The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1877-01-04


SOME PRoPHECIEs KscALLED.
! The conspiracy TO deprive the peo-
! pie of this nation of the right to choose
their President was. .foreshadowed by
prominent Republicans even before
the earliest voter had thrown his ballot
on the morning of the seventh of No.
vember. The predictions of Mr.. Blaine,
Newton Booth, Murat Halstead, and
others, have been verified so fully by
the course of events up to this time,
that we naturally recur to their LAM
guage for light on the further devel-
opment of the plot.
Three weeks before election day the
following prophecy Issued forth from
the st. Louis Jail, where the Rspubli-
can editor of the Globe Democrat was
then confined for whisky thieving:
mo man elected by the process re-
sorted to by the Democrats of South
Carolina will ever be allowed to take
his seat for President OF tho United
States. This is our deliberate judg-
ment.'
Two weeks before election day
James G.Blaine, in speech atBuffalo,
predicted Tilden's election in caseNew
York went Democratic, and then,turn-
ing to his Republican auditors, asked,
will you allow him to be inaugurated
in that eyent?'
Two weeks before election day Sem
ator Newton Booth, of California, in
the course of a talk with a reporter of
the San Francisco Chronicle, said:
In the way matters stand at present,
in case the final declaration Of tho
choice for President depended upon
the acceptance of the vote OF one or
more of the Southern States to which
troops had been sent, theHouse would
inevitably refuse to allow it to be
counted in and an appeal to force
would be necessary in order to settle
the matter.
'Reporter-what do you mean by
force?
Senator Booth-Physicsl force
war. think it is remark
ably fortunate for the country that We
have Republican President who 10
also Commander-in-C Chief of the army,
Sc that in the event Of any serious
complications the Government has at
its head man who will see it pro-
tected. There are good many rea-
sons Uhy Tie Democracy should not he
suffered to gain control of the Gore,n-
ment.'
Two weeks before election day Mr..
Murat Halstesd, editor of the strong
est Republican newspaper in thcWest,
and close personal friend of Mr.,
Hayes, ventured on prophetic ground.
His language was so remarkable that
we printed it at the time and repro
duce it here:
IF New York should happen to go
Democratic, the probability is that
there would be disposition on the
part of the Republicans to throw out
the votes of those Southern States
which were carried for Tilden by the
Intimidation Of the blacks. 1 have
heard the suggestion made that 1t
would be moral perjury in Vice-Pres-
ident Ferry and President Grant If
they should consent to allow the elsc-
toral vote of States to be cast for the
restoration OF the Southern Confeder-
acy, when they knew that majority
Of the people of those States had been
practically disfranchiscd, and when
they had in their hands the legal proof
of that fact.
Now. if the Presidential election
should turn upon the votes Of say
Mississippi, South Carolina, Florida
or Louisiana, it would be impossible
to avoid desperate dispute between
the two legislative Houses of the Coy
ernment. The way is already prepar-
ed, by the declarations of Republican
Senators, for Mr.. Ferry, acting Vice.
President. to assume the entire re-
sponsibility of counting the electoral
votes. The House will not, Of course,
consent to this. The next thing 10 the
position Of President Grant, Grant il
the Chief of the Army
and Navy Of the United States. The
very practical question would arise
whether he would sustain Mr.. Ferry
in the Senate, 1 imagine that the
weight of inference is that he would.
Perhaps he would do it by prOclama-
ton. That is what in the Spanish
American republics are called pronun-
cianaientos. The situation will be ex-
ceedingly difficult, if not hazardous.
Trouble would come upon US in q
more. dangerous shape than it did six
teen ycrrs ago. There is sort of
Mexican miasma in the political air.
AT the time of their utterance these
vaticinations were generally regarded
as the voicings of demagoguery or
folly. In the light of subsequent
events they show that two months
ago the leaders of the office-holding
party had already determined upon a
desperate programme in case of defeat
at the polls, Whatever the result OF
the election, they were not to be dis
;urbed in the enjoyment of place and
power. To retain place and power,
they were prepared tc resort, if neces-
sary, to Mexican methods.
1t will be seen that the programme
of the conspirators, as indicated BY
Senator Booth, and more explicitly by
: Mr., Halstead, has been carried out thus
far to the letter, After all questions