The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-03-29

ing local Governments in two States OF the
Union was no less a constitutional duty and re-
quirement, under the circumstances existing at
the time, than 1t was much-needed measure
for the restoration of local self-government
and the promotion OF national harmony" III
that be correct definition of the Presidents
Southern policy, am no longer in doubt az TO
whether approve 1t or not. 1t is impossible
that should approve IT now or ever. IL IL q
clear abandonment of one OF the plainest and
most solemn duties charged upon the President
by the constitution and laws Of the United
States.
When the President abandoned the Govern
ment Of Louisiana to domestic violence, he sur
rendered the constitutional rights Of single
State. But, when he advertised he would never
interfere where the result of an election il dis
puted, he surrendered national prerogative
vital to our institutions. lie abjured consti-
tutional duty essential to every state. He pro-
claimed license to instruction. He notified
the minority in every State, when defeated by
ballot to appeal to the bayonet, aud he pro-
claimed in advance that the nation shall be
neutral in the conflict. II Packard was not
elected Governor OF Louisiana, nothing can
be more certain than that Hayes was not elected
President Of the United States. Without the
electoral vote of Louisiana the whole world
knows Hay es had not the votes in the Electoral
College necessary to constitute an election. If
Louisiana did not vote for Packard the whole
world knows that Louisiana did not vote for
Hayes. Packard received nearly ZOO votes
more than some of the Hayes electors. I'M
der the constitution the esd. mt had but
one plain duty to discharge, that was AZ
certain whether the constituted tribunals II
Louisiana lad d.cAted Packard To bs
Governor if 70, then to defend his authority
| to the extent OF his ability when legally re-
quired so to do. Ii they had not 80 declared,
then it was equally his duty not merely to have
withheld all support Of Packards pretense, but
~ oil f<,t ola
OF Packard's rival. 1t was his duty to have
done that, not merely on the Goth Of April, but
| to have done it on the 4th OF March imme-
diately upon his assuming the Office of Presi-
dent, and, If he found it his constitutional duty
| to require Packard to surrender his Office, he
| should have also recognized the duty OF surren-
dering his own. do not mean to intimate a
| doubt that President Hayes was entitled to the
vote of Louisiana. Ii is my settled belief that
Louisiana declared for him but all certainly
know is, that if Packard was not elected Presi-
dent Hayes was not. If the latter is not a
usurper, Nichols is. l can see no possible
escape from the conclusion either that the
President has usurped his own Office or that he
has aided Gov. Nichols 10 usurp his.
After a long discussion OF the Louisiana case
and the Southern question generally, Mr.. Howe
continued Mr.. President, let no man say do
| injustice to the purposes of the President.
am not discussing his purposes but his acts.
understand he still avows himself to be a Be-
publican, and q friend of equal citizenship. 1t
Is not for me TO dispute him. But it is or me
to say he has offended both Republicanism and
free citizenship as Samuel j. Tilden never would
have offended them. Perhaps had Mr.. Tilden
| been made President events would have trans
| pired i'll South Carolina and Louisiana as they
have transpired. Mr. Hampton would have
been Governor in the former State and Mr..
Nichols in the latter. SO far the offense would
have been precisely the same. But that would
| L..
ism, but against Republicans in those States.
MIR. Tilden would have decided perhaps, that
| Hampton and Nichols were chosen Governors
of those States and that if so they ought to be
recognized, and even if not so, since he had
jurisdiction of the question, would have ac-
guessed in his decision. But President
| Hayes never made such decision, and
does not to make it to-day. Mr.. Tilden would
have excluded Packard and Chamberlain, be-
cause he decided against their election. Pres-
dent Hayes excluded them because their cleo
| ton was disputed. The former would have
given an erroneous judgment, and would then
have seen 1t executed. President Hayes has
abandoned the judgment-seat to the rife-clubs
in those States left them to make the decision
which the constitution and courts commanded
him to make, and, infinitely worse than that
has permitted proclamations to be made in his
| name that, when rifie-clubs choose to take the
field In behalf Of ticket. it Is not necessary
| for them to elect their ticket but only to dis
pute the election of the other. And after all
this prolonged effort at pacitcation, this out
pouring OF concessions and goodwill, the Angel
OF Peace still refuses to descend upor u.s. Day
after day the President sends the dove ont over
the angry Hoods, and night after night the
bird returns weary and leafess. In these very
days that the Government which rules Louisi-
ana, which was born of Presidential grace, and
not of popular choice, has signalzed its ingrat-
itude by an act not less insulting to the Presi-
dent than atrocious in itself. 1t has dared
70 accuse, try and convict a member of
the State Board of Canvassers of tue crime of
forging the election returns of Vernon parish
OF 1876 Remember, sir, / do not complain
because Anderson was tried for political Of
Tense. Ii he is guilty of the offense charged,
have not syllable to urge in his defense.
The point L make against the Government of
Louisiana is that it prosecuted not in the name
OF public justice, but of partisan malice; that
it prosecuted a man guiltless of the offense al
legged against hun, and known te be guitless
Anderson Is the victim, not of O mistake but
Of malice; not of personal, but of partisan,
malice. He was prosecuted by that same fell
spirit Of party spite which prompted Georgia
forty years ago 10 offer $1,000 for the privi-
lege Of prosecuting Garrison, and which
twenty years ago made South Carolina
clap her hands at the whipping of Sum-
ner. Anderson stands convicted in a
court commissioned by Gov. Nichols, who in
turn stands practically properly commissioned
by President Hayes. He reviewed the action
of the Returning Board at length, ridiculed
the idea that Anderson forged the returns and
said Whitaker, by the grace of Andrew John
son, was formerly Assistant Treasurer of the
United States at New Orleans that as such he
was q defaulter to the Government in the sum
of more than half a million dollars when he
sent Anderson TO prison; that Whitaker had
been under indictment for that heavy embez-
Element, but that, on the 10Th of April last,
Just as Nichols took the Office which Packard
ought to have had, the indictment against
Whitaker was nolle pressed, and ne was per-
mitted to eend Anderson 10 the penitentiary
where he ought to be himself. I
Mr.. Hove spoke in the following tone of civ
il-service reform: An eminent statesman from
Kentucky recently made pilg1 image to Boston
in the interest OF civil-service reform. There
In SIGHT of that great monument which marks
the spo. where immaculate valor died for inn
mortal truth, ne dared to say, :" The cause OF
reform in the hands of brave men will not be
put down or defeated by the SCOTS and deris-
ion of its enemies" L should like to ask this
al ostle to the Bostonians who those enemies of
reform are against whose derision he has TO in
cite brave men. La spite Of all the voclferous
pirate about a reform of the civil service no man
has formulated it, no man has defined il. do
not know what they mean by 1t. The
President did issue an order forbidding those
employed in the civil service from acting on
political committees or political conventions.