Year: 1878




1t is butjustice to President Hayes
that public attention be called to the
fact that the Potter Investigation has
as yet brought nothing home to him.
There is nothing in any part of the
testimony which has thus far been
taken by the Potter committee which
can raise even distant suspicion
that Mr.. Hayes had any knowledge
of, much less any completely with,
fraudulent election transactions.
There is not only no evidence i'm
plicating him, but the whole tenor of
the testimony taken by the commit
tee up to this time excludes the idea
that Mr. Hayes had any guilt knowl-
edge or even the remotest suspicion
Of fraudulent transactions to make
him President. While it is too clear
that there were such transactions it
is perfectly evident that Mr.. Hayes
knew nothing Of them, and that he
acted in all points upon the theory
that he had not only been legally in
stalled but honestly elected. Ifothers
had doubts or misgiYings the Presi-
dent did not share them.


The Potter investigation was set on
foot in the expectation that the testi-
mony of Anderson and the entangle-
ment Of Matthews would bring the
Louisiana frauds dangerously near
the door Of the President. That
aim has been completely foiel. The
fact that Matthews was an intimate
and familiar of the President only
strengthens the presumption that he
was in no way implicated either in
the frauds or in any knowledge of
them. The Matthews letters, which
are very damaging to Matthews, are
at the same time perfect vindica-
! ton of the President For the
greater part of a year Matthews was
writing urgent letters to get Ander-
son appointed to some Office which
would satisfy him, and the only
success which attended those persis-
tent efforts consisted in at last pro-
curing for Anderson the petty con-
sulship at Funchal. When this minor
appointment had been procured
somebody in Washington who knew
Anderson wrote letter to the Presi-
dent describing him as unworthy,
and thereupon Mr. Hayes directed
his private secretary to write note
to Mr.. Evarts asking him to with
hold the commission which had been
made out for Anderson. The ina
bility Of Matthews, after so great an
expenditure of efforts to procure for
Anderson anything better than that
paltry consulship and the decisive
promptneSs with which the commits
sion was revoked as soon as Anderson
WAS represented to the President as
an unworthy man, are a conclusive
demonstration that the President did
not think he had anything to fear
from secrets in the possession of that
man which his disappointment might
cause him to divulge. The fact that
Matthews so long urged the claims of
Anderson in vain shows how weak
his influence was with the adminis-
tration, and the prompt revocation of
the appointment within two days
after it was made shows how ignor-
ant the President was of Anderson's
pretended secrets, or at least how
little he feared them. The President
was alike Indifferent to Anderson's
forbearance and his enmity, an in
difference which he was not likely to
have manifested if he had been act
ing in collusion with Matthews to
shut Anderson'S mouth and put him
at safe distance from prying politi-
clans. The whole course of the
President proves that Matthews had
little influence at the White House,
and that Anderson was regarded as
Of no account. Such treatment is
irreconcilable with the theory that
Mr.. Hayes was privy to the Return
ing Board frauds. The Investigation
has proved that Anderson is an in
triguing fscamp and Matthews a
timorous fool and it proves even
more conclusively that the President
has not soiled even the tips of his
fingers by any contract with tho
alleged frauds.-NelU YORK; Herald.


A beautiful complexion depends
upon the purity Of The blood. To keep