Evening star., 1932-10-16

accomplish, with unfalng certainty, the selec-
ton of somebody President before March A
following election day. That was really the
question which worried everybody in 1877.
When the right to our great executive Office
Is not legally determined, the temptation is tre-
mendous to use force and violence in obtain
ing it.
At that time Gen. Grant was President. His
character and war record were distinctly dis
couraging to rebellion, and the horrors of civil
war were still very recent; yet the country
seems actually to have stood again on the brink
Of an armed struggle.
Democratic Congressman from Virginia
tCld the House of Representatives that the Ma
ton would be brought to the point where
party or the other must make an igncminious
surrender, or we must fight. Are gentlemen
prepared for the latter alternative?" Where
upon a shout of 'Yes!" came from the Re-
publican side of the chamber.
The famous and fiery Henry Watterson de-
clared, in speech and through his newspaper,
that he would lead 100000 Kentuckians to
Washington to see that justice was done T1lden
in the contest. A prominent member Of the
late Southern Confederacy promised 145000
we'll disciplined Southern troops to fight in
support of the claims Of the Democratic party.
Members Of the House freely predicted blood
shed in that boSy before the 4th of March.
President Grant meanwhile made preparations
for preserving order.
THAT civil war did not actually ensue was
! due largely to Southerners Notwithstand-
ing their fiery speeches and threats. they
realized keenly both the horror and the futilty
of again reSorting to arms.
Moreover, they received secret assurances
that. il Hayes were elected, the Federal troops
would be withdrawn from the South, and they
cared more about this than they did about
winning the presidency. Therefore they per-
mitted the makeshift Of 1877. the so-called
Electoral Commission to settle the disputed
election by more or less legal means. In con-
sidering the machinery Of settlement however,
we must not overlook altogether the person.
alities involved.
If Supreme Court Justice David Davis. for
instance, had not been quite so fat and fond
of his own comfort possibly history might have
been able to record a nobler outcome to the
Hayes -Tilden contest. The admitted breadth
OF Davis mind was as nothing when compared
with the truly extraordinary breadth Of his
body. It was said that when his tailor prepared
to make him pair Of trousers he didn't meas
ure-he surveyed
This genial giant was the chosen victim the
scrapegoat upon whom Congress tried to un-
load the burden of its own sins of omission.
It had failed to make any laws during the
preceding 88 years which told what to do in
such a case as had arisen in this disputed
election Of 1877; hence, at the last minute OF
the eleVe0Cn nOur, IL naQ 10 uNpTOElSc SOAic
substitute for civil war to solve the problem
it had neglected
The substitute evolved was an electoral COM
mission established by statute passed at the
end Of January, 1877, to consist OF seven Re-
publicans, seven Democrats and David Davis.
They were or rather he was, to decide the
questions in dispute and to award the presi-
dency and the vice presidency according to
their-that is to say, his-best judgment.
THE task of the other IA was easy; each was
! expected to vote for his party, always;
but Davis, as the one presumably non-par-
tisan member, was supposed to decide points
on their judicial merits.
That is, he was to take all the responsibility.
all the blame, abuse and insult that were GER
tain to come from approximately SO per cent
of the bitterly eager people of the United
States, against whose hopes he would have to
render his decision. .-
Even q thin man might shrink from such an