Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1879-07-31

From tho Wa.hington ro.t.


frauds which placed Mr.. Hayes in office
after majority of the popular and cleo
toral votes had been honestly and fairly
secured to Mr.. Tilden. We have al.
ways believed that the masses OF the
Republican party aFe honest, incapable
of committing or condoning fraud. III
we did not believe this we should de
spair of the republic and look for its
gradual but sure destruction.
And il is for this reason, for the reas'
on that the honest masses connot be
blindly led by corrupt leaders and made
TO indorse their crimes, that IL becomes
necessary to eradicate from the public
mind the firm conviction that Mr..
HAYES official existence is the creature
of fraud. In every state where the Re.
publican party has an organization,
there are thousands OF men who have
hitherto acted with that party, who now
see that they cannot longer continue
allegiance They knew on the day at
ter the election oflST6 that their candi.
dates were defeated. They accepted
the situation, content with having per
formed what they believed to be their
duty. They not only knew that Mr..
HAYES was defeated, but they were well
aware that he, and all the leaders of
his party knew it, and they watched
the subsequent and successive develop.
ments in the various stages OF the great
crime with shame and disgust, power.
less to prevent its consummatlon, but
feeling outraged that such a thing should
be done in the name OF their party.
All over the country there were and
there are to-day, many thousands of
a. 81, IF t,I
men represent the conscience of the
Republican party. Unless they can be
won back into the ranks and made to
follow the leaders as OF old, there is no
chance for the party to succeed in the
next National campaign. What TO do
in order to neutralize in their minds
the effects of the crime of 1876 !, how
to overcome their firm determination
and restore them To the ranks, has been
a problem on which the most sagacious
Radical politicians have bestowed vast
deal of thought and expended no small
amount of labor.
1t was for this purpose, and this pur
pose only, that the Tribune brought out
the cipher kilograms. LET us make
it appear says the Radical managers,
"That Tilden and the Democracy were
trying to buy up electors and our fel.
lows, who are so superiluously sensitive,
will change their minds and gravitate
back into the old rui." SO the loudest,
shrillest scream and most resonant roar
OF "fraud fraud T. was set up all along
the Radical lines. But thrust from
the prod of investigation let the gas out
OF that balloon. The mountain was
found to be a molehill. The plot to
buy electoral votes-a plot alleged to
have included Mr. Tilden and many
leaders of his party-shrank into an
effort by one man, on his own re.
sponsibilty, TO hire certain scoundrels
charged with official duties not to be
guilty of fraud and perjury. So the ci-
pher telegrams became n thing for ridi.
cule, the Ti1Jmss great effort panned
out nothing of any moment, the great
fraud of the age remained in gloomy
grandeur, and honest Republican 70
tiers became more and more disaiiected
and unmanageable. II was time, high
time, for another effort. Something
must be done, and done quickly.
1t is the New York Times that now
rushes into the breach and makes a
desperate effort to save to the Radical
party the voters who were alienated by
the great crime. About page and a
half of that paper, Of yesterday, was de.
voted to wild, incoherent, nebulous
charges Of fraud alleged to have been
perpetrated by the Democracy in the
popular vote of 1876. Almost three
years after the election, it is discovered
that in Connecticut, New York and
New Jersey, Louisiana, Florida and
Mississippi there were enormous frauds
in that election. The Times assumes an
awful, ponderous gravity. II cooks and
serves up this fiction with a simulated
solemnty that would do credit to a
stage funeral. II does not attempt any.
thing like positive proof of any allega-
ton, and its manipulation of figures
isn't ingenious enough 10 be worthy of
serious notice.
The thing is formidable only in the
space which it occupies. Outside of a
lunatic asylum-we may say the lower
wards of such an asylum-there is no
citizen who could be made to believe
that a system of election frauds, de.
pending on repeaters or ballot-bo stuff
fling. could be planned and executed in
six states with such secrecy as to defy
detection, and only be brought TO light
by an investigating newspaper man,
nearly three years after their perpetra-
tion. There are good many Republi.
cans who would do much to oblige the
Times, for it has devoted great deal of
prayerful study to this business, and
has done its best in n desperate case.
But it asks too much, IL makes too
heavy demand on popular oredulity,
when 1t calls for belief or even decent
pretence to belief, in its preposterous
and monstrous absurdity. Even If all
the Republican politicians who were
watching the election in 1876, had been
deaf, dumb and blind, such a plot
would have miscarried.
Sadly as the cipher telegram business
fattened and faded away, leaving only
the echo Of a resonant smoker to show
where il had sunk under popular ridi.
cule, the fate of this attempt to Offset