The daily gazette., 1877-01-20
COUNTING THE VOTE
OPINIONS OF rHE PRES

From the Bait. Sun. E va 20
| We congratulate the country that so
| lar these expectations have been realized
| and that q project has been presented
which, if adopted BY Congress and put in
bperation, will avoid the dangers In the
decision of the Presidential election
which have been so generally appre-
hended. If the device submitted for
that purpose is of extraordinary charac-
ter, those are TO be blamed who occa-
stoned the necessity of 1t. Through the
manipulation of returns In certain States
since the people cast their votes an ex-
Igency has been created that could not
reasonably have been contemplated, and
certainly never was dreamed of by the
men who framed the constitution They
could contemplate no such machinery as
the returning boards of the Southern
carpet-bag States. Whatever necessity,
therefore, there is for any extra consti-
tutional measures for settling the presi-
dental election in 1877 comes of those
who support those contrivances for mani
pulating the popular vote in States about
whose votes, fairly considered, there
was no doubt at all. These manipula-
tions have been stimulated by telegraphic
messages directed to people who, in
Louisiana at any rate, were accustomed
Ito such performances, and who have
been branded by republican committees
of Congress as having done the same
things before that they urged to do SO
again. Those justices of the Supreme
Court who, according to the plan sub
mitted, will help to constitute the arbi-
tration tribunal, will be peculiarly quail.
fed to investigate and decide questions
of law connected with the returns of the
disputed States. While it is to be re-
GREETED that an extra constitutional con-
trivance should be necessary to avert
gra disasters to the country, the domi-
na1it party is alone answerable for this
necessity, and it is the simple and abso
lutte duty of Congress to provide in the
best manner practicable for such an
exigency. Thus far it has met the de-
mands of public sentiment in right
spirit, and will receive the approval of
the whole country.
baltimore News)
"We are glad, however, of any pacific
mode OF settlement for the Presidential
muddle, aud particularly glad that so re-
spectacle a tribunal should be selected.
Our great surprise and agreeable disap-
pointment is that the Republican Sena-
tors did not propose and insist upon
General Grant, with Babcock for count
er or measurer, or that q National Re-
turning Board, composed of experts like
kellogg, Chamberlain, and Stearns, be
called in to decide all disputed and deli
cate point. 1t would have been just
like them"
New York Times.)
"That so far as the Republicans are
concerned, is more than compromise;
it is an abandonment of the position
they were entitled to hold-a surren-
der of the method sanctioned by usage,
and which protects the right of the
States to determine the regularity of
their respective votes. 1t is moreover, a
surrender which, instead of quietly set
tling the points in dispute, lays the foun-
dation of much bitterness and discomfort
and drags into the mire OF partIsanship
the Judges of the Supreme Court at a
time W. en- they, Of all men, should be
protected from the taint."
New York Herald)
"Ihe committee have discharged their
duty in spirit of justice and concilation
and with degree of practical wisdom
which protects their plan from every
species OF criticism, except captious par
tisan cavils. All specious ground of
cagil are also removed by wise modifi.
| cation of the process for selecting the
five Supreme Court Judges who are to
| oCANc VA lAt IOhIul5SlOu. 1uGTt Is an
excellent prospect that Congress will pass
the bill and the President promptly ap-
prove it, and from the moment that it
receives his signature the country will
be perfectly safe, as it is already greatly
reassured.
New York Evening Post.)
The wise course of the Senate and
House Of Representatives is to adopt the
plan as it comes from the commit ee
without unnecessary delay"
| Newark Advertiser.)
The Senate has conceded enough, il
not too much, in accepting the theory
that Congress may convert itself into q
returning board and deprive a State oi
| its electoral vote. There is a still furthe,
departure from precedent and from the
Government in calling in the Supreme
Court to perform extra judicial and polit
ical functions