The Portland daily press., 1878-05-22
for half Presidential term. 1t means agi-
tation, usurpation, revolution.

cleveland Herald, Rep
One OF two things Is sought to be accom-.
plished py the Democrats in their jug handle
fraud investigation. Either they intend to
agitate the country, disturb business, and
gather mud to throw at the President for no
practical purpose except to furnish material
for campaign bombast, or they design to use
what ex-parte testimony they can get as A
basis for an open attack on the President,s
title. Whichever course they have in view.
their movement is thoroughly unpatriotic
and merits the severest condemnation Of ali
honest citizens.
New York Tribune, Ind.J
The men who pretend that there Is no In
tention to disturb the Presidents title are
guilty of falsehood, first by the very language
OF the resolution as to the Maryland memo
rial, and second by the action of the Demo-
cratic caucus on resolution dsclaiming such
intent There is no way except by revolu-
ton, to o1st a President and Vice President
who have been duly inaugurated and recog-
nized by both houses of Congress aud whose
right is sustained by the courts. Until the
revolutionary intent is wholly defeated Re-
publlcans ought to treat all compromises and
adjustments that may be proposed precisely
as "peace-at-any-price" Copperheads were
treated when the first rebellion began.
New York Star, Dem.l
A coward, bent on mischief, proceeds al
ways by crafty and devious ways, and that Is
precisely the way with Mr.. Tilden In the fire
brand he has thrown into Congress on the
Presidential question. Skulking away from
responsibility in 1877, from fear, probably,
that the man on horseback then holding the
executive Office would have him arrested, he let
the Presidency go by default without raising
his voice, and now, in the second year after
tne settlement or the question by the actif of
Congress and the electoral commission-now,
when the country has acquiesced in the decis-
ION, and Is in peaceful condition, with hope
OF revlvins prosperity-he and his agents are
trying to foment political and sectional dis
cord, and to arrest the improvement in busi-
ness which has commenced.
New York Herald, Ind.l
The Democrats will either carry the coun-
try with them or they will not. If the coun-
try is dragged over in that tremendous and
desperate plunge 1t will descend into the
abyss of Mexican anarchy. A precedent will
have been set which will embolden every de-
feated and discontented candidate to reassert
his title at any time within the four years after
the regular count.has gone against him, and
we shall be launched upon long experiment
of Mexican anarchy and irremediabe civil
confusion. Bat the chances are a hundred
to one that the Democrats will not carry the
country with them In shooting Niagara.
They are likely to 60 over the cataract alone
and to find their destruction In the "hell OF
boiling waters which make the eternal
war with the ragged rocks below. II the
Democratic party sets itself In array
against the title of President who has been
regularly inaugurated and has completed
nearly half his term the party will exhibit a
truly remarkable example of political suicide.
The indignant opposition Of the country to
an attempt to Mexicanize our Institutions
will render the Democratic party as odious
to public feeling and as contemplate in num-
bers as it was at the close of the civil war.
This great blunder of the Democrats the Re-
publcans are prompt to seiza upon to their
own advantage, as will be seen by the Repup.
lican address which Is issued on the heels Of
the passage of the Democratic resolution.
Against the cry of "fraud" they raise the cry
of revolution" and they will unite the whole
north once more in their support.
New York World, Tilden Dem.J
As to the alarm to which the Republican
address gives expression about the titles OF
Hayes and Wheeler, if the contentious Of two
of our esteemed contemporaries have been
wise and well founded, those titles cannot be
overthrown either by the resolution OF Mr..
Potter or by any other resolution. For the
Tribune insists that Congress exhausted It's
power year ago last March, when, it says,
the votes were counted as the constitution
requires. And the Sun maintained, on the
21st of November, 1876, with great perspi-
cacity, that there neither was nor is any
power whatever in the federal government,
or in any branch of it to assail or look behind
the certificate Of State returning board IL
legal in form, no matter how saturated with
fraud. If both or either Of these two propo-
sitions be true, Mr.. Hayes and Mr.. Wheeler
are safe in their present positions as against
everything but death, resignation, mental or
physical disability or impeachment. The
World has not advanced either of these
propositions. The electoral votes were not
counted in February or March, 1877, as the
constitution commands, for the reason that
such votes cannot lawfully be counted for a
President against the determination and de-
cision OF the House. For the Vice President
they may be. Nor is it constitutional truth
that the House had not Jurisdiction to look
behind the state canvassers' certificates to
see If they had the power and right to dc
what they assert they did. This Is popu-
lar government, it must be remembered, and
the House of Representatives has especial
aud exceptional powers in the matter OF the
electoral votes for President tnot the Vice
President), as it has in bills for "raising reye-
nue." and for the same reason, that it Is
nearest to the people.