Year: 1877

Victory Of Law and Peace.


The Philadelphia Times of the 19tl
instant says We give elsewhere the ful
text Of the bill presented to Congress yes
terday by the joint committee selected t.
report rules TO govern the count of tn,
Presidential votes 1t comes to the two
Houses and to the country with the united
commentator of all parties On the com.
mittees, with the single exception Of Sen.
ator Morton; ard it is but giving utterance
to the truth to say, that the dissent of SO
inscriptions political leader as Mr..
Morton, will weigh strongly in favor Of
the measure in the judgment of dispassion
ate and patriotic men.


The bill proposed with such unanimity
is free from all antiquities, and every en-
barrassment possible in the execution of
the law seems to have been fairly provided
for. The President Of the Senate is shorn
Of all pretence ofauthority over the result.
lie presides and obeys the two Houses, as
reason and precedents dictate that he should
On the Tuesday preceding the Thursday
OF February on which the vote is to be
counted, each house shall elect five of its
members to represent it on the appellate
tribunal to which all disputed questions
shall be referred for discussion. To these
ten will be added Associate Justices Cliff
ford, Strong, Miller and Field of the Su-
preme Court, and they shall select another
from the remaining Associate Justices of
the court-Messrs Swayne, Davis, Brad
ley and Hunt. Thus five Republicans
from the Senate, FIVE Democrats from the
House and five Judges of the Supreme
Court--two friends of Mr. Hayes miller
and Strong) and two friends of Mr.. Tilden
Clifford aud Field) with one to be chosen
from Davis, (Liberal Swayne, Bradley
and Hunt (Reps.) will constitute the tri-
bunal to whose final judgment the nation
will give willing obedience. OF the Judges,
but one (Cliford) is an out-and-out Dem
oerat, while Davis and Field are consery-
atiye Republicans with supposed sympathy
with Tilden in the contest. OF the Re-
publican Judges, Swayne, Strong and Hunt
are esteemed the most conservative. while
Bradley and Miller are regarded as more
decidedly partisan than their associates.
Doubtless the most conservative of the
remaining Republican Judges will be
chosen as the needed member to complete
the high court that is to be entrusted with
the most delicate and responsible duty ever
submitted for arbitrament in the history
OF our free institutions, 1t would seem
impossible that Judges of the court of last
resort IN the greatest of civil governments
could be faithless in the discharge of such
trust, and however their Judgment may
disappoint the hopes of men on either side,
there will be abiding faith that integrity
and patriotism have ruled in the conflict.


With the tribunal thus chosen, the two
Houses will meet on the 1st Of February
to count the vote. The States shall be
taken in alphabetical order, the return, or
duplicate returns, opened and submitted
to the joint convention Objection may
be made in writing to any return, be
signed by ono Senator and one Congress
man. Such objections shall be heard
without debate, and be acted upon by each
House separately, after debate not ex
ceeding two hours on any one disputed
return. If their separate judgments shall
accord with each other, the vote shall be
SO counted and declared; but if they shall
disagree, the commission provided for in
the bill will hear the written objections,
decide the issue by a majority vote, and
that decision shall be final, unless both
Houses concur in overruling it, in which
case the decree of the two Houses shall be
recorded as the final Judgment on the
question.


The fact that two committees of repre-
sentative men of the great political parties
Of the country, each struggling for ascen-
deney in the administration of the govern
ment, have substantially agreed upon a
lawful method for solving the grave prob
lem Of disputed Presidential election,
must practically end opposition to the bill
in Congress, and it will crystalline the
whole nation in hearty support of the pro-
missing effort to maintain the unsullied
majesty of law and preserve the threaten
ed tranquility Of the country. Those who
place party above country, and others who
care for neither party nor country save to
crafty greed or ambition, and the mendi-
cant organs of debauched placemen which
accept stripes and plunder from power,
will complain. They will plead the con-
stitution, the prerogatives of the Presi-
dent Of the Senate, the partisan tales of
violence and fraud, and summon their
armies Of rebel phantoms as in times past;
but none will heed them, and heneefcrth
the snarl of the pot-house politician and
the jangle of the organ will be powerless
to fret the hopes of faithful people.
Congress has acted with singleness of
purpose in behalf of law and peace, and
more than forty millions of free people will
respond with their sovereign approval.