Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-01-19
THE CONKLING AND CHANDLER
PLOT.

fASlGHl DOiAAlCdl JtOAASeANS " hiNh ho0
constituted our public history for
nearly a score Of years has so accus-
toned mems minds to baseness in
public men that we are all grown
more or less c,tilOus to it, and crimes
against public morals and constitu-
tional law which would have excited
serious commissions a quarter Of
century ago now transpire without
evoking any sterner condemnation
than the cold, disdainful shrug with
which the nearer mutters the words,
"as usual" And yet we can hardly
believe that the public conscience is
so scared but that a universal emo
ton of disgust and loathing will be
aroused should the movement really
go into operation which has been so
generally rumOred during the recess
of Congress just terminated. We
mean, of course, the scheme an
nOunced for attacking the Presi-
dents title to his Office by the ex-
treme Radical party, headed by Mr..
CCnkling, on account of the very
frauds in which that party is so
deeply implicated. Such a move
ment could only be based upon the
avowal of the men engaged in it
that they by unlawful frauds con-
ferred the Presidency upon Mr..
Hayes, and that now, that gentle
mar refusing to hand over to them
what they consider their share of
the plumber, they intend to turn
States evidence-tO avOw their own
thefts in order to convict the prin-
cipal beneficiary of the crime of be-
ing an accessory before the fact, and
so deprive him of the profits of it.
We call this the Conkling- Chand-
Ter plot, because Mr.. Conkling is
spoken of as the promoter of it,
while Mr.. William Chandler, of
New Hampshire, has, during the re-
cess, published virulent letter at
lacking the President savagely for
what is alleged his breach Of faith
with the party which elected him,
or, we should rather say, which
voted for him and, falling to elect
him, counted him in. This dOcu-
ment does not directly propose an
attack upon the Presidents title to
Office Though it makes a fatal adj
mission against it,; it is mainly Oc-
cupied with the indictment of the
President as an offender against the
Republican party. This Indictment
itsums up under the following heads:
1. Rutherford g. Hayes was elected PreSi-
dent by the Republican party on the plat
form Of opposition TO rebel rule and a solid
south; and with pledges to protect, to the
extent Of Federal power, life, suffrage, and
the free exercise OF all political rights at the
South : was counted in rs President only by
reason of special pledges to the same effect
given by his representatives, and agents,
Senator Sherman and other Ohio emiSSaTicss,
who particularly and cmphatically prom
iSed that he would recognize and maintain
the lawful state Governments of south Car
olina and Louisiana, and stand by Govern
orS Chamberlain and Packard.
II. Before the actual declaration OF his
election, and to secure the same, deliberate
written bargain was made in his behalf by
the same Senator Sherman and his asSOci-
ates, by which 1t was agreed with Senator
Gordon, and other Southern rebel Democrats,
that when ne should be President no attempt
should be made TO enforce the above princi-
piles of his party, but that the South should
be allowed TO manage its own affairs in its
own way, and that in particular he would
abandon the lawful State Governments of
Louisiana and South Carolina, aHd recognize
in their stead the mob Governments of Wade
Hampton and +. II. Nichols.
III. After his Inauguration, the bargain
was literally fulfilled the United States nag
disgracefully hauled down in Columbia and
New Orleans the lawful Governments noti-
fled to surrender to rebel mobs, and, upon
their hesitation, deliberately and actively
:orn down by his administration by uncOn-
htitutiOnal processes, and the use of Federal
patronage, vigorously welded by the same
Secretary Sherman and his associates; the
mob Governments of Hampton and Nichols
recognized; and a solid South and rebel rule
established by the swift and eager action Of
his administration.
". All attempts to administer the Gov
eminent upon the principles by prOclaiming
which he had been elected and counted in,
were deliberately abandoned; the South no
titled that II should not be interfered with by
his administration; Southern Ku-KluX and
negro murderers released and amnestied by
Presidential order; the enforcement of Fed
eral laws at the South given up, or intrustSd
10 rebel Democratic hands; Senator Gordon
and his fellow bargainers accepted as the in
innate and acknowledged advisers of the
President and the dtsposeTS OF Federal pa
trOnage; and the black and white Republic
cans Of the South mercilessly surrendered 70
the insults, prosecutions and atrocities oil
their Democratic enemies.
V. As necessary result of all this, the Re-
publican party at the South was dfSbanded
and no Republican votes were cast IN q state
where free ballot would show large Repub-
McRn majorities; the Republican party al
The North was paralyzed wherever the adj
vice of supporters or apOlOgists for the new
policy was needed; Republican defeats en-
sued wherever 1t was Endorsed, Republican
victories only where IL was repudiated; and
with solid South and a divided North, the
f'DnfnIarafl DRmOpTatS marching toward
a national victory in 1850, while President
Hayes and Secretary sherman look on with
AS much Indifference as they were in name
aS they are in fact allies of the Democratic
party.
These then are the counts Of the
indictment 50 far as he is arraigned
before the Republican party; before
Congress or party in Congress made
up of malcOntents, Radicals and ir-
reconcilable Democrats, they would
scarcely pass muster. But signit1-
cant indication of the animus of that
latter arraignment is the clause OF
the letter that relates to the LOuisi-
ana episode in the Presidential
count. 1t is an astonishing COmpO-
sition and we give it in the unaltered
words of the letter.
In Louisiana, however, there had been
thrown into the ballOt-bOXeS 1000 more votes
for the Tildcn than for the Hayes Electors
and to make Hayes President IL became nee
cSStry for the Returning Board, acting under
peculiar local laws, to throw out more than
700 Tilden votes on account of alleged muir
der, riot and intimidation, preventing fair
and free election in certain parishes. To
perform this extraordinary, If justifiable
work, in the face of an armed and infuFiated
Democracy, required men OF undaunted
Board possessed. Ii required, also, that the
Board should have assurances that the ma
tiOHal exigency demaded its performance
that the moral sentiment Of the North would
approve IL, and that they themselves should
he protected from evil consequences to be
8pprchended from the violence OF mob
government, which il was known would he
established by one Nichols, pretender 20
she office of Governor, against stephen b.
Packard, who was sure to be found 10 be
elected Governor, if the Hayes Electors
should be found 10 have been chosen.
That's Chandler unabridged. 1t
Is seen that he distinctly states the
fact that the TiIden electors were
elected in Louisiana, and that it was
necessary to set aside a legal cleo
4fnr, i'm order tn Give the vote of that