Year: 1878

oeSu W Hhei Ut ny any Douy WlIhlh
my influence by my consent or
with my knowledge or acquiescence.
To such contemplated transaction could
at any time have come within range of my
power without that power being instantly
executed to crush it out. A belief was
doubtless current that certificates from
Florida conforming to the actual vote of the
people were in the market II have not
the slightest doubt in the world,' said
Mr.. Saltonstall, who was in Florida
at the time in recent interview with
the Herald: "That that Florida vote could
have been bought if Mr.. Tilden had been
dishonorable enough to desire it done for a
great deal less than $4,000 or 500, 000." 1t
was known that either one of the two men,
bers who composed majority
of the Florida State canvassers
could control its action and give the
certificates to the Democrats. Either one
of them could settle the Presidential con-
troversy in favor of the Democratic candi-
date, who lacked but one vote. How ac-
cessible to venal inducements they were is
shown by the testimony of McLin, the
Chairman of the Board of State Canvassers.
In his examination before the
Potter Committee in June last,
he admitted the true vote of the people of
Florida was in favor of the Democratic
Electors, and that fact even appeared on
the face of the county returns, including
among them the true return from Baker
County, notwithstanding great frauds
against the Democrats in some of the county
returns. He also confessed that in voting
to give the certificates to the Republican
Electors he acted under the influence of
promises that he should be rewarded in
case Mr. Hayes became President; adding
that certainly these promises must have
had a strong control over my judgment and
action"


After the certificates of the Louisiana Re-
turning Board had been repeatedly offered
to Mr.. Hewitt and others for money, they
were given in favor of the Republican
Electors who had been rejected
by large majority of the
voters, and members of this Board now pos
sess the most important Federal offices in
that State. The important fact always re-
mains, that none of these corrupt boards
gave their certificates to the Democratic
Electors, but they all did give them to the
Republican Electors.


| had a perfectly fixed purpose, from
which | never varied a word or act-a pur-
pose which was known to ali with whom |
was in habitual communication. If the
Presidency of the United States was to
be disposed of by certificates to order
DaI,, l.
any form of venal inducements, whether of
offices or money, l was resolved to take no
part in the shameful corruption, and | took
none. The main interest of the victory
which resulted in my election was the ex-
pectation that through the Chief Magistracy
a system of reforms similar to that which
had been accomplished in our metropolis
and State administration would be achieved
in the Federal Government. For this object
it was necessary | should be untrammeled
by any commitment in the choice OF men to
execute the official trusts of the Govern
ment and untrammeled by any obligations
to special interests.


| had been nominated and I was elected
without one Limitation OF my perfect indie
pendence. To have surrendered or COM
promised the advantages of this position
by degrading competition for Returning
Board certificates would have been to aban-
don all that made victory desirable, every
thing which could have sustained me


in the larger struggle that vic
tory would have imposed upon
me | was resolved to go into the Presiden-
tial chair in full command of all my re-
sources for usefulness or not at ALL


While thus abstaining from an


ingenious competition for such
vi Gan ntaS
Obtained for the Republican Electors, who
had not been chosen by the people, and re
fused to the Democratic Electors, who had
been chosen by the people. These false and
fraudulent certificates, now confessed and
proved to have been obtained by cor
rupt inducements, were afterward made
the pretext of taking from the people their
righful choice for President and Vice Presi-
dent. These certificates were declared by
the Tribunal to which Congress had abdi-
Gated the function of deciding the count Of
the disputed Electoral votes to be the abso-
lutte and indisputable conveyance
of the title to the Chief Magsracy
of the nation. Florida, which had united
all her Executive Legislative and Judicial
powers to testify to Congress long before
the count who were her genuine agents,
had by statute caused recan-
vass, the issue OF new certlhcateS, and
formal sovereign Authorization
of the right of the true Electors to deposit
the vote entitled to be counted, was held to
be incapable of communicating to Congressa
fact which can not now be disputed.


Congress, though vested by constitution
with authority to count the electoral votes,
though unrestricted either as to time
when it should receive evidence or
as to the nature of the evidence, and though
subject to no appeal from its decision, was
declared to have no power to guide its own
count by any information it could obtain,
or by any authority which it might accept
from the wronged and betrayed State whose
vote was about to be falsitied. The mon
strous conclusion was thus reached that the
act of one man holding the deciding
vote in a Board of State Canvassers
flor without his concurrence frauds
of other Returning Boards would have
failed) in giving certificates, known at the
time, and now by himself confirmed, to be
false and fraudulent, and confessed to have
been obtained by promise of otfice-cer-
tificates whose character was known months
before Congress would begin the count
must prevail over all the remedial powers
of the State of Florida, of Congress, and of