Year: 1877




which may become troublesome by and by.
Here, for instance, we find the Hon. MIR.
Cannon, Of Illinois-a piece Of republican
ordnance of very insignificant calibre, to
judge from the report that
'the President has not properly cared for
those to whom he owes his election :" and
this cry is heard on all sides from the ma
chine republicans who find the civil service
policy such bitter pill to swallow.


But these neglected and suffering lambs
did not elect the President. 1t is a mere
sham and hollow pretence in them to say SO;
and If our politics were not SO overburdened
with the most ridiculous and baseless as
sumptions the claim that men like Mr..
Cannon elected President Hayes, and that
his gratitude ought to shine on them in
particular manner, would cause only general
laughter. What is the truth? The repub-
licans who arc now SO bitterly opposing and
denouncing the President did not elect
him. On the contrary they tried and failed
to elect him. The particular class OF whom
we speak did not even willingly nominate
him. They labored at Cincinnati to NOM
mate some other man, or indeed almost any
other man except Mr. Hayes. He was not
the candidate of any of them, so far as we
now recall the Convention but when all
their favorites had managed to cut each
others throats, then at last they were un-
willingly brought to unite on Mr.. Hayes.


Then came the canvass, and the people
who now groan so dolorously about the
Presidents ingratitude to those who elected
him made haste to drop their platform and
Mr. Hayes letter of acceptance into the
miro, and appeal to the country with very
much faded out bloody shirt. No doubt
they were very desirous to elect their candi-
date on this stale issue /; but the fact is they
failed. We believe the country would have
gone very largely for Hayes if it could have
foreseen the policy he would adopt but,
we repeat, the clear and undoubted fact IS
that the people Of Mr.. Cannon's stripe did
not elect Mr.. Hayes. Any claims they set
up before him on this score are, to put it
plainly, ridiculous and untrue.


President Hayes holds his title to his
Office from the Electoral Commission. 1t is
q perfectly good title, as we explained as
soon as the decision was rendered, as every
lawyer in the country knows and as some Of
the ablest of them, North and South, have
openly declared, among them opponents as
well as partisans of Mr.. Hayes. But what
had Mr.. Cannon and men Of his stripe to
do with the Electoral Commission, which
declared Mr.. Hayes President, and to which
and not to their efforts in tho canvass he
owes his place? Why, they opposed it-that
is all. They would not have it. They
spoke and logrolled against it. Senator
Conkling, to whose wisdom and patriotism.
more than to any other or NIL other
men in Congress, this measure owed its
existence Senator Conkling was denounced
by the men of Mr.. Cannon's stripe in un-
measured terms for this good work, for
which the country owes him profound graf
itude. They sneered at him as false to the
republican party they insinuated that
he was traitor to his friends !;
they heaped obloquy upon him in
every way, and to such degree
that if he had been common thief
their vile abuse could not have been worse.
They did all they knew how to defeat the
Electoral bill, and the few Of them who at
last voted for it did so grumblingly. And
now they 60 about the streets of Washington
complaining that the President 'has not
properly cared for those who elected him."
Surely the force of partisan impudence
never went further than this.


Here is the plain truth about Mr.. Hayes,
as it is known to all sensible men. He owes
his place to the agreement of the wisest and
most patriotic men Of both parties in both
houses Of Congress and in the country ut
large. The men, of both sides, who framed
and who passed the Electoral bill amid the
howls and excavations Of mere partisans like
this Mr.. Cannon were true patriots, sincere
and wise lovers OF their country, whose
from us, the dire plague of civil war. They
took no thought of Office or personal gain;
they rose above all partisan considerations,
and their names will live in honor very long
after the names of the army Of petty howleis
after patronage have sunk into dirty OBJ
livion.


And yet these people complain that the
President 'has not properly cared for those
to whom he owes his election" And all
the loud fuss they are making. all the out
cry of these injured patriots, all the griev-
ance which makes them despair Of their
country, is based on this ridiculous assump-
ton that they, who did all that their small
brains enabled them to do to defeat the
President, were the men who elected him.
But even this is not ALL These absurd
howlers for patronage not only did not elect
Mr.. Hayes, not only did do everything they
could do to hinder his attainment Of the
place ho holds, they have not even sup
ported him since he came into office. He
had hardly spoken his Inaugural Message
when Mr. Cannon and men Of his stripe