Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-01-09
As a Matter of Policy.

pie Republican precedent upon
which to justify their action OF can
vassins the vote in strict conformity
with the Constitution, we regret that
. victory should have been pro-
claimed, unless based upon some
thing more substantial than techni-
cal errors in making the returns. If
q majority of the legal votes were
cast for Republican members of the
Legislature, without evidence of in
territorial fraud, although the letter
of the law justified precisely the
course which has been pursued, it
would have been master-stroke of
policy to have allowed the Repub-
licans to enjoy unmolested a monop-
oily of returning-board tactics, with
no example to justify in the past or
in the future any attempt to-eubvert
the will of the people.
When the Electoral Commission
was created by Congress with ex-
pressly delegated power to examine
into all the facts bearing upon the
returns of the disputed States, and
failed to discharge that duty, but
made u return which nullifed the
votes of nearly half million citizens,
the righteous indignation of the peo-
pie irrespective of party was aroused,
and the Democratic party never
stood higher as the embodiment of
patriotism than when it accepted the
manifestly unjust decision, without
even threat of resistance. 1t was
then made apparent that even the
Supreme Court of the United States
that revered tribunal which it was
iondly believed would he a check
Apon the passions which sway man
,kind-would descend as low as any
petty politician to maintain a hold
a,pon the reins of power. Their will
1ingness to rendera partisan decision,
without hesitation, without .even the
appearance of any desire to place
them selves in position to.judge of
the correctness of the returns SUBJ
united for the express purpose Of
investigation, has forever removed
from.the rational mind all idea of the
sanctity which had attached to the
judicial ermine.
The Republicans were not few in
number who tnrnod from that rdeci-
sion with loathing and disgust. They
believed that the oath taken by the
Commission required them to fulfil
the stipulations of the act under
which it was created, and this COM
mon sense view cannot be removed
by any sofhistry.
The Democrats, with magnanixn-
ity as remarkable as it was grand,
acpiiescel in a wrong they were
powerless to combat except by an
archie methods. 1t placed them be-
fore the world as martyrs to a cause
of duty, and that duty was to await
patiently for time to right great
wrong. That period has not yet
come, and to maintain the prestige
thus won, was by course which
could not by any possibility, under
the most gross perversion, be con-
st,ued into like disregard of JUS
tice.
9he course of Gov. Garcelon is
therefore imprudent; not wrong, be-
cause the construction placed upon
the law governing his action is sane
toned by lcng-established precedent;
but iixprudent, because the popular
mind is not Ia condition to receive
and carefully weigh all the facts
which environ il. Because the
Supreme Court became partisans
through party necessity" the su-
rerfcial observer is led to believe
that partisan zeal alone prompted the
Governor of Maine to issue certif-
Gates of election in strict conformity
with law. It is difficult for many
people to understand why conseien-
tous men hesitate to exercise discEe-
fionary power not sanctioned by the
law even to subserve what appears
to be right.
The worst feature of the return
iEg-bSara infamy of 1876 has been
to popularize such crimes. The av-
erase Republican to-day is utterly
incapable of arriving at a correct So
luton of any question conflicting
IL L.