to
the people without in any wise weakening the
relative Influence and mower 0f tho Sfafacg. or1d