The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1880-09-25
THE DRY ROT" OF REPUBLI-
CANISM


Il One of the beauties Of the RepubliGa
dry rot called llayesism is shown in I'll
fact that1lorn, the editor Of the lire eatin
= Mercury, published at Mereden. Missi
sippi, and which Is still defending secei
sion and justiiying the rebellion, is cler
: in the PoSt-ofce department ut Washing
, ton. TO make 1t more atrOcious all round
70 Horns paper has all the time squarely dc
= Tended the men who murdered Judge CHS
holm and his family 1t is hardly Il wonde
that the fiery Southerners think the N0rtl
spiritless and cOwardly when they see so
called Republican President appointing
such an Out-and-out Democrat and Rebe
as this to olllce.--Des Mones iowa
state Register
The Register glorics in being stal.
wart sheet 1t believes there is more
more virtue in Garfield's little finger
than there is in Grants whole body.
The Register thinks that "Hayesism"
is Il term which is synonymous with
'dry rot" In sober truth, the Regis
ter is right. Hayesism is "dry rot"
of Republicanism, but not in the spirit
in which the Registers pulse may rum
The appointment of Jere Horn to n
subordinate clerkship in the Postoilice
never would have destroyed the adj
ministration of Hayes, or created II
"dry rot" of Republicanism. The
dry rot" began when the great
fraud of counting Hayes in COM
menced. 1t was square contradiction
of the facts of history which counted
Hayes President of the Uni ted States,
and Wade Hampton Governor of
South Carolina and Judge Nichols
Governor Of Louisiana. Either Hayes
is not the dc jure President or Nichols
and Hampton were usurperS. But
"Hayesism" recOnciled these stupen-
dous contradictions. Hayesism "
made Hayes the de fdct0 President by
the virtual acknowledgment Of fraud.
Before Hayes could be President he
and his party gave their consent to
acknowledge to The country that he
was 50 by Il manipulation and count |
which could look two ways at once
to suit two directly antagonizing
emergencies 70 make both these
counts fair and just was Il feat which
overturns the logic of figures, that
never lie, and to make truth the hand
maid of plain falsehood. No amount
of sophistry or special pleading can
effect this presentation of the case.
For the honor of America it would
have been better to have turned Loui~
siana, South Carolina and Florida over
to the tender mercies of the spectators
rather than to have left this foul blot
upon her history. "Hayesism" which
consented to take the Presidency and
concede the governorships and Legis-
latures in three States, i'll which it was
not even pretended that the vote was
more for the President than the local
administrations, presented to the
world Il spectacle of appalling vcnality
which is well calculated to startIe the
sober and right thinking men of the
age: 1t affords no relief to say that
these votes in the disputed States were
not fair eXpression--that there was
and bulldozing and fraud
in the elections. The same vote that
elected Nichols elected Tilden. The !
same count that ruled Packard out of
the GOvernorship Of Louisiana made ,
t impossible for Hayes to be the right ,
i'll President. 1t is idle, frivolous and !
)eurile to affect to make any other
distinction. +
Here then is the true reason for the
dry rot" of Republicanism under
1ayes. He is Il fraud, and will go
lOwn to history as the first, and may y
iOd grant, the last fraudulent Presi- h
lent Of the United States. 1t was not /
he appointment Of Jerre Horn to
100 clerkship that did it. 1t may be y y
hat this appointment FASTENED the
Ollapse. But Jerre Horn is a clever u
nd promising young man, and he W
ever would have accepted this place II
he had known it was going to dis
lrb the equilibrium of the national s.
Overnment. He didn't go to Wash +,
lgton as a spy, nursing Il deliberate el
urpose to overturn the administra- W
on. He went there as a protested st
democrat it is true, but with no de- q,
gn of turning his influence as a jour- tn
alIst against the Post-Office Depart III III
ent, and thus surrepticiousy under ell
lining it, He made it point to an an
ithhold his newspaper criticisms Of
BON the party and to pursue only the an
ultimate line of his clerical duties. So
Ich has been his course, and it is Is
holly unjust to accuse him of caus- II,
G the "dry rot' of Republicanism. wi