Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-09-30


pure justice, refused to defile himself
with election frauds, withheld his coun.
tenance from executive corruption or
denounced the forcible instalment of
thieves in State office, he would have
converted himself into a Democrat and
been expelled from the communion of
the anti.constitutional party.
This moral prostitution TO bad politi-
cal purposes is far from being uncom-
mon. Men naturally good have yielded
to il in all times and in all countries
where there is party unprincipled
enough to demand il and strong enough
to reward it. But General Garfield's
public career furnishes more striking
examples of it than the history of any
individual have known. Let me give
you a case After the war-at time OF
perfect peace-in the State Of Indiana,
where no war had ever been, certain
military officers, being instructed from
Washington that they were above the
civil authority, had kidnapped and were
about to kill three citizens for no ofiense
defined by any law and without the
pretense of trial by court or jury. If
this could be done there was maniGestly
no security left for life or property.
Plainly it could not be done without q
fiat violation of the Constitution, which
in express terms forbade it. But the
men who then ruled us with a rod of
iron insisted upon it and we could not
be certain that the judges, State and
national, might not be subdued by their
influence. The hearing OF the cause
before the Supreme Court was great
crisis in the constitutional history of
our country. There was place in the
argument which nobody could fill so
well as General Garfield, and | besought
him to help us in this desperate ex.
tremity to rescue American liberty from
the utter destruction with which it was
threatened. He responded with noble
alacrity, and made a great argument in
which he proved not only the continu.
ed existence, but the inestimable value
of the Constitution. lie demonstrated
that the right of trial by jury at all
places was indestructible, and that any
officer, civil or military, would violate
his oath if he attempted to put the
military above the civil authority. lie
affirmed the whole Democratic doctrine
on the subject and showed it to be in
contestibly right. His sincerity was
undoubted, for, like the rest of us, he
engaged in the cause as labor OF love,
without fee or any reward except the
thanks of true men.
Such were his true convictions. But
when he came to deal with the same
subject in his political capacity he sur.
rendered everything to ms party. lie
Il. Il -.
regular system of kidnapping and mur.
der in all the States of the South. In
the same act were other provisions
which he certainly understood to be in
direct conflict with every article and
every section of the Constitution. In
all this he did not transgress, like
others, in ignorance or in passion; he
sinned against light and knowledge and
on cold calculation of partisan policy.
II is an infinite pity that such a man
should be not only false TO his country
br. false to himself.
What makes all this very much worse
is his denuncation OF General Hancock
for saying that the military was con.
stitutionally subordinate to the civil
power, and that liberty was still the
inheritance of the American people
for these were propositions which he
himself had asserted and knew to be
true.
1t might be expected that the course
Of a man so influenced would frequent.
ly defect from the straight path, and
one great alteration We cannot but re.
member.
Mr.. Tilden was elected in 1876 A
false return was the only resource
against him. | do not believe that
General Garfield, if let alone, would
commit an election fraud any more
than he would steal a horse or
sheep. But when the managers of
his party demanded his aid in great
swindle he could not refuse. Under
that coercion he went down to Lousi.
ana and there found it absolutely Ger.
tain that the Tilden electors had been
"duly appointed" at a legal and full
poll, so peaceably conducted that there
was not even n squabble about it in the
whole State. And the appsintment so
made was attested by and recorded
upon the certificates and the oaths of
election officers adverse to the ap.
pointees in all their feelings and wishes.
There was no earthly excuse for deny.
ing this no contradiction of it could be
honest. To count the State for Hayes
was thing that could be done only by
impudent and unmitigated fraud. For
time | hoped that General Garfeld's
share in that great crime had consisted
in passive acquiescence, and ! am sur.
prised by the proofs recently brought
forward of his active assistance in its
preparation. His judgment as a mem.
ber of the Electoral Commission was a
thing to be expected, for he must long
before that have convinced himself that
fraud was as good way as any other
of electing a President. In political
game he did not think that anybody
had moral sense enough to abstain from
thowing a die which he himself had
loaded to win the stake.
This liability to be rushed into evil