Nebraska advertiser., 1878-04-04
Mr.. Tilden would have decided, per-

2 Mr.. Tilden would have decided, per
! haps, that Hampton and Nicholl:
r were chosen Governors of those states
! and that, if so, they ought to be rec
{ ogniZed, and even if not so, since hi
g had jurisdiction of the question
i would have acquiesced in his decision
] But President Hayes never made such
: a decision. and does not make it to-
] day. Mr.. Tilden would have exclud
3 ed Packard and Chamberlain, because
= he decided against their election.
, President Hayes excluded them be
cause their election was disputed. The
| former would have given an erroneou:
J judgment, and would then have seen
: 1t executed. President Hayes has
abandoned the judgment seat to the
rife clubs in these states left them
to make a decision which the Consti.
tuition and courts commanded him tc
make, and. .infinitlly worse than that,
has permitted proclamations to be
made in his name that, when the rifle
clubs chose to take the field in behalf
of a certain ticket, it is not necessary
for them to elect their ticket, but only
to dispute the election of the other.
And after all this prolonged effort at
pacifieation, this Outpouring of con-
cessions and good will, the angel OF
peace still refuses to descend upon US.
Day after day the President sends
the dove out over angry floods, and
night after night the bird returns wea-
ry and leafless. In these very days
that government which rules Louisi-
ana, which was born of Presidential
grace, and not of popular choice. has
signalized its ingratitude by an act not
less insulting to the President than
atrocious in itself. 1t has dared to ac-
cuse, try, and convict a member of
the State Board of Canvassers of the
crime of forging election returns of
Vernon Parish of 1876.
Rememb Der, sir, L do not complain
because Anderson was tried for a po-
litical offense. If lie is guilty of the
offense charged | have not a syllable
to urge in his defense. The point |
make against the government of Lou
isiana is, that it prosecuted, notin the
name of public justice, but of parti-
san malice; that it prosecuted a man
guiltless of the offense alleged against
him, and known to be guiltless. An
derson is the victim, notof mistake
but of malice ; not of personal, but of
partisan malice. He was Prosecuted
by that same fell spirit of party spite
which prompted Georgia forty years
ago to offer S. 900 for the privilege of
prosecuting Garrison, and which
twenty years ago made South Caroli-
ma clap her hands at the whipping of
Sumner.
Anderson stands convicted in a.
court commissioned by Governor
Nichols, who in turn stands praeti-
cally properly commissioned by Pres
ident Hayes.
Mr.. Howe reviewed the action ofthe
Returning Board at length, ridiculed
the idea that Anderson forged returns,
and said: Whitaker, by the grace Of
Andrew Johnson, was formerly AS
sistant Treasurer of the United States
at New Orleans that as such he was
8 defaulter to the government in the
sum of more than $500 900 when he
sent Anderson to prison that Whit
taker had been under indictment for
that heavy embezZlement, but that on
the 18th of April last, just as Nichols
took the office which Packard ought
to have had, the indictment against
Whitaker was nolle pressed, and he
was permitted to send Anderson to
the Penitentiary, where he ought to
be himself
The Senator spoke in the following
tone of civil service reform:
An eminent statesman from Ken
lucky recently made pilgrimage to
Boston in the interest of civil service
reform. There, in sight of that great
monument which marks the spot
where immaculate valor died for i'm
mortal truth. he dared to say 1.-THE
cause of reform I'm the hands of brave
men will not be put down or defeated
by the SCOTS and derision of its enc
mics" [ should like to ask this apos-
tie to Bostonians who those enemies |
of reform are, against whose derisiOn |
be has to incite brave men? In spite |
of all the vociferous prate about re-
form of the civil service, no man has |
formulated it, no man has defined it. |
| do not know what they mean by it. |
The President did issue an order for !
bidding those employed in the civil |
service from acting on political COM
mittees or at political cow entioDs. Is |
that what is meant by reform of the
civil service? Ifso, the President has
already abandoned it, or l am misin-
formed; or, if he still believes that
means reform, he is the only man in
the United States who does believe it.
That is not reform. That is tyranny
which no predecessor of his
ever attempted, and no successor will
venture to initiate.
Once it was sindustriously advertised
that public afficers should not be re-
moved during their official terms
without cause, As already remarked,
l believe in that rule. l have myself
to it, but the President has
violated 1t: That surely
cannot be what is meant by reform of
the civil service. Latterly it has been
suggested that the great reform con-
sisted in making appointments to Of
fee regardless of the advice of Senators
and Representatives from States, and
so smashing "the machine" In some
conspicuous cases, the very reverse