Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-04-19
THREE lIING AGED STRAW.
SHERMAN AND VEST TELL DER THE
TALE OF 1876.

The House Passes Two Important Labor
| Bills 49, Fifty Thousand Wanted as n
Starter for the 1892 Exposition-The
President Gives Army Officers Rub
Adverse Report on the Fish Treaty.
WASHINGTON CITY, April 10 The senate
| put in large portion of Wednesday listen
| ing TO ancient history, stated by Sherman
| and Vest, the subject being the election of
| 1876, and the occasion the consideration of
| the Dakota admission bill.
Sherman said that the opposition TO the
admission of Dakota as a state was totally
unjustifable He urged the passage OF the
bill, and stated that the opposition to the bill
was simply because the Democratic party
| did not want that state admitted. Replying
to Vests statements Tuesday MS to unfair
methods in the election of President Hayes
Sherman insisted that the decision of the
Louisiana returning board was fair and
right, and honest and that LOuisianas vote,
If honestly counted, gave Hayes from 10000
to 20 900 majority Speaking of the electoral
commission, Sherman asserted that % Demo-
Gratis and 81 Republicans voted for the bill,
and IA Republicans, including himself, and
but / Democrat-Eaton of Connecticut
against it, There had been the same kind of
vote in the other house And yet the senator
from Missouri LNestl had treated it as a kind
of Republican trick. SO far from that being
the case, it had been supported by the Demo-
Gratis as n means by which the returning
board of Louisiana would be overthrow and
the people of the United States deprived of
the president elected by them in II legal and
constitutional way.
If ever anybody had any doubt of the cleo
ton of Hayes that doubt had been removed
by the admissions of the very men who had
participated in the wrong of that day in
Louisiana. And hereafter, when any man
asserted of President Hayes that he had been
elected by fraud or wrong, OF had not been
duly elected. he would hold him in contempt
as utterng that which was not true and
which was denied by the very men who
overthrow local government.
Vest replied to Sherman, and said his threat
about holding in contempt men who ques-
toned Hayes election might have terror for
members of his own party; but with even the
terror of that threat before his eyes, he still
denied the honesty and legality of that cleo
ton. The question which he had asked Tues
day about Packard and Hayes had been asked
in desultory and unprecedented way; and
the senator from Ohio had not answered it
satisfactorily Vest sent to the clerks desk
and had read extracts from speech made on
that subject i'll the senate by Blaine, in which
Blaine declared that the election of Hayes
and of Packard were indissolubly connected,
and asked who had the authority to make an
arrangement by which Packard was not up
held, stating that it was impossible for the
administration of President Hayes to have
done it.
Referring to Vests question as to the cleo
ton Of Hayes and the non-election of Pack
ard, Sherman declared his belief that both
had been fairly and legally elected, and ex-
planned the difference in the result by stating
that the question of the presidential election
had been decided by the electoral commission;
and that of the gubernatoral election by the
Louisiana legislature, which after contest of
two months) had been Democratic Then he
proceeded to read extracts from speech
made in the late canvas in that state by Sena-
tor Eustis in which he declared it to be the
determination of the white men Of Louisiana
to solve the race question without regard to
northern sentiment, and predicted that the
final result would be the overthrow of negro
rule and the establishment of white mans
government.
Vest thought that the American people
never will he satisfied with the explanation
made by Sherman, but that, like James q.
Blaine, they have already come to the con-
clusion that it is impossible even for the in
genuity of the senator from Ohio to explain
why it was that the vote of Louisiana, as re
turned by the returning board, was good for
the purpose of giving the electoral vote of
Louisiana to Hayes for the presidency, but
not good for the purpose of giving it to Pack
ard for the governorship of the state.
Hawley defended the action of the commits
sion, of which he was a member, and an
swering Vests question how Nichols could
become governor and Hayes president, said
the Nichols men admitted that the returning
board might declare who were presidential
electors, but that the state constitution sent
to the legislature the question of who was
governor, as well who were members of
the legislature.