Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-01-25
" Two Evident Intents."

Vice-PresldeDt should count the
votes: as is shown, still further, by
fact that has never yet been no.
ticed, that the sentance, as adopted
by the Convention read "The Pres
ident of the Senate shall open all the
certificates and the votes shall then
be counted in the presence Of the Sen
ate and House of Representatives."
This shows that the change in the
form of the sentence was designed
by the Constitution to ensure the
presence of witnesses to the opera
tion of counting the electoral vote by
the President Of the Senate. TSee
Madison Papers, Ed. 1910, Vol. III,
p. 1909. Elliott's Debates, Vol. i,
p. 318.
But, beyond and deeper thar sevi-
dent intent" as to modes of counting,
the founders of the Con titutioD,
without any doubt, whatever, did
mean that there should be an honest
vote at the polls.
This Hight oint or Tri~Jo Com
m ssion is craftily designed to secare
no honest consideration of the char
aeter Of the Election but only of the
character ofthe Returns. No question
is to be made as to the vote of Mis-
sissippi, for example, although it
gave 10000 Democratic majority by
terrorism and by the cruelest MUIR
ders. Thirty men were slaughtered
in single county last year to secure
this result in Mississippi. But on "the
face of the returns" Mississippi is all
right, and no inquiry coulf be made
Into the affairs of this BandiGti State
No election frauds could be oonsid-
cred by it. 1t is scheme worthy of
legal quibblers, who regard only the
letter not the spirit of the Constitu-
ton.
I trust Grant will veto il if it is
passed.
A Continental Swindle.
While the eyes of the country are
watching the electoral proceedings
there is o boa-constrictor swindle
crawling its shiny and hungry way
through the halls of Congress. 1t is
the Texas and Pacific Railroad
scheme, now united with kindred
schemes of highway robbery. Sim
| gleton, of Mississippi, told Congress,
last winter, that "the South" Cmean-
ing not the Southern People but the
Banditti Democracy expected that
the National Government would
| 10 81 Lot II fn,- 20
The New York Times showed that
this modest request would cost the
nation, sooner or later, four hundred
millions of dollars 1t would not do
TO GO before the country with the
project before the election of Presi-
dent and still cry sReforn" and
Economy" and so it was quietly
dropped by the Banditti leaders for
another year. Stated without mine
ing words this is the scheme Tom
Scott, a very able highway msn, asks
Congress to pay him three millions
of dollars in gold every year for forty
years in order to build 1900 miles of
railroad across a burning desert
partly through Mexicol r NJ. L.
Hunter, of Virginia, advocased this
scheme, laet year, as a net0 secession
Increment, for the creation of ''vast
Southern Empire !" "This road" he
wrote, "might prove to be the um"
biical cord, through which a nSscent
empire might derive its nourishment
and support from these vast and
fruitful wastes, until, matufed into
organized being, it loses the embryo
state, and they bear it, like the
wild mother of the forest without 8
throe or pang." | reviewed this
scheme in an article entitled" Trea-
son on Wheels" Published in The
Republic magazine of April lat; and
| refer to that statement of The pur-
poses of this daring conspiracy to
show how audaciOus this proposi-
ton now il. Lot every Congress-
man be watched and driven out of
public lite who ever votes away
another foot Of the public domain or
endorses he notes of any corpora
ton whatever. We have had too
much of it.
Siezing Telegraphic Dispatches.
There have been lively debates
this weak about the seizures of tele,
graphic dispatches. 1t is wrong
for which both parties are equally
responsible. The telegraph should
be as sacred az the mail trust
that both parties will become so sick
of the revelations that this anrepub-
lican proceeding may bring to light
that they will mutually agree to
declare the telegraph inviolable. The
republicans of high rank have moth
ing to fear. Zach Chandler is too
shrewd man to telegraph any
thing that ho would not care his
enemies to know. Nor do suppose
that the sly old fox. S T., imperlIed
his cause by such indiscretions. But
whoever may DO hurt or holped oy
it, it is mean and wrong thing to
do and it ought to be prohl bited by
law.
JAMES REDPATH