The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-20
SEVEN TO EICHT
THE FAMOUS ELECTORAL COM
 MISSION
Which Robbed Tildsn of the Presi- dency of the United States
 and Seated Hayes.

The following from an address before the Bar Association of Virginia. was pre- sented by Hon. John Goode, Jr., at the meeting at Hot Springs. in that State. It is from the report in The Richmond Times-Dispatch of August g. Mir. Goode was a member of Congress from vir- ginia at the time. After reciting prelim- inaries, he said:
 When we voted to create the Electoral Commission we supposed. as We had. right to suppose, that in such an hour Of public peril in the supreme moment of our destiny as a people. five Senators. five Representatives and five judges be- longing to the most august tribunal upon earth, could be found who would be capa- ble of rising superior to all considera- tions of party, and deciding the great questions submitted to them like patriots and men, according to the Constitution and laws, in the fear of God, and in the spirit of the oath they were required to take. Far be 1t from me to impugn the motives of the honorable Commissioners. Poor human nature is very weak, and 1t is charitable to presume that if they were influenced in their judgment by any party bias or prejudice they were not conscious of 1t at the time. But still the humiliat- ing facts remains. that upon every vital proposition they stood eight Republicans and seven Democrats. MT. Justice Strong frankly admitted in a letter addressed to Hon. George W. Jones of Tennessee, bearing date February 2s, 1877, that he feared a great wrong had been done in the Louisiana case. MT. Justice Bradley said that he had serious doubts in the Florida case, and that he had written and rewritten several different opinions. 'In each case they based their decision upon the ground that evidence aliunde the Governors certificate could not be admitted by the Commission, which exer- cised such powers only as the two Houses of Congress possessed. and that the acts of sovereign State. expressed through its regularly-constituted authorities, hav- ing Jurisdiction of the matter. could not be inquired into by Congress.
 Some Inconsistencies.
 But 1t is worthy of note that not one of the Republican members of the Com mission has attempted to explain the glaring inconsistencies of their different rulings. In the Florida case they decided it was not competent to give any evidence aliunde the papers opened by the Presi- dent of the Senate in the presence of the two Houses, to show that other persons than those regularly certified by the Gov ernor had been appointed electors, or by counter proof to show that they had not, and then they proceeded to say. as to the objection made to the eligibility of Humphreys, The Commission Is of the opinion that, without reference to the question of the effect of the vote and the ineligibility of the elector, the evil dence does not show that he held the of flee of Shipping Commissioner on the day the electors were appointed In the first place. they decided that it would not be competent to go into evidence aliunde the papers opened by the President of the Senate in the presence Of the two | Houses. and in the second place, they admitted they did go into evidence aliunde to provide that Humphreys was not in- | eligible.
 'In the Louisiana case they decided 1t was not competent to prove that any | of such persons so appointed electors l aforesaid held an office of trust or profit 1 under the United States at the time when they wehe appointed, or that they were ineligible under the laws of the State l or any other matter offered to be proved aliunde the said certificates and papers | In other words they decided that 1t made | no difference whether the elector was rendered ineligible by the Constitution of the United States or the State oi | Louisiana his vote must be counted. Thi: decision was made notwithstanding Sec tion2, Article 9, of the Federal Constltu ton, which provides in express term' that No person holding an office of trus or profit under the United States shal be appointed an elector.' And the Con stitution of Louisiana provides that 'No person shall at the same time hold mor' | than one office' Two of the Louisian; electors held offices of trust and profi under the United States and four of then | were also officers of the State.
 '.In this connection, 1t, may be stated | that during the count of the electora vote in 1887, the eligibility of electors wa considered by Senate committee. com posed of Henry Clay. Silas Wright ant Felix Grundy. who reported that:
 "In the Oregon case the Commission | reversed their former technical ruling In the Florida and Louisiana cases, the! held that the person regularly certifie' to by the Governor of the State, and ac cording to the determination of their ap pointment by the returning officers, wer the legal electors.
 As to oregon's Vote.
 ''They also held evidence alIunde tn certificate not competent. Under tn laws of Oregon the Governor and tn Secretary of Sate were he Reurnin
 Board. They certified that Odell, Cart | wright and Crouin had been duly ap pointed electors, and yet the Commis
 sion went behind these certificates an received evidence showing that watt
 had been duly appointed elector instea
 of Cronin. If they had adhered to tn
 same ruling made in the Florida an Louisiana cases. they would have bee
 compelled to count one vote in the Stat
 of Oregon for Tilden and Hendricks, whic
 would have given 1s5 votes. majorlt
 of all the votes cast. But such a de
 cision would have been altogether tech
 nical, and not in accordance with tn
 right of the case. inasmuch as the cert
 ficate abstract of voters clearly shove
 that the State of Oregon had voted fo
 the Hayes electors by decisive major ity.
 The fundamental error of the Commis
 sion, in my humble opinion, was in re
 fusing the offer of proof made by tn
 counsel of the Tilden electors in the case , Of Florida Louisiana and South Care , lima. In the case of Florida, they offer ] ed to prove that the certificates of th Returning Board were in violation of tn . State law; that every department of th : State government had declared them i legal, null and void, and that the peopl 7 of Florida had, in the mode prescribed b