The daily gazette., 1877-02-21
E1d1nundS Convicted by
'-9 Edm undS.
From the N. Y. Sun of Tuesday.

passage Of the electoral bill, and thus be
came the connecting link between J
Madison Wells and Justice Joe Bradley
In the process of counting in Fraudu-
lent President has stultified himself so
hopelessly by his recent acts and utter
ances that 1t seems almost. cruel to call
attention to aspeech made by him not
| quite two years ago in the Senate of the
United States.
In March of 1875, when Morton's reso-
luton to admit Pinchback was under dis
cussion, Mr.. Edmunds took the ground
disunctly that the Returning Board
winch returned the Kellogg Legislature,
ana oy which Kellogg himself was re-
turned as Governor, had no existence un-
der the Constitution of Louisiana. He
oescribed this Returning Board, to which
hayes will owe his bogus title to the
eightlelectoral votes of Louisiana, as "an
Intermediate contrivance that either the
cupidity of thieves or the ambition OF
politicians had invented;" and he derid-
ed the idea that its acts and decisions had
any claim whatever to respect.
Inc following extract from Mr.. Ed
mund's remarks on that occasion is astrue
as If 1t had been uttered only last week,
and had referred, not to Pinchback, but
to Rutherford b. Hayes:
"But, Mr. President, when this Board
was thus acting, and was making public
the resnlt to which it had arrived through
means like these, what were its powers
anu authority? / have endeavored to
snow that 1t had no power or authority
to do anything of the kind. 1t is a special
creation of theilaw. 1t has no fnolitp, and
cdnhdue none, that the law does not ex-
pressiy or by clear implication confer up-
on IT," "People in my opinion, make
great mistake who endeavor to uphold
results produced by body acting as this
ana outside the Constitution and laws of
the State"
Fvery true, Mr.. Edmunds; and you
might have added your conviction that
the greater the fraud, the greater the mis-
take. Your political insight was good
two years ago. You saw things as they
were, moreover, described things as you
saw them. What, for instance, in the
way of political generalization, could be
more statesmanlike than this:
"The liberties of State would be in a
rather hopeless chaos, if you take q hun
dred years to come, If the determination
OF svh,; haSo been elected by the people
TO be their rulers Is to be conJded to the
discretion Of any selected board of men
shGterer.
After this declaration, is it not surpri.
sisg, to find you acting ON "selected
board OF men," and aiding, not to deter
mine who has been elected by the peo-
pie, but to foist upon the people o ruler
whom the people never elected? Are
not the liberties of the State in ga rather
hopeless chaos" when this has come to
pass? If the gift of prophecy had been
yours on March 16, 1875, could you have
described more accurately or condemned
more severely the Unconstitutional Com
mission which now gives us a Fraudu-
lent President, than you did in these
words?
"What would be thought of that states
man or that lawyer who should under
take to pass thsough Congress q law
which should declare that, instead of the
votes and returns sent by the electors
being delivered 10 the President of the
Senate, they should be deliUered to a Re.
turning Board selected by the President
of the United States, or elected bu Con-
gress, constituted in some way, a month
in advance of the time fixed bo law for
their being counted, and that that Re-
turning Board should canvass those
saI,
and which were not, and then after then
had reached a result ,uhich they believed to
be a Convenient one: they should turn it
oUer to the President of the Senate in the
presence Of the t,1o Houses, 1oho should then,
according to the return Of the Returning
Board, find out auho is the President of
the United States? Why, sir, it seems to
me only necessary to state such q propo-
sition to show how utterly unfounded
it is"
ltseems to us only necessary to repro
duce Mr.. Edmund's words on that occa-
sion to show how utterly he has sur
rendered principles and convictions in
this partisan emergency. That the opin-
ions already quoted were his solemn con-
yictions, we are assured by himself in
the concluding sentences of this remarka-
bio speech
"If there is any policy in this business,
although know of no policy but that
which, in looking TO the past seeks for
the truth, it seems to me that it is the
pelicy of strict adherence to the law.
That is the guide which in the heat Of
conflict and in the tumult of politics is
the sole star that guides our ship of state
to a safe haven. If you turn away from
that, and speak of party wishes, or party
sympathies, or races, or expediencies,
you are lost in the sea Of chaos and tu-
multi that has ruined SO many republics
in the history of our times. I, for one,
shall stand by the laww
This promise, so solemnly made, has
been broken. Mr.. Edmunds has stood
neither by the law, nor by the Constitu-
ton, nor by the principles of truth and
honesty, nor even by his own convic-