Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1881-09-07
rDMUNDs AND THE "GREAT
FRAUD

The New YORK sun gives the gieae
Republican statesman and constitutional
LAWYER the following complimentary
notice awe have seen nothing more
refreshingly cool in the political liter
ature Of the dog days than the letter
Of senator Edmunds to the Massachu-
sets Republicans. That Senator does not
steal-we mean he does not steal money
we are not speaking Of votes-and he has
NOT allowed himself to be bribed or brow
beaten by the Pacific railroads. When
that is said the chapter of Mr.. Edmunds'
virtues is exhausted. What else there is
of him is as bad as bad can be. A more
malignant partisan never opened his lips
in the Senate. No Republican abuse ever
suffered at his hands; and the worst
crimes Of the party, including those
which had the least ~pretence OF consti-
~tutional warrant, were precisely those to
which this supposed constitutional law
yer has regularly given his beartiest
assent.
"But Mr.. Edmunds writes, neverthe-
less, an extremely ~virtuous letter to his
Massachusetts confederates. He tells
them what the country needs, and, also,
that the party which is responsible for all
the evils enumerated is just the party to
be relied upon for their removal. For
instance. he thinks it advisable ito estab-
fish by law the methods of ascertaining
the results of Presidential elections, so
as to give the'conclusive effect the Con-
stitution demands to the action OF each
State, and to prevent the exercise by the
Houses of Congress of anything IN the
nature Of appellate or revisory power
over the action OF the constitutional
authority of the State in such cases.
This from Edmunds, n of the prime
movers for the Electoral Commission OF
1877; the man who assured members
that the law would admit evidence OF
fraud. and then voted to exclude such
evidence; the man who held that the
action of the State was conclusive in
Louisiana, but amounted to nothing in
Florida, where the constitutional au-
thority' in every branch-legislative,
judicial and executive-gave the vote to
Tilden |! And this same promoter of the
great fraud Of 1861. this advocate of
Federal troops and Marshals at the polls,
is likewise very anxious just now about
the freedom and purity Of elections for
Congress, and tells the Massachusetts,
Republicans, where the mill hands are
regularly bulldozed every year, they
must see to it ! We have no time to ex-
anime the several propositions Of this
leader Of the Senate, whom our Republi-
can contemporaries consider the first Of
their statesmen. We have given speci-
mems. They are such stuff as Dawes
might have written or old Timothy Howe
might have whined through his nose.
but Mr.. Edmunds reached the
highth of absurdity when he wrote
The history of your conventions shows
that your political faith has come down
in a living stream from the times of
Samuel Adams and John Hancock, and,
like all great truths, it can be applied to
the affairs of to-day as conveniently and
justly as to those of a century ago.
What on earth had that stern old Demo-
crat, Sam Adams, to do with New Eng
land federalism, Of which Mr.. Edmunds
is the modern exponent, except to resist
it and to suffer by it? It did, in fact,
descend in a straight stream from these
times; but John Adams, and not Samuel,
stood at the head of the poisoned foun-
tain. Samuel Adams was cruelty neglected
and ostracized by the monarchical party
which acknowledged the nominal head
ship Of his nephew, under the real
leadership of Alexander Hamilton"