The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-09-01
The News and Observer, Sunday, Sept. 1, 'o5.

and-twenty years-and no man would
suspect any member of being under any
influence, consideration or motive that
was not perfectly legitimate.
l have not time tonight to point out
or trace the causes that have produced
such a lamentable decline of official mo-
ralits. We must now look to the future.
We are to seek a remedy for the state of
things through which we have been
passing, aud in nothing can it be found
so effectively as in combined effort to
elevate the tone of morality on political
questions, and to raise our standards of
official life. | have been one of those
who, amid periods pregnant with de-
spOndency, still retained that trust in
the body of the American people with
which | began life | did not incline to
censure those who sometimes felt de-
spoudent. But l, myself, never lost
courage; never lost my belief that the
element of human society which seeks
for what is good is more powerful, if we
will trust it, than all those selfish com
binations that would obtain unjust adj
Yantages over the masses of the people.
While he was Governor he became
very impatient with the delay of coun-
sci who had been employed to prosecute
Tweed's confederates. One Of them
waited on the Governor and said he
could not afford to neglect his private
business entirely. "When you accepted
this retainer" said the Governor,
sharply, "you said you would not permit
your private business to interfere with
it." The counsel then muttered some
thing deprecatingly about not wishing to
appear at the bar as a man with one
client Or of one idea. "Sir," exclaimed
the Governor fiercely, "a man who is not
a monomaniac is not worth a damn"
If Mr.. BigeIow had performed no
other service in his Life of Mr., Tilden,"
the full and complete account of the
actions of the Returning Boards in
South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida,
aud of the Electoral Com mission will
make it standard work as long as men
study American history. 1t is an adj
mirable arraignment and conviction, not
only of the rogues who actually stole the
votes of those States, but a pillorying
of the Visiting statesmen" who were
the real criminals in that transaction.
There is little severity of expression, but
a plain statement of proof that leaves no
doubt of the criminal participation
of the men to whom Hayes gave
the big plums when he went into the
White House. Then follows also an &C
count of the offices, big and little, that
were given to the thieves of all grades,
and much concurrent history that leaves
no room to doubt that Hayes and his
chief advisers were particeps criminis.
Mr. Bigelow quotes from the reminis-
cences of Geo. W. Childs a conversation
Gen. Grant had with A J. Drexel, Col.
A. K. Mcclure and Mr.. Ohilds, in which
Gen. Grant reviewed the contest be-
fore and in the commission, very fully,
and with rare candor; and the chief sig
nificance of his view was in the fact, as
he stated it, that he expected from the
beginning until the final judgment, that
the electoral vote Of Louisiana would be
awarded to Tilden. He spoke of South
Carolina and Oregon as justly belonging
to Hayes; of Florida, as reasonably
doubtful; and of Louisiana, as for Til
den"
Mr.. Bigelow makes it clear that Mr..
Tilden never advised the establishment
of the Electoral Commission, but on the
contrary let it be known that be thought
the Democrats were surrending their ad
vantage needlessly. In the inaugural
address of his successor, Governor Robin
son, the following portion of which was
written by Mr.. Tilden, his views about
the method to be pursued are carefully
and fully set forth. This quotation will
serve to give Mr.. Tilden's views of the
course he believed wise.
So often as any question has arisen as
to the authenticity or validity of an
electoral vote, the two houses have as
sumed and exercised the exclusive power
to act upon and determine that question.
They have, in contemplation of law,
themselves made every count; they have
from the first assumed exclusive juris-
diction to regulate and govern the whole
transaction by temporary concurrent
orders adopted for the occasion, by
standing joint rules and by the enact
ment of laws. Such has been the uni
form and uninterrupted course Of pre-
cedents, the invariable practice of the