New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-10-21

KEEPING Up APPEARANCbS
| How far Mr.. Tilden is morally responsible
! for the misdecds of his accredited political
| agents is a question which concerns the DEM
ocratic party more than 1t does us. The dls-
closures of the past few weeks have SHOWN
that while the counting Of the votes was
going on in November and December, 1876,
! and Democratic newspapers and politicians
| from one end Of the Union to the other were
| protesting to believe that the Republicans
meant to cheat them, the secret representa-
tives of the Democratic candidate were trying
to buy up Returning Boards in three OF the
States, and to purchase q Gully chosen and
commissioned elector in fourth. These
facts are established not only by the
! evidence of the cipher dispatches, but
! 10y the tac,t acknowledgment OF some
| of the persons implicated in the fraud
uent schemes and the open confession OF
| Others 1t Is proved and admitted that III one
case the bride was actually deposited in .
designated bank There are strong reasons
| for believing that in another case the money
for the corruption Of a Returning Board was
placed in the hands IF messenger who car
ried it as far as Baltimore, where "a little
delay defeated the whole plot. Whether
the funds were actually dlsbuTsed for the other
plans of fraud we do not know; but we do
! know that they were promised. Whose
purse supplied these thousands Of dol
lars is an inquiry which we can well
! leave to those who we're to be bene-
! fted by the outlay. The crime lies at
! the door Of their house they may find out for
themselves which of the inmates is guilty.
Meanwhile the responsibility rests upon the
whole family.
But if it is unnecessary for us to decide
whether Mr.. Tilden was or was not ignorant
on purpose, we shall at least insist that he
cease atfronting the commOn-sense Of man
kind by crying, in the face of MIR. Smith NJ.
| Weed, that he has been "defrauded" of the
| Presidency by means of false certificates
| given by the Florida and South Carolina Re-
turning Boards to Republican electors who
chad not been chosen by the people" We
pass over for the present the cases OF
Florida and Louisiana, because with respect to
the true vote Of those States there have
always been honest differences of opinion;
and although we are convinced that the Re
pubicans rightful'y carried both of them, we
can understand how MIR. Tilden might be JUS
as strongly convinced of the contrary. But
with respect to South Carolina the matter
stands otherwise. Mr.. TIlden knows, and has
known all along, that he did not carry that
State, and that, by any theory of the rights
and powers of the Returning Board, the seven
electoral votes which Smith NJ. Weed agreed
to buy there could only have been given to
the Democratic candidate by barefaced and
enormous fraud. His confidential agent
telegraphed to him in the frankest
possible terms that the votes were
against him. Whether the Board counted the
votes as they stood on the face of the returns,
or assumed the power to go behind the returns,
correct palpable errors, and throw out the
inundated counties, the Democratic electoral
ticket was nevertheless defeated. That is the
statement which Smith NJ. Weed telegraphcd
to Gramercy Park as soon as he had studied
the situation. lie never varied from it. He
repeated over and over again that the case was
desperate. He urged the NewYOrk mana
gers to put no trust in South Carolina, but
to capture other States. He told them that
their only chance was to buy the Re-
turning Board "absOutely.n Meanwhile,
said he, al shall keep up appearances"
They did agree to buy the Board
" absolutely" When that plan failed they
tried to buy the Legislature, agreeing to raise
the money for the purchase of four State Sen
ators and ga couple of new negroes" Last
of all, they proposed to throw the Hayes cleo
tors into jail by trick, and keep them locked
up IN separate cells until it was too late for
South Carolina to cast her vote at all. And
these deeds of corruption and violence they
undertook in order to secure the electoral
votes of a State which. as their own agents
assured them, had been lawfully carried by
Hayes and Wheeler.
For MIR. Tlden to ignore these damning dis
closures, and still pretend to believe that he
has been detrauded by a corrupt Canvassing
Board, is an exhibition Of impudence which
the people can hardly contemplate without
irritation. The time has passed for keep
"ing up appearances.n The shameful truth
is now exposed to the whole world. Mr.. TIlden
is not to imagine that he can hide it by sim
ply turning his back upon it. He is not to
flatter himself that, having tossed the scandal
aside with the careless remark that he knows
nothing about it, he may go on as before,
scolding the Republicans, on the bold assump-
ton that they have committed the very
crimes which are traced to his own house.
THE TAMNARY TICKET