The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1879-03-19
d MELANCHOLY F1zzLE.

'so vktpt ~ FSat 581titfS AVuA1ltts<3, -14teI
q years labor and an expenditure Dc thirty
thousand dollars, has brought forth report.
That the latter is worth the paper IL il writ-
ten upon would be bold assertion not that
there has been nothing interesting brought
before the Committee, nor that it has utterly
failed in all its Investigations, but the daily
press is the filtering medium between Con-
gress and aud the people, and there is no one
in Congress nor out of it who does not know
all that Potter can tell them, or who is not
stated with the subject ad nauseam Giving
the Committee the benefit of consistency, of
a patriotic desire to preserve the purity of
elections; allowing that there was basis of
wrong warranting its appointment, what has
been gained and what nesss sucss 90 We pos
sess through ND fundamentally Boiled
down to shape in which Ii can be seen, il
not appreciated, the report of Mr.. Potter
amounts to about this:
Louisiana and Florida had a constitutional
right to elect electors of President and Vice.
President, aud tho people of these States did
exercise that right in the year 1876. Accord
ing to Potter this exercise Of the s'preroga-
tive of frcomen y resulting in the choice of
Tilden electors.
The trouble here is, that while the premis-
es are sound the conclusions are open to de-
bate. II Louisiana had the constitutional
right to choose electors, she also had the right
to pass laws regulating elections and prescribe
! ing in what manner electors should be chosen
and how frauds might be guarded against
The Returning Board was State appoint
ment 1t performed a duty under the law
and it was amenable only to the appointing
power for the manner in which it discharged
that State was peaceable according to the
Democratic definition of that word, yet it by
no means follows that the Tilden electors
wore honestly chosen. Indeed that would be
an assumption almost too monstrous for con-
sideration. Those who know anything of
the way things are engineered at the South
need not be told that there may be peace ac-
companied by the rankest injustice, that there
may be oil upon the waters willie q fierce
storm is raging beneath and above. The fact
in regard to Louisiana is just here-the devil
was fought with fire. The doings OF tho
Democrats in the parishes, the methods used
to keep the negro vote and away, are all hid
den, or maiuly SO, from the human eye while
the act of the Returning Board can be hand
led and magnified, until like giant Grim, it is
large enough to brighten all the children in
the nation. Even allowing we do not
what the Committee asserts, that 1.-THE peo-
pie were not prevented by intimidation from
assembling at the polls, )" it is but surface
truth, ingeniously intended to blind readers
to the real facts in the case. All the Demo-
cratic work was done before the election the
nerve of the body polite had been touched,
and the voters reduced to state of paralysis
long before the day when peace regncd, and
there was only one side left to do the ballot
ing The goody goodies of the Potter Com
mittee knew this well enough, but it was not
convenient for them to say it.
That the canvassing boards were for sale
the minority of the committee positively de-
ny. They say
+. Tilden and his agents. in season and
out Of season, bad iterated and reiterated tho
charges that the canvassing boards of the
doubtful States had acted fraudulently and
corruptly in the discharge of sworn duties.
If these charges had been fortified. by any
proof the characters of those who made tho
charges would be of no consequence whatev-
er. But in fact the whole investigation, with
the 5000 pages of hearsay and false
hood, had not afforded the slightest proof of
| VIII It was asserted No man had come for
ward to say that any bribe was accepted or
that any member OF any ca wasting board in
Dictated any desire to betray his trust. Every
ntimatiou of that kind had been traced to
some Democrat and there ends, aud that DEM
\ oar has bean hrouU bf hQfora than
1t has been made plain, however, that there
were men who thought the Returning Boards
were for sale, and who went in to buy. AS
the minority say !" The very men who had
been loudest in their denunciations of the
tribunals before whom they had failed, had
themselves endsavored to corrupt with money
those very tribunals. At that moment tho
accusations ceased to be the declarations or
opinions Of honest men, and became the SLAM
ders of foiled and beaten suborners of cor
ruption. The country, which had been de-
ceiyed by the apparent earnestness and hon.
esty of Mr.. Tlden and bis agents, began to
realize the intense hypocrisy Of all that Mr..
Marble had written and Pelton circulated -
1t will not do for the pot to call the kettle
black. 1t is not quite right, however polite
it may be, for burglar to cry out stop thief.
and while in all the past turmoil of politics,
in all the difficult processes Of reorganizing a
divided and distracted country many things
have probably been done which are open 10
censufe or to criticism, the past record of the
Democratic party is not such as entities it 10
claim the championship of the dignity, NOR
ality and honor of the nation. IL would bo
well for its orators and writer's to read with
careful consideration the story of RcynarJ
the Fox. He, too, was honest until fonnd out
q very anchorite in his appetites, chickens
were not to be thought Of aud a fat goose
was an abomination. Reynard even under
took journey to Rome in search Of absolu-
ton for past sins, but alas the fox nature
is not in external appearances but in tie
heart, and it would have been far better for
our Democratic friends if they had never
played with fire. They may be able to ap-
ply the lessons Of wisdom to others, but they