Year: 1877

Inc usually Weii-Inf0rmeQ cores
pondent of the Baltimore Sun, writing
from this city since the decision In the
Florida case. and speaking of the Bit
ter disappointment felt by Democrats
who voted for the electoral bill, at the
partisan spirit and rulings of the Rad
zeal majority on the Commission, says:


When the electoral bill was report
ed the Democrats of the House, as
will be remembered, were called to-
gether to consider it. The question
was raised in the caucus as to whether
the language of the bill was designed
to provide for the admission of testi-
mony to prove fraud in the electoral
certificates of the disputed States.-
Some of those present thought that
the bill was not sufficiently explicit on
this point, and that IT should be made
mandatory. 1t was then stated by
member of the joint committee which
framed the bill that it certainly was
designed to admit the character of tes-
timony alluded to that such was the
express understanding of the commit
tee, and so acceded to by the Republi-
can members of the committee whom
he named that the bill had been
drawn as it was to obviate the coDtin7
gency Of powerful opposition in the
Senate at the request of a Senator on
the committee, and who said, in reply
to repeated interrogatories, of course
it will admit testimony. ThaS same
Senator, as a member Of the Electoral
Commission, voted steadily to exclude
all testimony"


Who is the Senator referred to?-
Not Conkling, for he Is not 4 member
of the Commission not Morton, for
he opposed the bill at every stage not
Frelinghuysen, for in his speech in ad-
vocacy of the bill in the Senate Mon
day, January 2, he explicitly denied
the right of the commission under the
bill ITO go behind the certificates, re-
turns. and accompanying papers. y
There is but one other Radical Sena-
tor who is on the Commission, and was
on the committee which framed the
bill.


On the five Radical members of the
Electoral Commission on the part of
the House and Senate four were men,
bers of the joint committee which re-
ported the bili-Messrs. Edmunds,
Morton, aud Hoar. OF
the seven Radical MEMBERS of the joint
six, all but Morton, signed
the report recommending the bill, and
supported it by their speeches and
their votes. How these gentlemen ex-
pressed themselves in committee may
be inferred from what Senator Thur
man said in the Senate, in answer to
the objection that the bill created a
partisan tribunal:


Again, it is said that it will give
the making of the President to one
man. Assuming that the five Sena-
tors who are chosen will be so parti-
san, that the five Representatives who
are chosen will be SO partisan, that the
FIVE judges who may be on that tribu-
nal may be so partisan and corrupt,
that every one of them, disregarding
his honor, disregarding his obligations
to his country, disregarding his obliga-
tions to truth aud to law and to Justice,
the solemn oath that he
is to take as a member of the commits
be so corrupt that he will
have no other guide for his decision
than the behest OF party-itis said that
the decision will be that of one man,
as the fifteenth member happens to be
a Democrat or a Republican. | say,
with the Senator from Michigan, that
if the public men of this country have
reached that depth of corruption and
degradation our institutions have lasted
too long. 1t is time to cease to have
Judges of your Supreme Court; it is
time to cease to honor and to respect
Senators and Representatives In Con-
gress 1T is time to cease to ask the
people to yield willing obedience to
the laws and willing and reverential
obedience to the decisions of the
courts, if those who constitute the
highest officers in all the land, mem
bers of the highest judicial tribunal,
members of the highest legislative as
sembly in all the Republic, are so ut
terly corrupt that they are willing to
be foresWorn, in the decision of cause
submitted to them, at the behest of
their party. I do not believe it, aud |
believe it the less that | come from
the committee that reported this bill
and after three weeks laboriOus labor
on that committee, say now, Demo
crat as / am, and firm as a Democrat
can be, that | would be willing to sub
NIT the decision of this cause to that
committee itself; because | did see iu
the deliberati0n Of that committee, |
did feel it in the very atmosphere that
surrounded US, that when the emer-
gency comes, when the trial comes,
men can rise above party, and that
they do rise above il"


Now, we do not suppose that any
one would call Senator Thurman a
particularly credulous man, or one
likely to be easily imposed upon. He
is to shreWd. to clear headed for that.
Neither would it be just to accuse him
of having, in the remarks above quo
ted, spoken merely for effect, or said
what he did not mean. Senator Thur
man honestly believed that the men,
bers of the Commission would be ca
pable of rising above party" in the
consideration of the questions which
the bill proposed to refer to their de-
cision. And he stated his grounds for
so believing. He believed that the
Commission would be just and Impair
tial, and rise bove party =; because
in the deliberations Of the committee
which framed the bill he saw and felt
that men could be just and impartial
in such matters, and could rise above
party" Now, upon the Electoral
Commission Senator Thurman has for
colleagues some of the very same men
who sat with him in the committee.
Leaving out Morton, to whom it is not
conceivable that Senator Thurman had
any reference in his remarks-there
are Edmunds and Frelinghuysen and


Hoar. Now here is what Judge Ed
munds said of the impartiality, which
was to characterize the tribunal crea-
ted by the bill:


The bill provides what also hope
that partisans as we'll as Senator'S and


Representatives will carefully consider,
that


The members of said Commission


shall respectively take and subscribe


the following oath


l., do solemnly swear Tor


affirm, as the case may be) that | will


impartially examine and consider all


questions submitted to the commission


of which [ am a member, and a true


Judgment give thereon, agreeably to


the Constitution and the laws so help


me God"


"No more partisan, no more friend,


no more opponent, no more enemy, but


the solemn Judgment of the judge. Ii


appeared to US, Mr.. President, that
I