Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1891-01-19

at Hartford!
To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
l do not propose to offer a solu ton of
the question I have propounded to you;
and he would be bold man indeed who
should imagine himself capable..of showing
to these claimants in a few lines just where
the difficulty lies. The causes that have
led to this unfortunate state of deadlock
in the legislature are not by any means of
recent growth, but the accessories, with
out the aid of which ii seems unlikely that
it should have occurred, are evident
enough Judge Morris, whom we all
know 80 well, and who enjoys as a citizen
the respect and confidence of this entire
community-himself q distinguished and
influenced by unsound legal advice and
opinions too saturated with partisanship
to serve as safe basis of acti on in a
matter of such great Importance to the
state, to say nothing of the damage that
such a course must work to his own per-
sonal interests.
1t is a great pity if feeling of false
pride will prevent him and his immediate
friends from retracing their steps and re-
pudiating their ill-advised action, from the
consequences of which there seems to be
but single way of escape. 1t would be in
the very highest degree honorable and
praiseworthy if the judge and his friends
who with him have prematurely taken
oaths of Office to which the public is not
satisfied that they have been really elected
their action and publicly abandon the po-
sitions they have assumed. Let them take
without cavil or reservation (call it backing
down, if you please the course required by
| usage, and indeed the only one that is open
to them. Let the senate notify the house
| that it is organized and ready for business.
Then the deadlock will be dissolved. 1t
| may be said, it has been said, that such q
course would be too humiliating to the
gentleman most deeply involved in this
bad piece of foolery. But if he has any
honest, candid friends they will tell him
that his position is untenable; he cannot
stand whore he is; he cannot take step
| forward without serious personal danger;
the only possible move he can make is
| backward.
have known Judge Morris for many
years, and I am panied to see him infict
upon himself an irreparable injury; but
of one thing am certain, that every in
telligent thinking man in the state, who is
not a politician, will at the first opportun-
ity declare that this disreputable, not to
say nefarious farce, can never be safely re-
peated in Connecticut; and if the oppor-
tunity is too slow in coming, we will make
one that will never be forgotten.
The actors in this sensational farce seem
to think that by assuming polite and re-
spectful demeanor while they 60 through
the motions of demanding possession of
places to which they offer no evidence of
their election, they disguise the real
animus of their revolutionary proceedings
and that the public can be easily hood
winked.
if you imagine you will not be judged
hereafter at the valuation you are now
putting on yourselves.
Whether it is good law or not, men OF
all honest parties in this nation will re-
member occasions when it was held an i'm,
perative duty to ego behind the returns,
and by close inspection throw out fraudu
lent ballots from the count 1 do not now
refer to anything done in Louisiana, put
if am not mistaken it has been done in
more than one northern state, with tbs
approval OF all RoOu cltlZens.
All this clamor about the examination
. of "extrinsic evidence" as some of Judge
Morris counsel call the evidences of fraud
bearing on the question of his legal elec
, ton, is the merest claptrap and nonsense
1t stamps their whole argument, SO far a.
it has been published, as unworthy of law
" yers standing in their positions at the bar
and is a sure indication of their own wan
of confidence in the honesty of their con
tentions.
What is the reason for the demand O.
the majority of the general assembly tina
in its canvass of the returns it shall exer
else its right to examine as to the correct
ness and honesty of the returns made
Every man in each and all parties know
, land none know better than the legal ad
visors of Judge Morris) that the returns
required to be made in this state to its va
, rious boards are notoriously inaccurate. /
has been officially declared by the secre
tary of one of these boards that fully two
3 thirds of the returns received at his offic
r are wrong and have to be sent back fo
! correction. ~
What mass of useless rubbish woul,
these returns be if the secretary were for
r hidden to search for extrinsic evidence o
{ their fallacy! Every citizen knows tina
. the majority of men cannot be trusted t
make election returns that would be &C
g cepted by the public generally, if ther
j. were not this acknowledged right to g
{ behind them, and in all cases to conside
any evidences of error or crookedness tha
may be discovered.
q / Without the rightful and legal powe
to exercise an honest scrutiny of the re
. turns of all elections, government by th
d people will speedily come to an end.
| @f 49, ftas, frsa 1s
90 talk lately of their desire to effect con
promisel What sort of compromise ca
:. possibly be made with men standing
It such an indefensible positiona
"A None whatever can be thought Of
The question of who has been, or wi
be, elected governor of this state will |
:. decided in accordance with the constitl