The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1878-01-12
TECHNICAL" HONESTY.

A week or two ago, in reference to the ro
publican howl over the admission of Patterson
of Colorado, to seat in Congress on mer
technicality, the FREE TRADER propoundet
the conundrum:
If the admission of Patterson, with tn
legal tcchnicalities in his favor though I'll,
majority Of votes was against him, is such al
outrage, on what ground is the counting in o
! Hayes justified CD mere technicalities with al
Overwhelming popular vote against him?'
The philosopher Of the Streator Monitor
finds this a very easy one indeed, and answers
it promptly as follows:
The people elect their representatives but
the states select their electors. Don't you see
the difference? Again, do you think that
ma ority' that comes up from the south is a
safe thing to boast of What has become of
your states right doctrine:
Move don't see the difference" We don't
see that people any more elect congressman by
their votes than electors, or that state rights
have more to do with the one than the other.
II it is such an outrage" to cheat the people
out OF one representative by a technically,
what words can characterize the infamy that
cheats them by a like technically out Of the
president, with al the vast cOncomitants the
Office involves? As to those southern ''majori-
ties" which had to be oycr.rddcn and set aside
to accomplish the gigantic swindle, a very
good republican witness, one VIM. K. Chan.
dler, who boasts of successfully engineering
the swindle that wiped out one of those MAORI
ties in Florida, seems To think that the Lou.
isiana majority was SO much TO boast of rs TO
require for its extinguishment men of even
more rascally pluck than he himself possessed.
He says;
ain louisiana, however, there had Jcen Mrora
into the bdltotjores orer 1000 more cOtos for the
IVdp, than lor tie Hayes electors, and 10 make
Hayes president Il became necessary for the r..
turning board, acting under peculiar local
laws, To Hr0lc ont more than 1000 Tildcn votes
on account Of dlegcd murder, riot and n;imi.
daton, preventing fair and free election IN
certain parishes. To perform this oktrdorit
nary, ercD Il jastifd5le rorL in the face of an
armed and niuriated Democracy required men
of undaunted courage; and such courage the
returning board possessed. 1t required also
'lldl lilt Dbdlu WONu Ndtt assurances Vtt' ne
adtioadi crtgeRcy demdadcd us performance:
that the moral sentiment IF tie North could
dpproce t. and they themselves &oVld Dc pro.
tected from evil consequences TO bc apprchend
ed from the violence of a mob government,
which il was known would bc established by
one Nichols, a pretendcr To The Office OF GOV.
ernor against Stephen Il. Packard, who wa,
SURF To be elected governor IL the Hayes elect.
orS shOud be h,a 10 har, ben cAos,D,."
We should like 10 have the candid opinion
of thc HoHdor, considering the character OF
the returning bcarl from whom this courage"
was required, whether it thinks said board
would have hcNitatcd any longer AT throwing
out 200 than 10000 votes, had the national
cNigcncy required it?" Again, don't the .Hcaf
Zee consideration honeStly-tha, the claim Of
honesty for the said returning board * abou,
the most impudcnt thing ever "sri up in
political li,craturcg