Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1884-03-27
AND THE ELECTORAL
COMMISSION.

COMM lsSION.
The question is under discussion
among the metropolitan journals OF the
East, whether Mr.. Tilden did not favor
the appointment of the Electoral Com
mission by which he was counted out OF
office. MIR. Tilden's letter to the Demo
cratic Convention, held in Cincinnati IN
1880, expressed his views clearly:
..lhe constitutional duty OF the W
Houses oil Congress TO III the electoral
votes as cast, and give effect to the VIII
of the people as expressed by their sui
fraues. was never fulfilled. An Electoral
Commission, for the existence OF which
have no responsibility. was formed, and
to it the two Houses of Congress abdi-
Gated their duty to make the count, by a
law enacting that the count of the Com
mission should stand as lawful unless
overruled by the concurrent action OF the
two Houses. Its false count was not
overruled, owing to the completely OF a
Republican Senate with the Republican
majority of the Commission
Controlled by its Republican major
ity OF eight to seven, the Electoral Com
mission counted out the men elected by
the people and counted in the men not
elected by the people,"
Going back of this to the eventfui
Spring of 1877, it is asked whether Mr..
Tilden then favored the Electoral Com
mission. There is no evidence that he
did. He said nothing to indicate that he
did. He was, Of course, consulted in re-
gard to the matter and on the utterance
of his lips depended, perhaps, peace or
terrible bloodshed. He said nothing IN
direct opposition to, but silently acqui.
esced in, the Electoral Commission; for
he saw that it or wal was the alterna-
tive. In sacrificing thus the greatest
public honor that can be attained by a
human being, rather than allow himself
to be the means of distress to the people,
Mr.. Tilden displayed, not cowardice, but
the profoundest and most substantial
patriotism. Many a man thus elevated
de iure to the Presidential chair would
have preferred bloodshed to the coun-
try and the risk of death to himself
rather than take the chances Of the
almost certain Judgment Of the Commits.
sion against him. Tilden would have so
preferred had he not been the good citi-
zen that he is-had he not regarded the
tranquility of the nation as superior to
his own ambition.
The days were full of peril. The best
men in both parties dreaded and had
reason to dread a bloody revolution.
The two houses were politically divided,
and no possibility existed of ar agree
ment between them upon the counting
of the contested votes. Above all, there
was o man at the head of the Govern
ment whose great opportunity lay in a
political CONFUSION, who was secretly
massing troops about the capital. for the
purpose of maintaining the peace such as
Warsaw knew, and in whose disposition
and temperament there was nothing to
prevent his seizure of imperial power I'M
der the guise of maintaining order, had
the opportunity occurred. 1t was a time
when an extra-constitutional arbitration
such as that intended by the Electoral
Commission seemed, in the judgment OF
many good men. to be needed.
We do not by any means intend to
defend the work of that Commission. Its
findings were most abominable and GRIM
inal. But the original plan of its APP
pointment seemed to be fair. 1t was in
tended to be composed of seven men on
one side whose leanings were believed to
be Democratic, and seven on the other
whose leanings were Republican, with
one man. Judge David Davis, who had
figured as Independent in his political
views for years. Mr.. Davis, however,
resigned his high position as a Judge Of
our highest court to accept a Senator.
ship, and another was appointed who
threw the majority into Republican
hands. We think that the action OF
David Davis in evading service OIL the
Commission was the first step toward
making the Electoral Commission infa-
nous, and the job was completed by the
leading Republican statesmen belonging
to it very soon after.
Mr.. Tilden is no more to be condemned
from the standpoint of 1877, for having
acquiesced in the arbitration proposed,
as an extra-constitutional ~expedient to
prevent war, than he and the whole
country are now to be condemned for
execrating the uses to which it was put.
NO SHAKE OVER THE CHASM.