The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1878-02-16
Consolation for the Prisoners.

1t is perhaps natural that the visiting
statesmen who, at the instance of Mr.
Zachariah Chandler and Mr. Don Cameron
and at the request of President Grant
went to Louisiana to witness the Return
ing Board count the returns, should feel a
little uneasy at the course events are tax
ing. 1t is also natural that they should
confer together as to ''the present situa-
tion in Louisiana and the duty of Repub-
llcans. These gentlemen have an abid-
ing interest in the whole matter involved
in the Returning Board trials. 1t is pre-
eminently their funerals they are not
entitled to ride in the hearse, being still
in the land of the living, but they have an
undoubted right to the place of chief
mourners. Exactly what share Of the re-
sponsibility for the work of Wells and his
associates they must shoulder is not yet
known outside of their own breasts, but
that they had good deal to do with it
may be asserted without fear of contradic-
ton. had they never gone to New Or
leans the vote of Louisiana would not have
been stolen.
The Returning Board had the viii but
not the courage to execute the conspiracy
planned Ey the national Republican COM
mittee. The majority against Hayes was
too great to be overcome even by the aid
of an infamously partisan law contrived to
meet just such emergencies. The Demo
Gratis who had been for eight years regu-
larly cheated out of the result of their bal
lots, had learned lesson. They had a
record, duplicate and triplicate records,
under official seals, of the vote of every
parish. The true returns were given to
the country through the press as fast as
they we're received, without regard to
what the totals might be, and to say which
electors had a majority was work Of sim
pie addition and subtraction within the
scope of any schoolboy's knowledge. These
returns, trebly fortified by certificates and
afidavits of Republican officials, showed
that the Tilden electors had majority Of
nearly nine thousand Wells himself was
appalled, BY the amount of fraud and per-
jury necessary to wipe out such figures
and give a majority to the Hayes electors.
But with the arrival of Mr.. Sherman the
task dwindled in size, and when Mr.
Stoughton appeared on the scene, and
these two put their own aud the heads of
the Returning Board together, Louisiana
was boldly claimed for the Republicans in
defiance of arithmetic and the known
truth. Republican hopes and Returning
Board audacity grew apace from day to
day in the very teeth of accumulating
Democratic majorities. 1t may have been
a mere coincidence that the hope and the
audacity dated from the arrival upon the
scene of the eminent citizens who now rep
resent this government N Vienna and st.
Petersburg and in the Treasury Depart
ment at Washington, but it IS a fact to
which the people cannot shut their eyes
and about which the said eminent citizens
are very sensitive.
1t is natural, therefore, we repeat, that
they should take great deal Of interest
in the proceedings before Judge Whita-
ker at New Orleans. Neither is it sur
prising that Wells and Anderson, talking
over these things in the cool solitude of
the parish prison, should tire of waiting
for the hour when the promise of protec-
tiOn upon which they relied shall be full
filed nor that the elder manipulation of
returns should in his profane way threaten
to give certain people "unshirted hell, !"
whatever that may be, if something is not
done in his behalf. But it is not easy to
see what is to be done. Fate is cOiling
its anaconda folds about the wretches in
the cells who are undergoing or awaiting
trial, and if the friends Of these but lift a
finger for rescue they too may too quickly
receive the dread embrace. Mr.. Wells
and his fellow prisoners ought not to be
hard upon their friends who are still at
large. The ties of friendship and associa-
ton are strong aud elastic, but there is q
limit to their strength and tension. One
cannot expect gentleman to drop Cab
met portfolio, or throw aside n Senatorial
robe, or leave 4 ministerial palace to dab
bic in the dirty puddle of the criminal
courts. But let the unfortunates be as
sured that all that can be done will be
done. Those eminent statesmen who re-
main in the country have held a meeting
at Washington and resolved-to protest.
What more could be asked in reason ?
What better salve could be applied to the
limbs chafed by felons' irons, to con-
sciences scared by the nearing flames of
justice? Let them take the protest-"in
form hereafter to be determined upon
and be thankful. A protest is not a
protection, but it is a good thing ia its
way.-PhiladeIphia Times.