Year: 1877

precaution against the recurrence of such


evils IN this country, They kept down


the standing army to nominal amount.


They intended to limit the functions of


the Federal Government so as to prevent


the growth, to dangerous dimensions of


an office holding class and of corrupt in


tluences. They preserved the State Gov.


ernments as a Counterpoise to act as CEN


tres OF opinion and as organized means


OF resistance to revolutionary usurpation


by the Federal Government. Jefferson


the leader of liberal opinion, in his first


inaugural recognized this theory. Ham


ilton, the representative of the extreme


conservative sentiment in the FederaliSt,


expounded it with elaborate arguments


Madison the father of the Constitution


enforced these conclusions.


A yoice-HoW about the Returning


BoardP


Mr.. Tilden-There we're no Returning


Boards in those days. The people elect


ed their own President and their were


no Louisiana and Florida Returning


Boards to rob them of their rights.


Several voices Let's have the election


over againl We want fair show Go


for 'em again


Mr., Tilden-The increase of rower in
the Federal Government during the last
twenty years, the creation of vast office
holding class, with its numerous depend.
ents, and the growth of the means of cor.
rupt influence, have well nigh destroyed
the balance of our complex system. 1t
was my judgment in 1876 that public
opinion, demanding a change of admins
tration, needed to embrace two.thirds of
the people at the beginning of the can
vass, in order to cast majority of votes
at the election. If this tendency is not
arrested its inevitable result will be the
practical destruction of our system. Let
the Federal Government grasp power ov.
er the great corporations of our country
and acquire the means of addressing
their fears let it take jurisdiction of riots
which it is the duty of States to suppress;
let it find pretexts for increasing the ar
my, and soon those in possession of the
will have power which
no opposition can successfully compete.
| Applause. The experience of France
under the Third Napoleon shows that,
with elective forms and universal suf-
frage, despotism can be established and
maintained. In the canvass of 1875 the
Federal Government embarked in the
contest with INSCRIPTIONS activity. A
of the Cabinet was the head of
a partisan committee. Agents stood at
the doors of the pay offices to extract
from official subordinates
The whole office holding class were made
to exhaust their power. Even the army
for the first time, to the disgust of the
soldiers and many of the officers, were
moved about the country as an election
eering instrument. All this was done
under the eye of the beneficiary of it,who
was making the air vocal with profes.
slons OF civil service reform, to be begun
after he had himself exhausted all the
immoral advantage of civil service abu
ses. Public opinion in some States was
overcome by corrupt influence and by
fraud. But 80 strong was the desire for
reform that the Democratic candidates
received 4 100000 sufrages. This was a
majority of the popular vote of about
3OO,000and 50000of the white citizens.
1t was a vote of 700 600 larger than Gen
eral Grant received in 1872, and 100000
larger than he received in 1868. For all
that, the rightfully elected candidates of
the Democratic party were counted out
and great fraud triumphed which the
American people have not cOndoned and
will never condone. Prolonged applause
and cheers Yes. the crime will never
be condoned and it never should be. l
do not denounce the fraud as affecting
my personal interests, but because it
stabbed the very foundations of free gov
Loud cheers swear in
the presence of you all, and | call upon
you to bear witness to the oath, to watch
during the remainder of my life, over the
rights of the citizens of our country with
a jealous care.


Such a usurpation must never occur
again, and l call upon you to unite with
nee in the defense of our sacred and pre-
cious inheritance. The Government of
the people must not be suffered to become
only an empty name. Loud applause. ]
The step from an extreme degree of cor
rupt abuses in the elections to subver-
sion of the elective system itself is nat
ural.


No sooner was the election over than
the whole power of the ofice-holding
class, led by Cabinet Minister, was ex-
erted to procure, and did procure, from
the State Canvassers of two States illegal
and fraudulent certificates, which were
made a pretext for false count of the
vote. To enable these officers
to exercise the immoral courage neces.
sary to the parts assigned to them, and
to relieve them from the timidity which
God has implanted in the human bosom
as limit to criminal audaCity, detaCh-
ments of the army were sent to afford
them shelter. The expedients by which
the vote of the electors chosen by the
people of these two States were rejected,
and the votes of the electors having the
illegal and fraudulent certificates were
counted, and the menace of usurpation
by the President of the Senate of diCtS-
torial power over all the questions in
controversy, and the menace of his pre-
tended authority by the army and navy,
the terrorism of the business classes and
the kindred measures by which the false
count was Consumlnated, are known. The
result is the establishment of precedent
destructive of our whole elective system.
[ [Applause. The temptation to those in
possession of the Government to perpe-
trate their own power by similar meth
DDS will always exist, and if example
shall be sanctioned by success, the sue
cession of government in this country
will come to be determined by fraud or
force, as it has been in almost every 9th.
er country; and the experience will be
reproduced here which has led to the
general adoption of the hereditary sys-
tenn in order to avoid confusion and civil
war.


The magnitude of a political crime
must be measured by its natural and
necessary consequences. Our great re.
public has been the only example in the
world of a regular and orderly transfer of
succession by the elective