The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-05-03
THE FLORIDA FRAUDS.

We printed on Wednesday an interesting
dispatch from our Washington correspondent,
giving the substance of interviews held by
him with Senator Eustis and Representative
Ellis relative to the recently published proofs
Of fraud in the count Of the electoral vote In
Florida and the relations of Mr.. Hayes to the
Justification of the returns. Both Of these
gentlemen, we are glad to find, express in
emphatic terms u Just condemnation of the
Infamous proceedings that resulted in the in
auguraton as chief magistrate of the Ameri-
can people of a man who had been repudiated
by an overwhelming majority of the legal
voters Of the country. Senator Eustis is re-
ported as saying that he had always regard
ed Hayes title with contempt; that in his
senatorial capacity he had kept entirely aloof
from the White House in the matter of solic-
ting appointments and in all other relations.
and that he regarded it as inadmissible that
so great an outrage as the theft of the electo-
raj votes of several States should be passed
over in silence and bequeathed as an unsolvcd
mystery to future generations.
The Senator's constituents will heartily ap-
prove the sentiments embodied in this extract
from his remarks. Mr.. Ellis spoke to the
same effect, and both he and Senator Eusti5
ridiculed the suggestion that a searching in
vcstigation of the charges recently made re-
speeding Hayes personal knowledge of the
frauds, and the application Of the proper
remedy for the great crime committed
against the electoral franchise and the nsti-
buttons of the land. would lead to revolution
or disturb the peace OF the country.
If an investigation of the matter should re-
suit in legal proof of the fact that the electoral
vote of Florida was fraudulently taken from
Tlden and given to Hayes, and particularly
if it should show that Hayes was personally
cognizant of the fraud, there can be but one
result: Hayes must voluntarily retire or be
removed by impeachment, or some other
action Of Congress and the courts. No honest
man can, it seems to us, cOnscicntiouSly de-
mand that fraud shall be condoned and tri-
umph over right, or consent that q pol
luted balot-box shall furnish a valid title
to the presidency OF this great country
The demoraIizing effect of the action
of the Electoral Commission upon the public
mind is plainly seen in the conviction that is
now almost universally entertained that the
result of future Presidential elections will de-
pend more upon the political complexion of
Congress when the votes are counted than
upon the votes actually cast. This convic-
ton must be speedily eradicated from the
minds of the American people, or, as Mr..
Ellis suggested, all confidence in the stability
of our institutions will be shaken and the
country become Mexicanized.
Most of the newspapers Of the North are at
present opposed to any further discussion of
the presidential question. and some of them,
like the New York Herald, go 50 far in their
opposition to the pending movement to vindi-
cate truth and justice as to misropresent the
sentiments and utterances of Congressman in
regard to it. A number of Congressman have
recently repudiated the sentiments attributed
to them by the Herdlds Washington CORE
spondent and we are pleased to find that
Senator Eustis and Mr.. Ellis entertain and
openly express opinions on this subject dia-
metrically opposed to those which the Herald
recently represented them as entertaining
and expressing.
The Democratic party unanimously de-
nounced the fraud whereby Hayes was in
stalled as President over a nation of freemen
who had repudiated him at the polls, and we
cannot see now any honest Democrat can
hesitate to advocate any lawful measure de-
signed to GUST him from his fraudulent
tenure of the Office which belongs to another
and which the people have right to have
administered by the agent of their choice.
The triumph of fraud in a presidential cleo
zion is the foulest blot and the most damning
reproach that can attach to republican insti-
buttons. The permancncy and stability of
our form Of government, therefore, impera-
lively demand that the great fraud of 1877
1878 be so signally condemned and punished