St. Landry democrat., 1885-12-19
At indianapolis Yesterday.
New York Weekly Sun.

destitute Of the sense Of shame? Does
he dare to force his way to the front
rank of the mOurners who follow the
dead statesman to the tomb, wearing on
his false face the counterfeit of their
sincere grief? The insolence of such
hypocrisy is inexpressible. We should
think that the despised wretch would
tremble with fear lest the dead himself
should speak and say: Back, Fraud
Stand not with those who Logged and
who honor me J"
On this duy of the year, nine years
ago, the operations of the cOnspirat0rs
who plotted against Hendricks right,
and for Hayes benefit, were far adj
vanced. Federal troops crowded the
corridors OF the State House in Column
bia. At Tallahassee the Canvassing
Board, behind closed doors, were re-
yersing the Democratic majorities in
Baker and Alachua counties. The
scoundrels in New Orleans were bar
gaining with the representatives OF
Hayes, and voting to go into secret ses-
sion that they might manipulate the
figures SO as to give the electoral vote
of Louisiana to the defeated candidates
for President and Vice. President, and
thus defraud the country of its right
ful choice. The liars in these three
States We're lying, the perjurers were
falsely swearing, the subOrners of per-
iurers were falsely swearing, the subOrn-
ers of perjury were haggling over the
price'Of crime, the fOrgers were scrap
ing and eraSiDg and changing, the
thieves were hiding or destroying the
ballots stolen from the boxes that are
sanctuaries of the peoples free suffrage,
the larger conSpirators at Washington
were connecting schemes to cover with
the forms of law the infamous work at
the South, and Hayes was waiting
waiting with eager but cowardly impa-
tience to seize and appropriate the
fruits of that gigantic malefaction.
Has any Democrat forgotten the
deeds of November and December,
1876 7 Has any Democrat concluded to
bury these memories, or to extend the
hand of forgiveness to the Fraud Hayes
across the gravl Of the defrauded
Hendricks?
1t is one of the duties of citizenship
to remember these things, and this is
an appropriate time to recall them. 4
resolution of the Democratic House of
March 3, 1877, on the eve of the con-
summation of the greatest political
crime in history, sOlemnly declared that
Thomas A. Hendricks, in the election
of 1876, received a majority of the cleo
tOral votes and was duly elected Vice
President of the United States. That
resolution declared the truth. No man
can gainsay it. 1t is established by
evidence that is unanswerable, and by
the confession of some of the chief
criminals hired by the agents of Hayes.
'Tilden and Hendricks carried Florida
by majority Of about 100 votes. In
Louisiana the Tilden and Hendricks
electors received q majority of about
5000 votes. By the local processes of
false, fabricated, and forged affidavits
and altered returns already described,
more than 1000 votes in Florida, and
more than ten times as many in Loui-
siana, were taken by the State Return
ing Boards from the candidates to
whom they belonged, and the result in
the two States was thus reversed. Can
any hypOcritical tears which Hayes may
shed over the bier OF Hendricks blot out
that fact2
The appeal was to Congress in Wash
ingtOn. The national Legislature,
holding the constitutional power to
count the electoral votes, was asked to
exercise that power, and to render JUS
tice to the people. The unconstitutional
Electoral Commission was then devised.
By the law creating that body, it was
directed to ascertain the true and law
full vote of every State. Proof of the
fraudulent nature of the cOrruptly pro-
cured certificates from Florida and
Louisiana was offered to the Commits
sion. 1t was rejected. By majority
of One-the vote of partisan Judge
whose conduct at this crisis in the ma
TONS life remains as an ineffaceable
Of nH he
Bench-every motion looking toward
tile righting of wrong, the ascertain
ment of truth, the rendering of Justice,
the investigation, even, of the facts on
which judgment was to be rendered,
was steadily and unfinchingly thrust
aside.
Great as were the crimes of the
thieves, peTjurers, and f0rgers in the
counties of Florida and the parishes of
Louisiana, and in the Republican Re-
turning Boards at Tallahassee and New
Orleans, this final crime at Washington
was greater still. 1t was denial of
justice, a refusal even of a hearing by
the body established by Congress as a !
court of last resort. The Fraud which
was planted at the polling places after
word had been sent from the Fifth |
Avenue Hotel that Florida and Loni- |
siana must be claimed and held at any
cost, and which blossomed in the dark |
ness of the back rooms where the for
gers scratched and the peljurers bag
gled with the agents of Hayes, bore its
fruit in the chamber of the Supreme
Court of the United States.
To the humiliation of every patriotic /
American, the doors of the White /
House and the vaults of the Treasury
we're opened to the man who had been
waiting for months at Fremont for the
verdict, with greed and
;Owardice alternately uppermost in his
soul. Can any tears, we say,
hat this crocodile may have shed at
ndianannlis at the grave Of Handr ;nIzn |