Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1877-02-20
Who is responsible?

deep feeling of ''unpleasantness' on 'ne'r
part towards that tribunal. The organs
of the party are in deep distress. The re-
ioieings with which they hailed the estab-
lishment of the commission have turned to
wailings. They haven't SO much conf
dence in 1t as they had a couple of weeks
ago. Then they pronounced it an entire
ly bipartisan board; now they condemn
it fearfully as partisan. They declare it
was established to count in Tilden, and
not having done this it deserves to be
damned. Their columns emit a sulphur
eous odor and prophecy dire woes to come.
The Bangor Commercial Of Saturday re-
marks as follows:
Under the rule under which the Commission
has rendered its judgment, the popular voice as de-
clared at the ballot-box eau never be heard again
in government. One conspirator on the bench can
declare q certain number Of his co conspratois
the governor and legislature Of State. The
President can uphold that bogus government with
the military arm. The bogus legislature, thus up
held may elect Returning Beard whose existence
Stall DC pcTpctuait anu WhuSS NNN'SiSHS eH~' ~
final in all elections. 1t matters not how the peo
pie may vote at any election. They may give
majority Of ten 10 one for the candidates of their
choice; but all in vain. The perpetual Returning
Board will set aside their votes and declare the
me.gre minority candidate. The President and
the Supreme Court will uphold their villainous
fraud, and thus their power will be perpetuated.
Tas i. the practical effect Of the judgment Of the
Commission.
This is sorry picture. 1t presents a
lamentable state of things TO be sure if it
b, true. The commission must have been
a terrible bunder If results like the above
are to follow. And whose bunder was it
If it was a blunder? Who advocated the
commission Who circulated petitions for
signatures in support of ii Who wrote
articles in favor of it? Who voted it up in
Congress- Who sang the loudest hallelu-
iahs when the bill establishing it became
law Democrats, of course, as every
body knows.
To calm the feelings of those demo-
Gratis who suppose the republicans are re-
sponsble for the commission and to en-
tighten them as to its real paternity. so
that they may not continue to make them
selves ludicrous by damning their own
bantling. we quote the following remarks
made by Mr.. Carr, of Indiana, the demo-
cratic successor of Speaker Kerr, before
the house Immediately after the decision
of the commission in the Florida case.
Mr.. Carr was one of the democrats who
opposed the bill in favor of the commits
sion. He said
When the democratic majority of this House
adopted this law with the full knowledge that a
majority Of the commission would be republican,
governed by republican insticts, controlled by re-
publican interests, warped by republican bases
and moved by republican motives. they deliberate
ly abandoned every claim which the democratic
masses asserted to control of our national affairs
The Commissioners have done no more nor less
than what could or should have been expected or
required OF them. You erected a republican tr-
bunal, invested with political attributes and gave
them political questions to determine, which they
have settled from political standpoint. Being
republicans they believed that the republican can
didate for the Presidency was and ought to be
elected. In making their declaration they have
been true and faithful to their political sentiments
education and associations. No legal wrong
attach to them for this but when you democr ats
deliberately PUT such power over such questions
10 the hands OF tribunal so constituted, you com
mitted bold and daring wrong to your political
convictions. and assuredly to your political associ
ates, whose political sentiments and rights you
betrayed and abandoned to your political adver
sares.
arise to remind the democratic majority that
10 common decency your votes on this measure
have stopped you from induging in even one
word of criticism against the decision of that ri-
bunal sirs. it is your own offspring, you brought
it into being you gave it life and power, and you,
and you alone, are responsible for the result.
1t is excuse for you to assert that you did not
anticipate such result; that you expected high
and better things from your founding You
had no more right to expect tribunal so consi.
tuted to produce different result than to expocta
thorn bush to bring forth figs. Nor will so weak
an apology save you from the just condemnation
which your betrayed and outraged constituency
will forever heap upon your treacherous heads.
No. sirs. The wrong. the great and burning out
rage, lies at your hands, and your hands alone.
Nor viii the democratic people be slow in ascer-
taining the true source Of their discontinue and
defeat. 1t may subserve your purpose for brief
time to attempt to shield yourselves under cover
Of hollow denunciations of your tribunal. as the
cry Of "Stop "thief!' for moment may delude
the officers of the law; but when the mad popu-
lace shall have vented unmerited anger upon tins
tribunal for brief hour il will seek the true OBJ
jeet of its just indg nation, and the blame will at
last lie where it properly belongs. Tue few only
who had the moral courage to stand here upon
this floor and amid the derision and contumely OF
the democratic majority, dared to warn you of the
inevitable result of that days work, have a NOR
al right to complain Of the end of this days labor
But, sirs, while they have deep regrets as to the
action Of the commission, they have deep and bit
ter dennncistons and Combinations TO heap upon
the beads Of those who. claiming to be leaders of
the great democratic party, in this trying hour Of
its existence, have proven themselves either inco