Evening star., 1944-11-05
NotedElection Surprises
BY John Clagett Proctor.


Again, election day is almost upon us.
and under ordinary conditions we should
know shortly after midnight, two days
hence, who has been elected President
OF the Unite States for the next term of
that Office. But then, again, we may
not know for sometime to come, par
ticularly If the election returns are as
close and complicated as was the Hayes
Tilden election Of 1876, when the people
knew only two days before March
(then the Inauguration date) whether it
would be Rutherford B. Hayes or Samuel
j. Tilden. But on November 9, several
days after the election. the great ques-
ton was Whats what or who's Yho?"
And the STAR inorder to convey an idea
of the snarled conditions the returns
were in, said in its headlines:
HAYES OR TILDEN?
THAT'S THE QUESTION
"Ho1U About Florida?
"The Same in louisiana"
Indeed, the tension became critical
and acute, and all sorts of rumors were
afioat, particularly down in Louisiana,
where the Democrats accused the Re-
publicans of trying to steal the election,
and so alarmed became Gen. Grant, who
then was on the last lap Of his second
administration and temporarily stop
ping in Philadelphia, that he tele-
graphed from that city to Gen. William
T. Sherman in Washington the follow
ing note: Instruct Gen. Augur, in
Louisiana, and Gen. Ruger, in Florida,
to be vigilant with the force at their
command to preserve peace and good
order and to see that the proper and
legal boards of canvassers are unmo-
Tested in the performance of their
duties. Should there be any grounds of
suspicion of fraudulent count on either
side it should be reported and denounced
at once. No man worthy of the office of
President should be willing to hold 1t If
counted in or placed there by fraud.
Either party can afford to be disap-
pointed in the result. The country can
not afford to have the result tainted by
the suspicion of illegal or false returns"
Electoral Entan9lements
For both political parties. and, indeed
for the entire country, time dragged
painfully on while Congress was trying
to work out some plan satisfactorily to
seat one of the candidates The Senate
was Republican, the House largely
Democratic, the President (Grant) was
Republican.
1t was a situation calling for a
genius to untangle. Under these cir
cumstances a resolution was introduced
in the House on December by Repre-
sentative McCrary Of Iowa, Repubn-
can, which was the entrance wedge to
the subsequent passage by Congress OF
the electoral commission bill introduced
by Senator Edmunds in the Senate,
and which provided for the commission,
in part, as follows: During the session
of each House. on the Tuesday rext
preceding the first Thursday in Feb
ruary, 1877, each house shall, by viva
voce vote, appoint five of its members,
who, with the five associate justices of
the Supreme Court of the United
States, to be ascertaineo as hereinafter
provided shall constitute commission
for the decision of all questions upon
or in respect to such double returns
named in this section.
"On the Tuesday next preceding the
first Thursday in February, AID 1877,
or as soon thereafter as may be, the
associate justices of the Supreme Court
of the United States now assigned to
the first, third, eight and ninth circuits,
shall select, in such manner as a ma