Litchfield enquirer., 1879-12-25
The Worst Fraud Yet.

The counting out of 8 Republican legisla ture, and the counting in of Democratic o
 'sFusion" legislature, ID Maine, is the most fla grant political crime of this corrupt genera tion. The only excuse Democrats offer is tt point to the Louisiana count of 1876, anG claim that Republican fraud at one extrem. of our great republic is a sufficient excuse fol Democratic fraud at the otheri In short the growing disregard of morality in politics has reached point where the popular verdict is utterly disregarded by the politicians upor whom devolves the purely ministerial work o1 footing up returns, and declaring the results of their footings.
 It will be remembered that we have never justified the Louisiana count of 1876. We believed then that the work of the now noto. rious Louisiana Returning Board was fraud, and that Congress should have set it aside. Nevertheless it must be remembered that J. Madison Wells, and his associates, acted under law of the state-though bad, and as we believe an unconstitutional statute-which gave them the express right to go behind the returns. The case was one where force and intimidation on one side, and fraud on the other, were so patent, that we blamed the Electoral Commission, not because they did not count the electoral vote for Tilden, but because they did not reject all the claims of both parties on the ground that there had been no honest 'election-Dothing that could fairly be considered real verdict of the people of Louisiana in the fall of 1876.
 The case in Maine is very different one. towns on the day of the election, the Republi- cans were entitled to majority of seven in the Senate, and of 21 in the House of Repre- sentatives. The returns are made by law to the Governor and Council, who issue certifi- cates of election to the several Senators and Representatives in accordance herewith; but who have no right to Ego behind" the returns and decide on the merits of an election case. After former elections, week or two sufficed for this merely clerical duty. This year the count did not take place till Dec. 17th. In the meantime, as Republicans charge, returns favorable to the Democrats were returned and corrected in all minute particulars, so that they could not suffer loss by the sharp rulings meditated by the counting officers. Moreover a recent statute authorized the counting off, cers in case of informality, to go back to the town records of votes. This statute they qui- etly set aside as unconstitutional, and then proceeded to count in large Fusion majority in both Houses, leaving five of the largest cit ies in the State totally unrepresented: One third of the Republican Senators and Repre- sentatives who received majorities on the pop ular vote are thus denied their seats on pre- tended technicalities, and in most cases their opponents are counted into the places to which they were never elected-and this in the face of astatnte passed to remedy the precise diff faculties of which this model returning board avail themselves. A single instance will show the methods practiced. Two brothers, Fran ces w., and George s. Hill, contested the dis trict comprising the towns of Exeter and Gar land, with the following results:
 EXETER. GARLAND.
 F. w. Hill, 22O George s. Hill, 212 G. s. Hill, 146 Francis W. Hill, 134
 Francis W. Hill, Republican, had therefore, a majority of six. But his opponent had majority in Garland. and the returns from Exeter do not give the Christian names of ei- ther candidate. The votes were all given cor rectly, and the statute of 1877 would have val idated the Exeter return, if it needed valida- tion. The Governor and Council, however, first set aside the statute as unconstitutional, then set aside the Exeter return as informal, and give the Democrat the certificate of elec- tion. On such pretexts is the verdict of the people set aside in Maine!
 The Louisiana Returning Board of 1876, been could at least set up show of legality. The doings of the Maine Returning Board are without even color of right. Submission to such usurpation would be crime, and we sim cerely hope that this species of fraud will be so met that it will never again be attempted. Of course all legal remedies should be employ ed, first. If the courts can correct the returns by msndamus let them be resorted to at once. If it IS too late to apply there, or if the courts cannot take jurisdiction of this species of crime, then let the fairly elected legislature organize apart, elect Governor. and call on the President either to decide between the two governments, or to leav e them to fight it out among themselves, as was done by Grant and Hayes, three years ago, in South Carolina and Louisiana. Perhaps Gen. Hawley may yet be obliged to go on another mission of pa- citication this time to the very state from which came the loudest complaints of Hayesa and from which the loudest of the Stalwarts is plan ming campaign for the capture of the next Republican Convention
 The Senate Exodus committee ought to contribute some facts to the history of this remarkable movement. Still there cannot be much doubt of it's principal causes. They are the political intolerance and the monopoly of land on the part of the old masters accompani- ed by vicious system of credits that practi- cally gives the colored man no return except a simple support for his labor. These, with op- pressive laws and an ignorant longing to bet ter himself, are no doubt the freedman's chief incentives to plan the exodus.
 
 The Hayden trial, so far as the identification of human blood by the microscope is concern ed has resolved, itself into battle of experts. Learned doctors contradict each other in the usual edifying way, and do their best to prove the uncertainty or their boasted knowl edge Hayden has himself been on the stand, and the testimony is slowly drawing to a close s.[
 BLAcKwoeD's EDINBURGH MAGAZINE for December, contains: Theatrical Reform, The Merchant of Venice" at the Lyceum Reata, or, Whats in name. Part TX; Progress Bush Lifeiu Queensland, Part I Old squires and New 1; The Breads and Rivers of Norfolk and Suffolk; A Liberal Address; Political Rab ies; The Late John Blackwood.
 Published by the Leonard Scott Publishing