The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1878-02-16
The Returning Board Conviction.

The conviction of General Thomas @.
Anderson, a member of the Louisiana Re
turning Board, marks another and the first
important step in the onward march of re-
tribution against the infamous eonspirators
who fraudulently manipulated the returns
of election and falsely certified the result
in favor of the Hayes electors. The of.
fense Of which General Anderson is con.
victed was the greatest crime in the DO
litical history of the country, committed,
as it was, without a palliating condition,
and powerful as it was for evil in example
as well as in immediate effect, and any
other result Of the trial that has lust
! closed in New Orleans would have been
trayesty Of justice and lasting rcproaeh
to American civilization. The crime was
not committed in a corner; it was seen and
known of all men. Some of the most en-
inent citizens Of the United States we're
present, and, knowing the infamy in pro-
gress, held their peace if they did not ac-
tually encourage its preparation and as
sure the criminals of protection. Others
OF equal eminence viewed the proceedings
with disgust and published them to the
world withindignant protests. Everybody
now knows that Louisiana voted for Til
den and was counted for Hayes, and that
the men who thus perverted the will of
the people, in utter defiance of real figures.
were Thomas G. Anderson and his asso
ciates. 1t is idle to pretend that such
men are entitled to immunity and absurd
to say that the legal proceedings against
them have any Of the characteristics of a
political persecution. Sufficient time has
been allowed for the passions of the hour
to be dissipated. The jury that convicted
Anderson was fairly chosen, AID embraced
two colored men. and, perhaLz, other Re
publicans. He has been given a fair
hearing, in the face of a fight that con.
stituted presumption of guilt, and no one
who has followed the testimony dare say
that any other verdict could be given bya
sworn conscience. We believe that New
York or Philadelphia jury would have ar
rived at the same conclusion. 1t was a
just finding, and justice demands that the
penalty of the crime shall be exacted, un-
less Executive clemency shall intervene.
1t is not to be regretted that Mr.. J.
Madison Wells has determined upon a
broader line of defence than that proposed
in behalf of his colleague, Mr.. Anderson.
MIR. Wells proposes to make the issue so
broad, indeed, that it may be made to
cover not only his own personal and off,
cial responsibility for the acts of the Re
turning Board, but incidentally the whole
question of the legality of the canvass
made by the board so far as it affects the
State and Federal administration seated
through its instrumentality. The issue
will, Of course, be made on plea to the
jurisdiction of Judge Whitaker's court,
which is the creation of the Nichols
government. This involves the posi-
ton that Louisiana has not the repub-
lican form of government guaranteed
by the Constitution, and that Packard
and the Hayes electors were duly chosen
at the election in November, 1876.
Wells thus makes common cause with the
present incumbent of the White House and
hopes to manufacture new claims upon
the sympathy and support of the national
administration and the national Re-
publican party. If the court decides
against him that decision will, in the opin-
ion of his legal advisers, carry with it the
decision that the Hayes electors are fraud
ulent and had no standing, and that the
title of Mr.. Hayes to the Presidency is
consequently invalid. Whatever the de-
cision of Judge Witaker, the case will be
taken to the Supreme Court of the United
States, whose opinion on the legal points
involved is well worth the trouble, regard
less of the purposes Of Mr.. Wells This
good, although unfortunate, man should
remember, however, that the title of Mr..
Hayes rests not so much upon the validity
of the fraudulent electoral certificates from
Louisiana as upon the act creating the
Electoral Commission and making it 4
6nality, an act to the constitutionality of
which a majority of the members of the
Supreme Court are fully committed He
may magnify his own cause and secure an
important legal decision confirming the
accepted judgment of mankind that the
electoral vote of Louisiana was stolen and
perverted, but he viii not succeed in un-
seating, as much as he may embarrass, Mr..
Hayes.-Philadelphia Times.