Year: 1878

Pssssr on Fosters lnvestixasion.


Hon. Clarkson n. Potter, the
mover Of the Potter Investigation,
has addressed q letter to q friend in
New York which contains unan-
Iwerable replies TO the rot about
violence and as to the impolicy of
the investigation which appears
In certain Republican journals.
As to the violence chImera, he
says:


Let US rather, as Mr.. Jefferson
said, shave q jealous care of the
right of election by the people, and
seek q safe and mild corrective for
the abuses which, where no peace
able remedy is provided, are Topped
by the sword Of revolution It'll
has been said that there was moth
ing more cowardly than a million
of dollars except two millions.
This is natural. But it is the mis-
take of capital to magnify the dan
gers on the surface and overlook
those that lie below. Just now
your capitalists are troubling them.
selves about the Commune, and op-
pose the reduction Of the army,
which they would have kept up as
q national police. And yet, in no
great country of the world is there
SO little danger of communism as
In this, for nowhere is property so
generally distributed. But capt.


talists stood by supinely when the
army was used to protect Return


Boards In sitting the votes of


States and frustrating the will OF


their people, and under the pre-


tence of maintaining order to sub


vert the very principles of free gov
ernment. Believe me, lin this there


was real danger. Governments are


based on principle. The theory of
this government is that the people


of the States shall choose electors


for themselves, and that by the ag


gregate voice of such electors the


national Executive shall be select


ed. To let the party in power in.


terfere by force of arms to protect


local board in falsifying the will of
the localities is to subvert the the


ory of this government, and lead


surely to its destruction. What


ever may result from the proposed


investigation, you may be sure
that nothing can result that will
disturb either your flocks or your


balances. The trouble to capital,
to property, and freedom will come,
not perhaps in your time or mine,
but come ut last, from refusing to
inquire into frauds. To confront
the evil If you may not right it, is
to prevent its repetition. To shut
your eyes to it supinely is to jeop-
ard and not to preserve the future
peace, safety, and prosperity of the
country.


We regard this as simply ire
fragable, but not more SO than Mr..
Potter's demonstration of the ne.
cessity for, and his description of
the scope OF, the Investigation.
We quote:


This belief in the bulldozing of
the negro was based mainly upon
the fact that in certain districts in
the South which usually gave Re-
publican majorities there was not
returned that year single Repub-
lican vote. Now, the people of the
North have never understood that
this condition of things was fraud.
ulently prepared by the Rspubli-
cans. They ought to understand
that; and beyond that they ought
to understand that there never was
anything SO dangerous to a free
government as Returning Board.
A delegation of persons vested
with discretionary power to revise
the votes cast, becomes thus the
body that elects. So long as thew
exercise their functions under the
protection of the State alone, the
influence and indignation of the
people Will prevent them from any |
flagrant and enormous outrage. |
The public pressure will necessi-
tate some excuse for subverting
the choice of the people, some linn
itation to the outrages they do to |
the popular wish. But separate
them from the people by a Gordon
OF Federal troops, under the pre-
tence of preserving order, surround
them with Federal bayonets, and
they cease to be responsible to any
one but the national administra-
tion that protects them. There
need then be no limit to, as there
IL no longer any check upon their
abuses. To throw out the votes of
one side and keep in the votes of
the, other without cause, to invent
pretexts for such wrongs, to accept,
after continued Irott sts, manu.
facturcd objections as color for
their action, to permit figures to
be altered, returns to be forged,
iranis 10 be perfected, and ge.er-
ally every means by which the will
"f Tie people may be frustrated |
and the popular voice stifled then |
becomes possible, and there may |
be thus, condition of things abso-
lutely destructive of free govern
meiit.


There is yearnipg demand
amongst the people for the bottom
acts OF this administrator iniamy
"a demand which can only be
,ttisfied by the fullest and most
Investigation. The crafty
procedure by which Republicans
themselves, knowing that they
would be beaten, arranged for the
lbstention OF Republican voters as