The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-28

hfef hCN dUdsiNC kiClcS III the mOrn- ing journals and had the walters hand them to Sheridan, who bowed and smiled to the senders as if he were receiving pleasant compliment Threats of assassination were in the air. but they caused him no concern. One night, however, he was irritated at what he deemed palpabie hit from a Northern friend. Lawrence Barrett, playing Richelieu at the New Varieties Theatre, invited Sheridan to be present as his guest and reserved a box for him. The actor had a most of friends In New Orleans and he felt for them in their trouble. When he came to the words of Richelieu in the second act.
 rake away the sword; States can be saved without it, he spoke them with unwonted force and fervour. Cheer upon cheer resounded. The house rose to It's feet in an uproar of enthusiasm. At the end of the act. Sheridan rushed oenind the scenes and with a round oath demanded of Barrett why he put that in the play?
 sheridan knew no more of law than ne did of literature. He called on Hoar the night before he left New Orleans. and, referring to the Force bill, then pending, said, What you want to do. MT. Hoar, when you get pack to Washington, Is to suspend ne-what-do-you-ca it." meaning, of course, the writ of habeas corpus" As the second term of Grant was drawing to a close he was induced by his friends to publish a letter which MT. Rhodes interpdets as "a grudging declinatfon to be a candidate for a third term" His party. taking him at his word, the field was left open, and now Blaine was the most promising candidate. The story of Blaines "fall' IS one of the most graphic in the book, which Is full of striking character sketches that are always appropriate because they always illustrate pivotal events. This story about Elaine begins with a ruling he made as Speaker, April 10. 1869. The ruling in favor of an Arkansas railroad company was in itself proper, but Blaine afterwards used It as means of acquiring inter- ests in the bonds and stock of the road. and out of these transactions came the In the House April 24th, 1878, and sub sequently eliminated in the affair of the Muiligan letters and MT. Blaine's wonderful and defiant speech of June 9th. Of this speech, the author says: Blaine's defence was a masterstroke. But 1t was that of a criminal in the dock not that of candidate for Presi- dent whose acts while speaker were questioned. In committee he and his friends made use of many bubbles Known to the law to prevent the elici- tatfon of the whole truth; and if is probable that the evidence would not have convicted him in the court room, Perhaps the fencing in committee may majority of his political opponents. but in his two speeches when he presented his case to the House and his fellow countrymen, he owed ie TO his posit,on be excused as he was on trial by a IT ne was innocent, to answer frankly every charge and explain every sus- picious circumstance, concealine noth- ing, welcoming the fullest inquiry. He not only failed to do this. but in his speech of April 24. he told six distinct faisehoods. His speech of June 5 was throwing dust into mems eyes was ef- Iectiveiy used He did not read the letters In their chronological order, nor all that he had taken from Mufiigan. ana there was suspicion that he did not read some correctly and that those which he omitted were more damaging than those which he read"
 The account of the Hayes -TiIder com troversy. of the action of the Returnine Boards of South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana, Is especially illuminating.
 MT. Rhodes believes that Tilden was entitled to the electoral vote of Flor Ida and certainly of Louisiana. either Of which would have given him the rresidency. So thoroughly is he con- vinced as to Louisiana that he says.
 If Hayes had envisaged the facts as l now do, he would have refused to accept the Presidency from the Louisi- ana Returning Board"
 This opinion he bases upon his high opinion of MT. Hayes and upon a letter that Hayes wrote to Sherman at New orleans on November 27, in which he said:
 But we are not to allow our friends to defeat one outrage and fraud by an other. There must be nothing crooked on our part"
 This was written when the "visiting statesmen" from Washington were o., the watch in New Orleans, while the Returning Board there was doing it's work. sherman seems subsequently, to nave been able by a visit and an inter view to stifie MT. Hayes's scruples. Af- ter Hayes had awaited the decision of the Returning Boards and the electoral commission, the opinion of the author Gin which we concur) is as follows:>
 The suggestion that Hayes should have refused the Presidency in March 1877. seems to me idle. I believe that he ought to have stopped the action in his favor of the Louisiana Returning Board, but after swallowing this much no stood as the avowed representative of his party; and the party, having Joined with their opponents in submit- ting the dispute to a fair arbitration, and having finally won their cause. he had no choice but to take the place. Though his moral title to the Presi- dency was always questioned, his legal title was perfect"
 MT. Rhodes's opinion as to the action of the electoral commission is as fol- lows-and we think this is to be the verdict of history:
 But though in the case under con- sideration, greater justice would have been done by correcting the frauds in Louisiana, the decision of the electoral commission was better law than the opinion of the seven: and at any period of our history, except that of the car pet-bag negro regime, from 1867 to 1877. the application of the principle on which it was based would have given. practical justice The decision was more in accordance with both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution and with common sense American ideas. On the principles which actu- ated 1t, the count was conducted from 17S9 to 1865, and has been since 1877, and. in accordance with them, the Elec- toral Count Act of February 8, 1887. was framed"
 Such of our readers as may have the good fortune to study Mir Rhodes's history will we think accord him far more praise than he claims for himself In the following sentence on the last page of his book:
 My subject has been varied and i'm portant. My material superabundant and, while conscious of my limitations, I have endeaVored throuRhout this his-