The Daily clarion., 1878-01-11
TsE PRESIDENTIAL FRAUD.
Inn portant Movement in the Mary
land Legislature.
A MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS AND sIGNIFI-
CANT VOTE.

CANT VOTE.
ANNAPOLIS, January 8. 8.-IIon. Montgom-
cry Blair, in the House of Delegates, to-day
submitted the following:
Resolved, BY the House of Delegates, the
Senate concurring, that the following mem
orial be signed by the President of the Sem
ate and the Speaker OF the House, and copies
thereof transmitted to the President of the
Senate ard TO the Speaker of the House of
Representatives.
Resolved, That our Senators in Congress
be and are hereby instructed, and Represen-
tatiyes be and are hereby requested ia favor
the object Of the memorial, aud that copies
of the same be forwarded to them. The
following is the memorial:
To the Senate and House of Representatives
In Congress assembled:
Your memoriaists in general assembly
of the State of Maryland represent that by
the terms of the act of the Forty y-iOurth
Cong ress, establishing an ELECTORAL COM
mission, it was proved that no decision of
the Presidential election under that act |
should preclude a judicial decision of the |
question; that the obvious intent of this |
provision was to assure the people that it |
should be determined on its merits by the |
proper judicial tribunal, in the event that |
the commission should hold itself incompe- |
tent to render such decision; that by its pro- !
ceedngs it fully appears that the said COM
mission held that 1t was Incompetent to i'll |
Quire whether the formal returns ofthe sew |
eral States, which were submitted to it, were
true or false; that in consequence OF this |
decision the present incum bent of the Pres
ldential chair was seated in virtue of re-
turns which were nOtoriously false and
fraudulent, and SO in effect admitted by Mr.
Justice Strong, whose vote seated him, and
also by the incumbent himself, in disregard
ing those returns as respects the State Off
GERS whose titles 20 office were also based
on them and was in every respect identi-
cal with his own; that while reputation
of these returns by the incumbent for all
purposes save his own election is an admis-
sion that it was fraud to use them for that
purpose, the motives which Induced this
partial reputation greatly aggravate his
Otfense; that by the published statement of
Mr.. John Young Brown, which has re-
mained uncontradicted since April, 1877, it
appears that this reputation was the con-
ditien i'm posed by said Brown and his as
sociates, then holding the balance of power
in the House of Representatives, upon
which alone the incumbent would be allow
ed TO be counted intO office ON these false re-
turns; that this condition was accepted for
the incumbent by Messrs. Stanley Mathews
and Charles Foster then and since then his
closest friends and most stauthorttaive repre-
sentatives; that said Brown and his associ-
ates had been elected as adyersaries of the
Incumbent, but separated from the great
body of their political associates in the
House OF Representatives to carry into
effect such arrangement; that at the time of
entering into it they We're leading advocates
of bill then pending In said house to grant
large subsidy to the Texas Pacific railroad
company, to which the Presldent-elect was
known TO be opposed, and it is a just infer
ence from all the circumstances that while
they were willing to defeat his Inaugural
ton, for this reason they cOnld not venture
to act with their political opponents for
that object, if such cooperation involved
also the surrender Of the local governments
1. - srt,n 81
electoral votes to their political opponents; !;
that to remove the obstacles it was stipula-
ted in egect that incumbent should treat the
returns as fraudulent, so far as they affected
the local governments of said States, by
withdra wing the United States troops, the
presence of which alone, it was known,
gave them any force that it thus appears
that the constitutional question so gravely
and elaborately debated in Congress, before
the electoral commission. and in the public
press as question on which the Presden-
tial contest hinged and with which the pub
lie mind was SO long exercised, had no part
whatever in determining the contest, but it
was in fact determined by a body of men
elected by one party. but openly acting with
their opponents in the interest of certain
railroad cooperation at the decisive mo-
ment; that every interest of the country is
greatly prejudiced and its Dlost vital inter-
ests are put in jeopardy by suffering the
people to be superseded as the political
power, ana substituting lot tn0m Sucn mon
eyed organizations as will pay for defraud-
ing them; that in the opinion OF your mem
rialists the continued prOstratiOn of the
business of the country is largely due to the
fact that the confidence of the conduct
of their public officers is shaken: that
an irresponsible executive of the admin
istration has been installed which has
not the support Of the country, or either
of its great political parties; that this is
in conflict with the whole theory OF our in
stitutions, and of those of tire mother coun-
try, whence they were derived; that to car
ry it on so as to get possession of the gov
ernment the incumbent must seek support
from those elected as his opponents that
this relation is in itself eorrupting is shown
by reason as we'll as by experience; that no
useful public service can be rendered by an
administration whose .itle to power rests on
fraudulent election returns manufactured
by its own partSans, and made effectual by
an agreement with the subsidy and iobbing
men OF the opposing party that an indis-
pensible first step to any reform of the pub
lie service is to restore the government to
the people; that is only by men who have
been elected by the people, and who are free
from all entangling alliances with the job
bing interests, from which all the great
abuses have sprung, that any reform can be
effected. Your mem morialists therefore pray,
that the needfnl legislation ay be adopted
to ascertain, judicially, who was elected
President at the recent election, and to give
effect to the will of the Ie)ple, will ever
+. pray, etc.
Mr.. Blair advocated his memorial, urging
its adoption and reviewing generally Pres
ident Hayes title to the office.
Mr.. Loeb Republican, moved to lay the
memorial on the table, and called for the
ayes and noes, which resulted-ayes 13, noes
Oh. was then referred to the committee
ON Federal relations -4[-5-sse eer.-rN i.