The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-06-20

was greatly excited. Partisan Journals
had prophesied rebellion and disunion.
TIE House sat with closed doors. The
balloting continued day and night; sick
members were brought in on stretchers,
attended by their wives and nurses.
During all this time intriguing and bar
gaining were going on. Mr.. Bayard,
grandfather OF the present Senator from
Delaware, who carried that State in his
trousers pocket, was the leading buck
ster. For seven days the country was
kept In suspense, and rumor, with all
her tongues, was busy. The letters
written and the diaries kept during the
period reveal the character of the men
engaged in electing President of the
United States. There is nothing like it
in the history of Presidential elections.
Jefferson, in his place as Presi-
dent of the Senate, entered in
his diary: Edward Livingston tells
me Bayard appeared to-day to Gen.
Smith and represented to him that if
he would come over to Burr there was
nothing In the way of appointment
which he might not command, and par
ticularly mentioned the Secretaryship of
the Navy. Smith said he was author
lied to make the offer. To DR.. Linn, of
New Jersey, they offered the govern
ment OF New jersey" In another part
Of his diary it is recorded that Col.
Mathew Lyon informed him that John
Brown, OF Rhode Island, urged Lyon to
vote for Burr, and used these words ::
" What is it you want, Col. Lyon9 Is
it office or is it money? Only say what
you want and you shall have it. JEFF
ferson also records a conversation that
occurred during this time between him
and President Adams, when the FEEDER
alists were meditating the placing of
the President of the Senate at the head
of the Government. st called" he
writes, 'on Mr.. Adams with a view to
have this desperate measure prevented
by his negative. He grew warm, and
said with vehemence, You have only to
say you will maintain the navy, and will
not disturb those holding office, and the
Government will beinstantly placed into
your hands, This model civil service
reformer is the same person who, at the
last hour of his political power, even
beyond midnight, employed himself in
filing all offices, especially permanent
ones, with the bitterest Federalists.
Jefferson enters in his diary, "Adams
provided for me the alternative either
to execute the Government by my enc
mics, whose study it would be to thwart
and defeat all my measures, or to incur
the odium of such numerous removals
from office as might bear me down."
By daybreak, on the morning of the
of Jefferson, the ex-Presi.
dent had left the capital without as
much as saying good-by to the new
President The great struggle ended
by the election of Jefferson, Bayard
and other Federalists going over to
the Usage of Monticello as Jefferson
was called. The strain on the constitu-
ton was even more severe than the
stress and struggle of 1876. The
charges of intrigue, bargaining and
fraud were not all upon one side. The
friends Of Burr charged Mr.. Jefferson
with purchasing, by promise of Office,
some of the members of Congress who
it was supposed had intended to vote
for Mr.. Burr, and in fulfllment of these
engagements it was alleged that Mr..
Linn was appointed Supervisor of the
Revenue of New Jersey; Mr.. Livingston
District Attorney of New York; Mr..
Claiborne, Of Tennessee, Governor of
the Territory of Mississippi, and Gen.
Bailey Postmaster of New York. The
patriots and founders of the Government
make up record against themselves that
cannot be made against the public men
of the present day. There is more hon
esty and less corruption and fraud in
high places to-day than could be found
in public life during the first fifty years
of our Government. We are a better
people, and, despite the calumnies of
pretended reformers, our politics are
purer and better. President Hayes,
with all his infrmities, is a much more
honest man than Jefferson or John
Quincy Adams, who, is was alleged, Sc
cured the Presidency by bargain and
fraud.