The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-05-23

as they affect to deprecate than anything the
Democratic majority has done or content
plates doing. This language does not tally,
either, with the utterances of a Republican
congressional committee appointed In 1869, at
the nstigation of the Union League Club OF
New York. to investigate alleged frauds In
the casting OF the vote of that State for Hora-
ito Seymour The World attracts attention
| to the declaration Of that committee, that
| "the power to punish frauds In choosing pres
| idential electors by the voters OF the State is
essential to the national existence and inlseres
in the supreme government and notes the
discrepancy between that declaration and
the utterances of Hales manifesto.
The frauds charged in that instance. even
had they been substantiated, would H0t have
affected the election Of Grant, as he had o
majority Of all the votes cast Independently
of New York; but the Republicans did not
| allow the occasion to pass Of declaring the
principle, now advanced by the DEMOCRAT,
that "in view of the great wrong perpetrated
against republican institutions, and Of the
possibility that similar frauds in one great
city may at some future time determine q
presidential election, it Is Of the highest i'm
portance that Congress. now forewatned Of
the danger, may ascertain II there be rem
edy. and, II not, speedily provide one"
But this same Republican Congress, whose
committee used this language failed to find
or provide q remedy against the danger they
described when they should have done so and
when the opportunity was Mt hand The very
danger they described has really occurred,
l 1;x,,~ lok
with reference to which this right Of investi-
CATION was asserted. Certainly they cannot
complain that in n case in which the principle
Ia applicable and which impresses in the most
solemn manner the necessity Of the preeau-
tions it suggests, the Democrats should re-
announce and act upon 1t.
The resolution Of Mr. Potter simply pro-
poses to carry out the measure this Republi-
can committee of 1869 declared to be of the
highest importance. IT proposes the exer-
else of no power that committee did not exer-
else, and 1t looks TO nothing beyond the as
certainment Of frauds in the electoral vote
and provision OF remedy against their re-
currence in the future.
After the investigation this resolution pro-
vdes for has been held, we believe that the
exercise Of that other power" this commit
tee of 1869 asserted to be essential to the
national existence and inherent in the
supreme government'-the power to punish
frauds in choosing presidential electors"
will of necessity follow. The exercise Of
this power Is not contemplated in
this resolution, but 1t is the
logical and inevitable sequence of 1t if one
h,I ~ I,ot of L, IL,
believe to be true can be proven. To find out
the truth and the whole truth of the matter
without the slightest reference to whom it
may help or hurt, is the sole concern OF this
investigation; with the contingencies that
may grow out OF it MIR. Potters committee
has nothing whatever to do. All it has to do
is to discover and disclose the truth and leave
the results to the country to deal with az it
chooses. We have our convictions about this
matter, as Mr.. Conkling has his, nor are
ours less positive or well defined
than his. If this investigation can
make manifest all that the country
is morally certain is true, the expulsion Of
Hayes, by impeachment or otherwise, must
ment that forced the timid Democrats into
thlS lnVeSLgatlOn Will again cOmpel tne dlS-
grace and Opposing Of Hayes. This investi-
CATION once set on foot, it cannot stop
short of this deduction. Otherwise 1t is but
to make manifest to the world a national dis
grace, which had best be hidden away In all
obscurity il it is not proposed to wipe it out
by furnishing those who have brought it upon
US. But this question will come up in its
own good time now, 1t is not before the
country, and it is useless to anticipate it.
When it is reached it will be treated with all
the fearless and vigorous directness the occa-
sion may demand.