The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1888-07-14
The FRAUD ISSUE.
Revival Of the Great Crime By Its Inn
penitent Perpetrators

Jne rHAOO iSSOes
Revival Of the Great Crime By Its I'M
penitent PerpetrAtors
April IS was made notable in the Sem
ate by the unexpected revival and full
discussion of the great crime of1S76.
During che debate on the bill for the
admission of Dakota into the Union a
haunting remark by Senator Edmunds
drew from Senator Vest of Mis-
souri,. the retort that it was Mr..
Edmunds who created the celebrated
board which put Hayes into the Presi-
Dental chair" Mr.. Edmunds re-
joined:
81 wish to say with emphasis that believe,
and think nine-tenths OF the people of the
United States who know any thing about It be-
heve, that President Hayes was lawfully and
fairly and justly elected by the votes Of tho
States according to the constitution OF eur
country"
This audacious assertion was at once
met by Senator Vest. with the ques-
ton why Packard. who received for
Governor of Louisiana q larger num-
Der Of votes than Hayes received for
President was thrown out of Office
and sent as Consul to Liverpool. while
Hayes was sworn in as President of
the United States. II have heard"
continued Mr.. Vest ''the first Repub-
lican in this country. the foremost in
every combat for the Republican party
and its Supremacy have heard
Roscoe ConkIing say upon this floor
that it was by fraud that Hayes came
to be President
Mr.. Vest walked up nest of snakes.
The old memories came crawling out
of their holes. the old impudent pre-
lenses. the old defiant insults to right
and justice and common sense. It
happens that several of the most con-
spicuous actors in the conspiracy of
the Great Fraud are Republican men,
bers of the Senate: Edmunds, the Gre
ator of the Electoral Commission;
Hoar. q member of the infamous eight;
Sherman. the visiting statesman and
managing man in Louisiana, and the
discoverer Of Eliza Pinkston; Hawley,
q member of the second Louisiana
Commission, charged by Hayes with
the arrangement of the Packard diff
Guilty; and Chandler. of New Hamp-
shire, whose fertile brain first grasped
the possibilities of the situation on the
early morning after the day when Til
den was elected, and who completed in
Florida the work which he began at
the Fifth Avenue Hotel in this town.
They all had their say concerning their
respective parts in the Fraud Of 1876;
and the result was that considerable
part of the time of the Senate was
taken up by this unexpected overhaul
ing of shameful history. The whole
story was spread again upon the rec
ord for the benefit of the latest gener.
alton of voters. down to the very last
hush money paid by John Sherman to
tho negro Casenave three years after
the contamination of the crime, and to
the list of conspirators. accomplices,
principal and subordinate, who were
rewarded with public Office by Hayes
and Sherman, at an annual cost of
S223. 600 to the Treasury of the United
States.
e Yet not one of the defenders and up:
holders of the fraud answered the plain
question asked by Senator Vest of
Missouri Not one of them could sat
isfactoriiy explain why. il Hayes was
fairly and honestly elected as Presi-
dent Packard was not the legal Gov
ernor of Louisiana With great force
Mr.. Vest recalled the memorable
warning of Mr. Blaine: "You dis
credit Packard and you discredit
Hayes. You hold that Packard is not
the legal Governor of Louisiana and
you hold that Hayes has no title"
We should be glad to announce that
in the sober review of eleven years
after, and under the Christening in
huence of political vicissitudes. some
one of these principal actors in the
crime of 1876 showed signs of remorse.
That Is not the case. Without a single
exception, their attitude is as impu-
dent and defiant as it was when their
party was in the full enjoyment of the
stolen goods. Hear what John Sher-
man. the discover of Eliza Pinkston,
and afterward the paymaster-general
for the chief beneficiary Of the fraud.
says in 1888:
Hereafter, when any man shall assert Of
President Hayes that he was elected by fraud
or wrong. I will hold him in contempt The
name and fame Of President Hayes are unfair
ntshed- > No, no. the truth is that
Whenever the legality Of the election Of Press
dent Hayes Is disputed, win not only deny It,
but viii, as said, hold any man who viii do
20 in contempt" &
And hear, likewise. the Pecksniffian
declaration of the imp9nitent Mr..
Hoar of Massachusetts,.