Daily Los Angeles herald., 1878-07-06

Few properly constituted people
envy Rutherford B. Hayes the
splendors of the White House. We
have no doubt that If the option
were again rendered to him Of al
lowing Mr.. Tilden to occupy the
position to which the people elected
him, the Ohioan would gladly re-
main in his pleasant homestead at
Fremont. If Mr.. Hayes haG elected
to do right at first; if he had firmly
announced to his partizans that the
will of the people must be respected
and tn at lie "would rather be right
than be President" the fraudulent
President would now be almost the
most honored man in the United
States. No conjuncture of human
events, short of his death, could
have prevented his being elected
President in 1880. Both parties
would have been emulous to do
him honor. But, in an evil
hour, he weakly surrendered
his convictions of right, yielded
to the temptations OF ambition,
and the estimation in which he is
held, at home and abroad, Is hap.
PLY expressed by the Pail Mall
Gazette (English) Of June 18th.
We quote:
1t is the conduct of Mr.. Hayes
since his attainment of power that
is now the most painful subject of
contem plation for patriotic Ameri-
cans. A ruler may stop on the safe
side of impeachment and vet be
guilty of acts by which he justly
forfeits the confidence of the gov
erned. When President Hayes was
raised to the supreme authority by
the decision of the Electoral Com
mission, the majority of the Amer
lean people were probably con-
vinced that wrong had been done,
but they were unwilling to believe
that the President was In any way
Q party to 1t. But if the evidence
taken within the past fortnight be-
fore the Committee Of Inquiry be
hot mass of malignant perjury,
1t appears that the men whom the
President selected tn fill the highest
offices In the State were directly
implicated in the corrupt transact
tions by which the votes of Louis
lana and Florida were taken away
from Mr.. Tilden.
| Unless Secretary Sherman and
Senator Matthews, and the Ameri-
can Ministers at Paris, Vienna, and
ST. Petersburg are able to prove
that they are the victims of con.
spiracy, it must be acknowledged
that the publication of politics of
which the Hayes administration
boasted has made little progress by
comparison even with the worst
period of Gen. Grants rule. If it
be suggested that the President
was ignorant of the part which his
friends played in the counting of
the votes In Louisiana and Florida,
the answer will be that there are
limits to human credulity. Mr..
Hayes, it may be admitted, was
Justified ia believing that his
friends-Mr. Sherman, Mr.. Mat
thews and the rest did nothing
during their visit to the South that
was Inconsistent with the strictest
honor. But he can scarcely have
been ignorant of the repute in
which the local Republican agents
and the members of the Returning
Boards were held, or Of the popular
impression that those persons had
deprived Mr.. Tilden of his majority
by fraud. Yet Mr.. Hayes, while
protesting the warmest zeal for
civil service reform, went out of
his way to offer high and lucrative
offices to men who, when they now
appear to testify against the Re-
publican cause, are denounced by
the Republicans as unworthy to be
believed or oath.