The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1878-05-09
The Florida Exposures.
MIR, HAYES HOLDING THE PRESIDENCY
WITHOUT ANY TITLE TO 1T.

stole the vote of Florida have had
u curious effect upon the publlc
mind at the North and upon the
current of thought in Congress.
True, these confessions do not add
anything to the stock OF knowledge.
They were not even unexpected,
for both Democrats and Repub-
licans have known for some tune
that they were coming and what
their tenor would be. But they
have subserved the purpose OF
tearing away many finsy wells OF
pretense, and of laying bare
great many sbams. Hitherto ev-
cry proposition to reopen
THE QUESTIONS GROWING OUT OF THE
ELECTORAL COUNT
has been met almost alike by the
| frie ndsand theopponents OF Hayes,
both Democrats and Republicans,
with the plea that there was no
appeal from the decisions of the
Electoral Commission, and that
the danger of civil strife ensuing
upon a reopening of the case would
be u worse evil than to let the re-
suits of fraud stand. The logic OF
the supporters of Hayes, reduced
to plain English, has been: eyes,
we grant you that Hayes was not
elected. But the Electoral Com
mission was organized to determ-
inc the succession, did determine
it, its decision was ratified by Con-
gress and Hayes was inaugurated;
therefore there are SO many steps
to retrace in order to get back to
the face of the returns which really
elected Tilden, and those steps are
fraught with such peril to the peace
of the country, that it is better to
let Hayes stay where be is than to
renew the agitations which attend
ed his counting III.
This logic found willing disciples
and was accepted with a wry face
by unwilling ones too, for that
matter, so long as the men who
did the dirty work of the great
crime held tbeif secrets. 1T was
easy to say: Suppose yon reopen
the case and take up those lines of
investigation which the Electoral
Commission refused to touch; sup
pose you renounce the aliuntle doc
trine and go into the question of
fact as to the original returns;
don't You see that that would stir
up Pandora's box OF conflicting
testimony, breed new perjury by
the ton, and plunge the country
into a controversy the end of which
no man may foresee p
1HE VALUE OF THESE CONFESSIONS
lies in the fact that they afford at
once and for all a crushing answer
to all such pleas as the above. Im-
lnunity or no immunity, you eau
not in law go behind the coufes-
sion Of a criminal, when that con-
fession eliminates nobody but him.
self. The Florida case is clear and
complete. Every man who had
anything to do with the frauds
that gave the State to Hayes is
voluntarily on the witness stand,
and there is nobody to say that
they have falsely confessed. There
are
THREE MEN THAT KNOW ALL ABOUT
THE FLORIDA FRAUDS
besides those who actually com
mitted them. They are VIM. il.
Chandler, WIN. J. Purman and
Francis G. Barlow, Of New York.
Pnrman has already given in his
testimony on the floor of Congress.
Barlow has given his inferentially,
at least, by his withdrawal from
the business while it was in pro-
gress, and his refusal to have any
thing more to do with it, and VIM.
IL. Chandler has given his in pri-
waite and will, at the proper time,
| give it publicly. There is, there
fore, no earthly chance of rebuttal
of these confessions, because thel Q
is nobody to rebut them. They
stand as complete and as irrefra-
gable mass of testimony as ever
was written or printed. In short,
4 to all moral or aanitalllA annAar-