The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-05-23
The South and the Presidential Fraud.

we can easily understand that our es-
teemed contemporary, the SIN, may be
embarrassed in the work of bringing
about thorough, searching and impair
tial investigation of the frauds which, as
we believe, were committed in Florida
and Louisiana at the time of the Presi-
dental election in 1876. For our es-
teemed contemporary in November of
that year laid down fully and earnestly
the doctrine, never accepted by the
World, that there is no power which can
90 behind the certificates of q State
given to certain persons as. Presidential
electors. And as the Sun neither is nor
claims to be Democratic journal, we
have no reason Of course to expect that
it will do justice to the motives or the
conduct of the great body of the Demo-
cratic voters of the Union.
But it seems TO us, nevertheless, that
even from the point of view of such q
Republican as Senator Conkling, with
whom we understand the Sun to agree in
his view as to the status and character of
the present Republican administration, it
is very far from just to charge the Demo-
cratic masses of the South, as the Sun
now does, with treason to the country,
and wita deliberate desire to destroy
by fraud "the Government which the
Southern armies were unable to over
throw" because the South has shown
itself willing to recognize the admins
tration OF President Hayes as lawful
authority. Mr.. Charles Francis Adams
who can hardly be thought to be q
sympathizer with those whom the Sun
vehemently denounces as Southern
rebels now yclert Democrats"-has re-
Gently expressed his conviction that no
assault ought now to be made upon the
title of President Hayes, and if We are
not mistaken member Of his family has
even gone so far as to accept Fed
eral office under the existing administra-
ton. The World has brought out prom
inently before the country the fact that
Senator Conkling has been in possession,
ever since the Presidential election in
1876, of information which leads him
freely to denounce the President and the
administration az guilty accomplices
either before or after the fact in the
| frauds through which the Hayes electors
in Florida and louisiana obtained those
State certificates which the Sun elabo-
rately maintained in November, 1876,
| must be accepted rs final and conclusive.
But Senator Conkling is not Southern
Senator, nor is he a Democrat. If he
possessed this information in November,
1875, and has failed ever since to bring
an open accusation against the President
and the administration on the strength
of it, surely it is against him and not
against the Southern rebels" that the
Sun should direct its wrath. What part
has the South really borne in the history
of the Hayes administration? Certainly
the South dii not nominate Mr.. Hayes.
Certainly tnc South did not elect Mr..
Hayes. Mr.. Hayes was supported in his
| Presidential canvass by the whole power
of the detestable administration of Pres
ident Grant, and the South contended
against him not simply to win political
victory, but to secure itself against politi-
cal degradation and from social anarchy.
How solidly it Imported the candidacy
of Mr.. Tilden we all know. How wisely,
no just and candid American ever should
forget. Tainted, provoked, irritated on
every side by the nnscrupulous emisssa-
zies of an administration of which Sena-
tor Conkling was a trusted counsellor,
the people of the South went through a
canvass which for them involved the is
sues of political life or political death,
without uproar, disturbance or confusion.
When the canvass ended, it appeared
that Mr.. Tilden was chosen lawful Pres
ident of the United. States by 1876 electo-
raj votes out of 369, being clear major.
| ity of % over his Republican competitor.
| OF these 1876 votes. the Southern States
cast 191, the Northern States only 65.
In the East q single phalanx of three
conterminous States-Connecticut, New
York and New Jersey-stood for. the
constitution and the sovereignty of the
laws with the solid South; in the West,
| Indiana alone. What followed? Under
the protection of Grants administration,
of which Senator Conklipg was trusted
counsellor, the people of two Southern
States, Florida and Louisiana, were de-
| liberately robbed Of their votes for the
Democratic electors, and the machinery
was set in motion which resulted in the
Electoral Commission and eventually in
the Inauguration Of Mr.. Hayes. The
Democrats of the South protested against
the outrage perpetrated upon the electo-
raj franchise, in all imaginable forms.
They looked-as hsd they not right to
look ?-to the leaders of the Northern
| Democracy and to the candidate whom
they, the people of the South, had cleo.
ted, to uphold the threatened sanctity Of
the ballot and see justice done. They
looked in vain. Were they to assume
the initiative of civil war for the asser.
ton of results achieved by their peaceful
ballots? Had they desired disunion
rather than union, strife rather than
peace, then was the time to have shown
it. They did not desire disunion, they
desired union. They did not desire
strife, they desired peace. When North
ern Democrats accepted the decree OF
the Electoral Commission from Senator
i Conkling and President Grant against
the earnest but solitary warnings and
protests of the World, the Democrats OF
| OlG SUuIu ohN VIZ Il SdSAoA Ho"Sh SASO
more confided to Republican admins
tration; but not by any act of theirs
In their local governments they asserted
without bloodshed that sanctity of the
ballot which Northern Democrats shrank
from asserting in the Federal Govern.
ment. The people of Florida and Of
Louisiana could only help to elect Mr.
Tilden President. They could not make
him President if he would not accept
and maintain the title which they had
given him. But the people of Florida
and Louisiana, like the people of South
Carolina, without the help Of the candi,
date whom they had chosen to the Pres.
idency, did maintain the titles which
they had given by their votes at the same
time to Governor Drew and Governor
Hampton and Governor Nichols. Nay
when all had been surrendered at Wash
ington, the Democrats of the South II
the House, not holding the doctrine
maintained by the San in November
1919 ,,nt IN rooord onn loet eynirinC