Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1893-02-02
THE HISTORY OF A FRAUD.
Ar. Hayes Title to the Presidency and
How It Was Obtained.

a
Ar. Hayes Title TO the Presidency and
How It Was Obtained.
These are the words of Hon William
NJ Evarts in referring to the great
crime by which Samuel J. Tilden was
kept out of the Office of president of
the United States, and by which the
late Rutherford 3. Hayes was seated:
sit is all matter of history" said Mr..
Eyarts. ''You see, when one party
gets in the other is out So there must
be a diversity of opinion"
II is all matter of history. Death
wipes out some scores, and softens per-
sonal Judgment But if death wiped
out all scores, if the disposition to say
only kind things of the departed were
allowed to overcome the TT nth, history
with its lessons and warnings could not
be written The accepted record of the
past would be one continuous, 2miab]e
falsehood
An otherwise creditable and honora
bic life was blackeEed forever by the
acceptance of stolen Office. There are
now advanced two views of the con-
duct of Mr.. Hayes st the critical time
which tested the quality of his soul;
and both are false. One is the view of
the partisanship which devised the con-
spiracy to defeat the will of the people,
and profited along with Mr.. Hayes by
the success of that conspiracy. 1t is
tersely expressed by the leading re-
publican newspaper. NO other presi-
dent" says the New York Tribune,
lever had so valid and incontestable a
title to the Office. Whatever may be
said of the struggle over returning
boards in the three contested states 1t
cannot be denied that by the concur
rent action of both houses of congress
and of the United States supreme court
his title to the presidency was passed
upon, sanctioned and guaranteed The
supreme legislative council and the
court Of last resort united in certifying
to the validity of his election, and it
as morally impossible for him to act
otherwise than he did in taking his in
augur alton OATH Those who hold
this view maintain that MIR. Hayes was
honestly elected as president; that his
title. originally good, was strengthened
and confirmed by the eight to seven
votes of the electoral commission; and
that in taking the Office Mr.. Hayes took
only what was his own
The other theory regards Mr.. Hayes
as having possessed no better title to
rived from a tribunal of doubtful con-
stitutionality, but of practical neces-
sity in the emergency that arose from
the contested election. Many repub-
licans and a few democrats are now
saying that although the frauds in
Louisiana and in Florida, and the
partisan decision of the commission,
gave to Mr.. Hayes an Office that had
rin fr111 hal To hn< n
parties had virtually agreed to abide
by the decision of the improvised court,
and Mr.. Hayes only did his duty in
standing by the verdict. They acquit
him of personal blame. He was inno-
cent. whoever may have BEEN guilty.
In other words, according to this view
of the events of 1876 and 1877, Mr.
Hayes was morally right in taking and
1onged to Mr.. Tilden, whom the people
had chosen.
Merely to state these propositions is
to exhibit their faIsity. 1t is not our
purpose to thresh old straw anew, but
the present for reminding the people
that the late Rutherford B. Hayes was
himself a party to the conspiracy by
which he profited and an active agent
in promoting the monumental crime.
The proof of this is found in the I'M
disputed fact that the corrupt agree
ments entered into while the success of
the conspiracy was still doubtful were
carried out to the letter by Mr.. Hayes,
as the beneficiary. after he had been
fraudulently seated in Mr.. Tilden's
place. Others had made the bargain;
he paid.-N. Y. Sun.