The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1878-10-24
Ghe 9aily Argus.
The Fraud Issue.
N, 7, World,

N. Y,World,
. 1t is generally conceded that President
Hayes was not elected, and that the elec-
toral votes of Florida and Louisiana were
gained for him by fraud. It was not
Claimed by bis partisans that he had mora
than7a technical title to the voices of those
| states, and the republican majority of
the electoral commission held that it
was itnmaterial-or, as the subtlest
lawyer among the commissioners put
1t, dtaunde-whether the technical title was
procured ty fraud or not. Indeed it is now
known that the very certificates of the
Louisiana electoral vote on which the title
OF Mr.. Hayes was declared legally good
contained the forged signatures of NELL
glble electors who had been defeated at
the polls. In loyalty to the implied pledge
OF their leades in congress the democrats
of the country, though vast majority of
them doubtless went with the World in
its outspoken hostility to that device, ac
guessed in the partisan decision of the
electoral commission which put the ques-
ton OF moral right aside and seated in the
presidential chair a candidate who had re-
celved majority of neither the popular
nor the electoral vote legally cast. Taking
into consideration the means by which Mr..
Hayes was placed in Office and the fur
ther fact that he has rewarded every per-
son who had anything to do with the
fraud by which the votes of Louisiana
and Florida were falsifed, the attitude
OF the democrats towards him has been
marked by curious courtesy and forbea,-
ance. Most of the democratic iourpals of
the country have agreed with the World
that the issues of the campaign of 1876
were settled by the decision of the com
mission. They were slow to make politi-
cal capital tor new contest out of the
knavery by which their opponents had
won the last one. They refraiped from
pushing the charge of fraud. The party
platforms made perfunctory declarations
on the topic: here and there a speaker
| broke out into fiery invective and COM
mlttees did something more or less feebly
10 the way Of investigation: but on the
| whole there prevailed a general DISPOSE
ton to let bygones be bygones. This was
| partly due to WEAKNESS of all political
discussion, partly to the desire to sld the
president in carrying out his conciliatory
policy towards the south, partly to respect
for the feelings of the democratic leaders
who had been overreached 10 the electoral
commission business, and partly to a wise
indisposition to make the wrongs of pres
idential candidate the basis of party action.
But after long interval of quiet, and
when the men who were cheated had
almost ceased to denounce the wrong which
they had suffered, the men who cheated
them suddenly made fierce attack on
| their victims and broke into sudden en-
thusiasm of moral indignation over the
reported discovery of fraud which the
democratic managers 10 Florida are said
to have attempted but never carried out.
| A republican newspaper having published
| a great number of what purport to be Sc
cret dispatches between Mr.. Tilden's
| agents here aud in the south, indicating
an unfuihlled intention to buy a return
ing board decision, something very like the
VOLTS long howl from Oonalaska's shore
| has gone up from the republican press at
the revelation. The cry of fraud" goes
up on all sides from the friends of Mr.,
Hayes, and the republican party has sud-
| denly become the aggressor on the record
| OF the last presidential canvass! Perhaps
there never was a more whimsical turning
| OF the tables. The democrats find them
selves In the position of good citizen col
Jared by the man who has just robbed him
and charged with pocket-plcking Tt the
fraud issue is really to be forced upon the
country anew the democracy are the last
people to object to it. Whatever becomes
of Mr.. Tilden and his friends, the rule
which the republican press has applied to
their conduct must be rigidly enforced in
regard to President Hayes and bis asso-
ciates. The men who secured by fraud
offices to which they were not elected
should certainly be.driven from public life
to obloquy and disgrace if other men who
failed to secure by corruption Offices to
which they were elected are to be pursued
with such rancor. The hunt of Tilden
implies the hunt of Hayes; and though the
sport may prove more exiting than profit
| able to the country, the democracy cannot
hesitate, if challenged, TO take part in it,