The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-06-12
THE FORGERIES.
The Whole Case Plainly Stated.
The Radicals I'm the Electoral Commits.
sion Guilty Of Grimes the
Most Disgracefui Of Any
Yet Made.
IRroOklYn Eagle.l


been defended and excused on the ground
that, after all, it decided in favor of the
declaration which was according 10 law ana
which had all the forms OF law in its favor.
There has been good deal of force III that
plea. Republicans found no difficulty in
using il. Stiff democrats found much diff
Guilty in being against it. The evidence just
given before the Potter committee shows that
the declaration of the vote of Louisiana adopt
ed by the commission was from one end to the
other not according to law and did not have
even the forms of law on its side. The re-
publlcans have lost all the technical case
they had on Louisiana, and most of them
left off pretending some time ago that they
had any other kind of case
What the law is is plain and short enough
TO be understood at once. Section 139 os the
revised statutes Of the United States
reads as follows:
The electors shall seal up the certificates so
made by them, and certify upon each that the
lists OF all the votes OF such states given for
president and Of all votes given for vice preSi-
dent are contained therein.
The word certificates is used because there
must be two of them, one for presidential
votes and the other for vice presidential
votes. Now the law is not made to read the
way it does merely to render the proceed
ings orderly; it is not a law the form of
which is complied with well enough, when
the spirit of it is. The law borrows its Ian
gusge from the 18th article of the constitu-
ton of the United States, which provides
that 1.-The electors shall make distinct lists of
all persons voted for as president, and of all
persons voted for as vice president, and of
all the number OF votes for each, which lists
they shall sign and certify and transmit
scaled to the seat of the government of the
United States directed to the president of
the senate This is conclusive enough, and
the revised statutes of the United States, in
section 1873, in providing for three copies of
each of such two distinct lists which the
electors shall make uses words identical with
the above:
sign three certificates OF all the votes given
by them, each of which certificates shall con-
tain two distinct lists, one of the votes !or
president and the other of the votes for vice
president, and shall annex to each OF the certi-
dcates one of the lists of the electors, which
shall have been furnished to them by direc-
ton of the executive of the state.
We showed, yesterday, that the first certi-
ficate has to come by private messenger to
the president of the senate, the second must
be mailed to the federal secretary of state,
and the third must be placed in the archives
of the district court of the United States
nearest to where the electors meet. By these
means it is made unlikely that the declara-
ton of the vote will be lost. II two certif
Gates were lost the third would prove how
the state voted.
The only meeting ever held of all the
Hayes electors in Louisiana was on the only
day the law allowed them to meet, Decem-
Der 6, 1876. On that day, after voting by
balos for president and vice president they
made out but one list, as follows:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, STATE or
LOUISIANA, STATE HOUSE,
NEW ORLEANS, Dec. d, 1876. J
We, the electors of the president and vice
president of the United States for the state of
IOniSiQna hn on nj fbn
9th day OF December, in the year OF our Lord
1876, we proceeded TO vote by ballot for preSi-
dent of the United States on the date above:
that Rutherford b. Hayes, of the state of Ohio
received eight votes for president OF the United
States, being all the votes cast; and that they
for vice president of the United States where
upon William a. Wheeler, of the state of New
York. received eight votes for vice president of
the United States, being all the votes cast. In
testimony whereof we, the said electors, have
hereuntO signed our names on this the first
Wednesday, being the 9th day of December, in
the year of our Lord 1876, and of the independ-
ence OF the United States the one hundred and
first.
We have shown that the law and the con-
stitution require one list of votes for presi-
dent and another for vice president, and
that they must be distinct" The above is
only one list and 1t "lumps" the votes.
When this bungle at list reached Wash
ing on it was at once seen to be worthless.
But what could be done? The one day on
which it was lawful to meet had come and
gone. The electors functions had ceased.
The record, right or wrong faulty or correct,
had been made uD, and was lodged in tripIi.
cate with I. w. Ferry, Hamilton Fish and U.
). Judge Billings respectively. This was
done: The electors were secretly summoned
to meet again in New Orleans, December 30,
1876. OF the seven electors four came.
These four went through the proceedings
over again and dated them back to the 9th OF
December. They were careful, that time, to
make the number and language of the lists
agree with the law and the constitution.
Three of the fellows being absent, the other
four forged their names in, and added per-
jury 70 forgery by saying that they were
present and voted rs expressed. Governor
kellogg attested by his appended oath and
the seal of the state, which was tempered
with TO make stamp date % days back, that
the statement in the certificates we're correct
Then Mr.. Ferry, in February, smuggled in
this fatally late and legally worthless certif-
cate before congress in JOINT meeting sent it
before the commission as a true one when it
was made AT another time than the one laid
down by law. and when it was leprous with
three forgeries, one of which has been con-
fessed. and the other two of which will be-
fore the committee. The first worthless
certificate was called No. l. The second
forged certificate was called No. 3. No l was
fatally defective, but the signatures to it had
really been written by the men themselves.
No. was correct i'm form, but three OF the
signatures were foTgerIes.
For the commission to take special pains
to get round the forgery shows that they
were aware of it, It is evident that the re-
publican majority on the commission was
aware of it, from this record: Senator Nor
ton, in the comm ssion, offered a resolution
that the persons named in certificate No. l
were the chosen electors the eight voted
aye, and that identified the persons. by q
certificate fatally informal. but with no for
gerry in it. The commission by the same
vote then decided that the persons named in
certific ate No / were the electors. and the
statement made in certificate No. was the
expression of the vote OF Louisiana The
partisan eight thus jumped the fatal in
formality i'm No 1 to get at the genuine
signatures, and then Jumped the forgery
in No. 3 II get at the accurate form
atty of statement in il. The decision of the
commission thus stands as on two legs on
certificate No. l and certificate No g. The
one is self-evidenty non coDformable to the
constitution and the law The other is =