The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1881-03-29
WILL OUT.

tana,'' in his last letter which appeared in the
MINER of the 22d inst, gives an account of
a transaction in which ox-president Hayes
stands as a conspicuous figure. Owing to the
high positions which the parties to this trans
action have occupied and still occupy, and
owing to the discussion of it which recently
occurred in the United States Senate, in
which discussion Senator Conkling took a
prominent part, the transaction, and those
connected with it, have become subjects Of
common by the eastern press, and of severe
criticism by the people at large.
1t. will be remembered by our readers that
when Mr.. Hayes entered upon his duties as
chief magistrate of the nation he found Loui-
siana with two governors-Nichols, DEM,
who had been publicly inaugurated OH the
sth of January, 1877, and Packard, rep, who
was swoln into office on the same day under
the protection IF United States troops. Mr..
Hayes was placed in a peculiar position. Mr..
Nichols was recognized by the people through
out the state as the real governor, and his
authority acknowledged, while Mr.. Packard
had been recognized by Grant and his admin
~istration as the governor of Louisiana and
his authority as such enforced at the point of
the bayonet. Here was the dilemma in which
Mr.. Hayes found himself placed. If he ac-
knowledged Nichols right to the office, he
was compelled virtually to acknowledge Til
denis election to the presidency, as both Til.
den and Nichols had been elected at the same
tile and by about the same majority, and
Louisiana's electoral vote, if it had been
counted for Tilden, would have placed HIM
where he-Hayes-then stood. To be con-
sistent he would have been compelled to rec
ognlze Packard, but Packard could not enforce
his authority as governor a day without the
assistance of United States troops, and the
people of the Union, as wei, as those of
Louisiana, demanded the withdrawal of the
tro ops, and Hayes knew he must comply with
their demands. So to fix the matter up that
he could still retain the presidency
with a show of a shadow of right
to the Office and at the same time
to give to Louisiana Nichols, its legally elect
ed governor, he, without the authority of any
law, appointed a commission consisting of
lOul lCplDllCdilS anu Jill ueulOCTdG, anu III
structed them to proceed to New Orleans and
investigate and report to him the real state of
affairs in Louisiana. This committee of ''vis-
iting statesmen at the head of which was
Wayne McVeigh, the present attorney-gener-
al of The United States, went to Louisiana,
and the world knows the rest. How these
'tourists," as Conkling calls them, plastered
up and w~hitewasled the matter to the salts
faction of the "stalwarts' of that day. How
the ''adoption of intelligent means to a de-
sired end" showed that the Democratic cat-
didate for governor, Nichols, had been elect
ed by several thousand majority, while the
democratic candidate for the presidency, Til
den. had been defeated by Hayes by as many
thousand votes. 1t was a very nice JOHN
fact a ticklisE job to manage, but the .stour.
ists' did it thoroughly, though bunglingly,
and went home. We say the world knows
about this, but there is another little matter
in connection with it the world, until recent
ly. knew but little about, and that is, who
furnished the money to bear the expenses of
the trip? "Montana'' says Mr.. Hayes furnish
ed the money. This is true, as the congress
sional report of the proceedings in the United
States senate will show.
During the last days of the late senate,
among the amendments to the sundry civil
bill reported to the senate committee was one
of 1880 to reimburse Mr.. Hayes for the ex-
penses of the McVeigh Louisiana commits
sion. AS Mr.. Hayes was a little .sshort" when
he took Tilden's Office, he called upon his
friend, the first national bank of New York.
to advance the money to him. The bank ac-
commodated him, of course, expecting to be
paid as soon as congress reimbursed Mr..
Hayes. But as congress has not been inclln-
ed to take any stock in the expenses of that
unwarranted commission, Mr.. Hayes had to
pay it, hence this other ATTEMPT to smuggle
dry civil bill, whereby Mr.. HAYES
could be reimbursed. When the amendment
was under discussion, Mr.. Beck, from Ken
lucky, who, it appears, would rather see the
amendment pass than to have the bill defeat
ed, said he did not know that there was any
warrant of law for the appointment of that
commission, but he thought it would be a
small thing to refuse to reimburse Mr.. Hayes.
This remark aroused the New York lion, the
king of "~stalwarts,' who would not yield his
assent to Mr.. Hayes method OF "adopting
intelligent means to a desired end" In Ian
guage as keen and cutting as polished irony
could direct it,. Mr.. Conkling said: sMr.
President This amendment addresses itself
to ME as an appeal to sympathy. The First
National Bank is located in the State of New
York, and l cannot but feel the interest, not
to say the tenderness, which naturally exists
etween a representative and his constituents,