The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1878-05-29
Postmaster General Keys Letter.

Postmaster General Keys Letter.
National Associated Press to the Star.
WASHINGTON, May 29.-Postmaster Cen
eral Key has written an open letter to the
people of the South, in which he says:
The title of President Hayes was settled
irrevocably by the Forty-fourth Congress
The Forty-ffth Congress has no more right
to dispute his election than he has to ques-
ton the title of any victorious contestant to
his seat in that body. The Forty-sixth Con-
gress has no more right to ignore him and
to recognize his defeated contestant Mr.
Tilden than Mr.. Hayes would have to send
file of soldiers to the House of Represent
atives to unseat a Democrat whom he might
consider to have been wrongfully seated or
fraudulently elected.
The leaders in this desperate attempt to
MeXicanize our institutions rely confidently
upon "the Solid South" to furnish the bulk
of the Democratic majority in the next
House of Representatives. Remembering
the encouragement which Northern Demo-
Gratis in 1860 and 1861 extended to the South
ern States to secede, and the manner in
which their promises of aid and comfort
were fulfilled, can the Southern people af-
ford to join this revolutionary movement,
with the certainty that when the inevitable
hour of peril comes they will again be left
unassisted and alone to meet the storm from
the North?
In the dark days of February, 1877,
Southern members of Congress ayerted the
danger by compelling the completion of the
Electoral count, under law which both
parties in Congress had enacted. But now
Representatives from the Southern States,
with very few exceptions, have Joined a
movement to subvert the results of their
former patriotic action, and to remand the
country to that anarchy from which less
than two years ago it was saved by their
efforts
The South must now face the most mo-
mentous crisis in its history since 1861. If
their Representatives have not reflected
their sentiments, as | believe to be the case,
then the people of the Southern States
should take care that in the Forty xth
Congress they are represented by men who
will defeat the disturbers of the public
peace.
Recent events have demonstrated the ina
blllty OF the Democratic members of Con-
gress to resist the mandates of
the caucus and terrors of the party lash
If the Democratic Representatives of the
South could not resist the caucus command
to pass the Potter resolution unamended
anu NiulOlt ucDdte, HOW Will tieg De dDle
in the Forty-sixth Congress to resist SINH
lar command to ignore Mr.. Hayes as Presi-
dent and to recognize Mr. Tilden?
1t is therefore, the duty of the Southern
people to afford crowning evidence of
their renewed devotion to the Union, in
which they now enjoy every right of citi-
zenship, by sending Representatives to the
Forty.sixth Congress pledged to resist at all
hazards the revolutionary schemes of the
mischief-makers. Only in this way can
grave danger to the Republic be averted,
and convincing proof be given that the con-
fidence was not misplaced which President
Hayes manifested in the South when he
Withdrew the troops from the State-houses
of South Carolina and Louisiana.
have spoken plainly and earnestly for
feel that l should be unworthy to represent
the South in the Administration were to
remain silent now. Invited to the Cabinet
as Southern man, to see that justice was
done to the South, required neither to Oapol
ogize for my record nor to disown my po-
litical principles, it is my duty now to warn
the people of the South of the danger which