The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-01-09


denied the reported interview and all sym
pathy with the sentiments therein ex-
pressed.
Encouraged and forced forward by these
assurances, the returning board boldly per
formed its duty, gave voice to the murdered
republicans of the bulldoZed parishes OF
Louisiana and. made Hayes president and
Packard governor of Louisiana, by titles
indlssolubly connected in law, in morals,
and by every rule OF honor that prevails
among civilized men.
The same tender regard for the Louisiana
republicans, and for the result which they
had achieved, continued during the ensuing
struggle in congress. The returning board
were arrested and confined at Washington
by the confederate house OF representatives.
Sick, and in prison, they were visited by
Senator Sherman and his associates, and
urged to stand firm until relief should come
from the advent to power of the president
whom they had made. Before the electoral
commission, to maintain ana vindicate their
work. Governor Hayes personally continued
the employment of Messrs Matthews and
Shellabarger, while Senator Sherman from
his place in the senate, on December IL,
threatened negro instructions unless Hayes
should be counted in and the poor
colored men, placed under his devoted
care:
There are other remedies, but do not like TO
We can teach the negroes that they have an
inherent right OF self defense. The
negro might soon be taught, especially in those
parishes where there are three black men to
one white man, that he has the right of self
defense; but who wishes TO even suggest, or
intimate, or anticipate such horrors? Who
wishes to see war of races? Yet, rather than
see what has occurred in Louisiana, these men
Will learn that they can resent these
outrages: that the negro can defend his cabin,
his wife, his children from these outrageS. and
that he will be justified by the laws of God and
come by day or by night. do not want TO see
this done. / fear il. and yet II Will come !"
unless you give TO the negroes the rights which
are secured to chem by the constitution OF the
do believe that under a wise policy with an
administration that will be firm in maintain
ing the rights of the blacks, well as be gen.
erOus to the whites, all the clouds that are now
lowering upon our house will pass away, and
be in the deep bosom OF the ocean buried.
With substantial unanimity the republic
ans of the country seconded the determine
ton of their representatives in congress to
declare and achieve the election and inaugu-
ration of President Hayes; and the republic
an party was never more courageous, harmo-
Nous or united than on the day of his acces-
sion.
Coming to the presidency under these re;
markable circumstances, what should have
been President Hayes course?
ed in every possible way, the moral and le-
gal validity of his own title, and of every
step taken by his procurement or desire in the
long series of events which established it.
3 He should have maintained faithful
and scrupulous allegiance to the principles
of the republican party, by prOclaiming
which the victory had been won. and the
men of that party whose unprecedented eff
forts and courage had elevated him to sta
ton of the highest honor and power as its
representative.
3. Above all, he should have avoided any
yielding or concessions to the democratic
party, from which the presidency had been
so suddenly, Unexpectedly, and exasperat-
ingly wrested.
Il is inconceivable that any wise or hon
orable man should be willing to take the
presidency and then suffer effect any
taInt upon his own title. Governor Hayes
bad it in his power at any moment from
November 10 March to avoid the respon-
sibilities of the Office, bat thought not of
doing it. On the contrary, at every stage in
the progress of the countings state and
national, his active influence was present
through his counsel agents and intimate
friends pressing forward the struggle. Not
declining, but eagerly demanding and taking
the place, il necessarily follows that he was
bound to maintain the integrity of his claim
thereto, and of the means by which it was
made effectual. Any other course would be
sure to bring deserved condemnation and
disgrace upon himself, the men of the party
who had been prominent in his behalf, and
upon the party ITSELF
To make concession to the defeated de-
mocracy, and to abandon the principles of
his own party, would not only proclaim his
doubts as to the rightfulness OF his own elec-
ton, but would also be an admission that
such election, even if rightful and honest,
Ancf rr.l,l 10 for "a
If the men and principles of the demo
cratic party were to control the country, why
should they not do so through Samuel ].
Tilden, their appropriate representatives.
Why the protracted labor, the high excite
ment, the dangerous struggle, the death or
ruin of southern republicans if the princi-
pies of the republican party were to be
abandoned and the administration to be
made democratic in all respects except in
name?
Wisdom and honor, therefore, it seems to
me. clearly required that President Hayes
should maintain his own rightfulness of
title, and stand by the men and principles
of his party. Had he done so, in my belief,
the democratic cry of fraud would have been
the merest folly; the republican party would
have remained dominant in every northern
state and in several southern states, and
would have swept the country in the recent
fall election. Instead of all this, what do
we see?
".
Almost the first act of the new admins
tration was to fulfil bargain that had been
made during the presidential contest, by
which, if Hayes should be president the
lawful governments of Louisiana and South
Carolina were to be abandoned and the mob
governments in those states were to be recog-
nized and established.
Certain democrats in the house of repre-
sentatives, seeing that, by the recurring de-
cisons OF the electoral commission, and the
regular proceedings of the two houses under
the electoral bill, which they had warmly
supported, Hayes would surely be president,
had conceived the plan of saving something
from the wreck. They had therefore threat
ened, by dilatory motions and riotous pro-
opened negotiations with such timid or too