Year: 1877

1


Muse of History may answer at her leisure
Is there any justification of Gen. Grants
conduct in this business? Within two or


three days after the election it became per-


fectly well known to the whole country that


in Louisiana there had been full poll, and


a large majority for the Tilden electors.


No reason was suggested by anybody for


classifying this result The apprehension
that it would be falsfed in the return arose


solely out of the fact that the election ma


chinery of the State was in the hands of
mere knaves who were just base enough to


do it; and these were Gen. Grants own


knaves, whom for years he had kept in their


places by lawless force. 1t was then that he


said that no man could afford to be Presi-


dent by a fraud, and sent n committee to


see that true count was made. This was


fairseeming enough, but he did not row the


way he was looking. Every one of his COM


mittee favored the fraud, and their report,


which he endorsed and sent TO Congress,


was defence of it from beginning to end.


He had supported and enforced frauds of the


same kind several times before, and now


his troops were at New Orleans avowedly to


protect the carpet -baggers while they were


repeating them on large scale. Besides,


when Chandler promised the fraudulent


Governor of Florida to send troops and


money to that State after the election


troops and money to count the votes-he de-


clared in one of his dispatches that the


President had been consulted. Still furth-


er, while his party in Congress were holding


up the fraud he answered the arguments in


favor of Tilden's right by ordering to the


capital all the cavalry, artillery, and infan-


try within reach. Whether these circum-


stances be sufficient or not to convict him
of participation in the fraud, let the world


judge.


THE CREATION OF THE COMMISSION.


But how was the object of the conspiracy


to be accomplished The House of Repre-


sentatves was Democratic, and without its


consent, expressed or implied in some form


or another, the Senate could not give effect


to false count. The first intention was to


claim that the President of the Senate had


power to determine absolutely and arbitrari-


ly what electoral votes should be counted


and what not. This was the great rallyng


point until Mr.. Conkling took it up, and,
in speech of surprising ability, utterly de-
, molished and reduced it to invisible atoms.
1t became settled, therefore, that the two


Houses must count the votes, and this clear
ly implied the power to inquire and deter
| mine what were votes. 1t could not be de-
MED that the voice of the House of Repre-
sentatives was at least as potential as that
} Of the Senators and it was not supposed
J, that the House would suffer fraud so glar-
: ing as this to be thrust down the throat of
h the country against the stomach of its
5 sense" But if the two bodies would declare
r inconsistent results of the count, and pro-
= claim the election of different Presidents
!. a state of things might come which would
r enough to endanger them greatly. 1t was
y in these difficult circumstances that mixed
= commission of fifteen was proposed, consist
0 ing of five Senators, five Representatives,
: and five Judges of the Supreme Court,
t The mode of appointing them made it GER
D tain that fourteen would be equally divided
a between the parties and as the fifth Judge
s would be named by the consent of his breth-
ren on both Sides he might be expected to
= stand between them, like daysman, with
: hand as heavy on one head rs the other.
, The Democrats consented to this in the be-
: lief that no seven Republicans could be
5 taken from the court or from Congress who
| I H. ,,l th
e uphold known fraud if mistaken in that


opinion of their adversaries' honesty, they


felt sure, at all events, that the umpire


would be fairminded man. They were
u bitterly disappointed; the commission went
: eight to seven for the great fraud and all its
branches for fraud in the detail and in the
n aggregate for every item of fraud that was
l. necessary to make the sum total big enough
: eight to seven all the time.


1T REFUSES TO DO ITS DUTY.


o We must look at the state of the case as
a it went before the commission. Tilden and
r Hendricks had 1874 electoral votes clear and
t free of all dispute, one less than majority
d of the whole number. They also had in
: Louisiana eight. and in Florida four, ap-
!, pointed by the people, but falsely certified
n to Hayes and Wheeler by the Governor.
e In Oregon they had one certified by the


Governor, but against whom popular ma.
Y jority had been cast for an ineligible cand-
e date. TO elect Hayes it was necessary that
: each and every one of these thirteen votes
l. should be taken from Tiden and given to
= Hayes. As this required many distinct
e rulings based upon contradictory grounds
n the path of the commission was not only
e steep but crooked.


Il The great and important duty cast upor
d the commission by a special law and by {
is special oath of each member was to decid,
n in the case of contested votes from State
= "whether any and what votes from such
It State are the votes provided fer by the Con
re stitution of the United States, and how


many and what persons were duly appointed


electors in such State" 1t is not denied


that the sole power of appointing electors TO
" the States of Louisiana and Florida is in tn,
u people. 1t was then: :and still is an admit
u ted fact that the people had exercised thu
l. power of appointment in the prescribed anC
y proper way they did duly make an ap
"a pointment of electors, and their act was du
~ ly recorded, and so made a perpetual mem
:, ory. This thing was not "done in corner;'
III it was "seen and known of all men," Tha
10 each of the two States named had duly ap
's pointed Tilden electors at regular election
g. called for that purposaon the 7th of Novem
= Der, in pursuance of law, was part of thei
10 history as much as the fact that they wer
u States of the Union. All the member
IN of the commission knew il as well "a the