The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-03-06
most responsible service Of the country for

most responsible service Of the country for
! i've and twenty years
Inc conduct of the visiting statesmen at New
orleans is then considered, and that of Sher-
man. Garfield, Hale, Kelley, and others whom
] II was songht to impeaeh was declared consist
! ent and frank The attemptto single out Sher-
| man for special attack seemed to have no orig
lnal foundation but the testimony of Anderson
ana the character of the evidence of such wit
nesses was shown in his effort to assail Stanley
Matthew's. The minority thought the whole
committee should unite in reporting that the
whole foundation for the original resolution
as far as this part of the case is concerned, had
mus been shown to be false testimony and the
manufactured documents of man totally I'M
worthy of notice -
Before the Returning Board were many aft
daylts to gross violence in the so-caIled bull
dozed parishes. The majority assumed in their
report that those afidayits were falsely and
fraudulently made, and that this was known to
the Board and to the visiting committee. We
find the testimony taken by this COMMITTEES
rather sustalns than impeaches them
THE FORGED RETURNS.
Inc report then reviews the testimony upon
which their criticism is based, and from that
goes on to the making of the second set of
electoral returns for Louisiana. The MINORITY
admit that two of the electors were absent, and
their names were signed by other parties, and
that this made the certificates spurious But
they claim the spurious certificates and returns
were not considered, as the records of the
Electoral Commission clearly show. The last
case the report touches upon is the Worlnlsq
conference, in which it distinctly and altogether
denies the alleged bargain to seat Hayes The
report concludes: "We are not aware that
anything has been found more significant of
wrong than the notorious circular of the Demo-
cratic Campaign Committee of 1876. in which
they advise the parade of Democratic clubs
on horseback, and their marching as organ
lied bodies to the central rendezvous for the
purpose OF lmpressing the negroes with a
sense OF their united strength; the recommen.
datlon OF systematic warning to the negroes
mat we have the means to carry the election.
and we mean to use them, and the like To
ignore this as the majority have done forces us
to conclude that the time has not vet come
when a fair review of the case and just iudg-
ment IN regard thereto is possible We report
that the new matter referred to does not impI
cate Sherman or Moves in any improper conduct
or corrupt proceedings but that the cipher dis
patches have been confessed to be
systematic and deliberate efforts to cor
rupt the Returning and Canvassing Boards
of the States of Florida, South Carolina. and
OF Oregon by brides offered in the shape of
great sums of money Whatever are our differ
ences with the majority of the committee in
other respects, we should most heartily rejoice
to find some methods by which all opportunity
for fraud or violence might be removed from
our elections. AS to Presidential elections. the
matter of choosing electors is by the constitu-
tion 80 exclusively committed to State legisla
ton that we see no method of Federal interfer-
ence. The proposition of the majority, there
fore, that the election eff electors should be
passed upon by the highest court of each State
is impracticable, because Federal legislation
cannot deal with the subject. We can imagine
it would have been satisfactory to the authors
of some of the cipher dispatches to have that
court determine who were the Presidential
electors in South Carolina; but, in view of the
testimony, we cannot join in the report that the
cause of honest elections would necessarily be
fnrthered by such change.
"Ihe change needed is in the spirit and tenn
per of the community, the cultivation and re-
spect of law and right, the recognition by the
strong of the rights of the weak, and when prog
ress is made in this direction we shall witness
equal progress toward purity at elections, and
not till then Weregret therefore, that the result
of theinvestigation, in which the taking of testi
mony continued till the last day but one of
Congress-, and is still incomplete, must be a re-
port that, in obedience to the directions of the
House, great mass of evidence has accumu-
lated which can neither be considered nor acted
upon by Congress, and the advantages gained
by the public in the daily consideration of it.
upon which the minority insisted, is the only
matter of profit to anybody"