Year: 1877

OF the majority of the Electoral Commits
sion. There is just cause for complaint,
not because they have awarded the votes
OF Florida and .SG.,sa,a 20 Governor
Hayes, but because u, n.e-iy persistent re-
fnsal to inquire into the truth of the GER
tlhcates which covered those votes. Thus
far their inquiries and their decision, when
reduced to plain terms, amount to moth
ing more than this: that Stearns was Gov
ernor OF Florida on the 9th of December
last, and that Kellogg was de facto Gov
ernor OF Louisiana on the same date. 1t
did not require the creation of high and
extraordinary Commission like that now
in session to inquire into and decided his
torical facts like these. They were be-
yond dispute and were not disputed. The
Commission was created under circum-
stances of the utmost solemnity to in
quire and decide whether such certificates
as thos given by Stearns and kellogg did
actually certify to the truth, and whether
the Electors named in those certificates
were in truth and in law the Electors who
received majorties of the lawful votes of
Florida and Louisiana. This the majority
OF the Commission have continuously re-
fused TO do, and, taking their stand on


bare technicalities, have atdicated the
the very Jurisdiction and action they were


brought into existence to exercise. Without
the belief that they would exercise It. the
Commission could have had no existence.
1t was that belief that made the appoint-
ment of the Commission apossibility and
caused its appointment to the hailed with


welcome and confidence throughout the


United States. E


This is said with profound regret. It


is mortifying to be obliged to say it in
the columns of journal which was
among the foremost in aiding to create


the Commission. and which, in fact,
sketched its outlines long before the law
took shape anywhere else. We certainly
understood that the Commission was to


inquire into the very truth and riqht of
the disputed votes in Florida and Loui-
siana, and that the decision Of the Com


mission was to be given upon the merits
after that inquiry, and not upon bald


tschnicaities. The law gives to fine Com


mission all the powers possessed in the


premises by the two Houses of Congress,


anil to take into view such evidence as.
might be competent and pertinent. This
portion Of the law certainly means some


thing; it means precisely what it says, ,and


was universally understood to mean that


the Commission were to inquire whether
the papers from Florida and Louisiana,
purporting to be votes, are in fact votes
or false pretenses, but the majority of the
Commission have treated that part of the


law as if it means nothing, by refusing to


make chat inquiry. 81.


This tribunal was, from the outset,


trusted with the patriotic hopes and hon.


ored with the fullest confidence of three
fourths ofthe people of the United States,


in the belief that the solemn circum-
stances attending the necessity and the
act that brought it into being, would
cause all its members with possibly
three exceptions) to rise above all party
considerations in the discharge of their
momentous duty. In the light of this
antecedent hope and confidence, and in
view of the votes written on the record


of the Commission, it is pitiable to OBJ
thus far submitted to the Commission
has divided the Commissioners, eight to
seven, on strict party lines, accordingly
as the decision would help the case Of
Governor Hayes, or hurt the case of Gov
ernor Tilden. 1t was not believed by
fair-minded, intelligent men that such a
division could come about. The outside
adherents of each party mutually charge
this as discredit on the opposing mem
Democrats reproach the Republicans
with these partisan votes of the eight
Republican Commissi srs, and the
Jealous Republicans retort by pointing
to the partisan votes of the seven Demo-
Gratis ION the Commission. This is about
what might be expected from that kind
of discussion. But that which will live
in history and in the minds of the vast
majority of the public is this that the
seven voted to look into the evidence,
voted to take testimony. and voted to let
in hight, so as to get at the truth; and
that the eight voted all the time to turn
away from evidence, to shut out the
light, and SO to close the door upon all
effort to find the truth. The seven voted
in way to promote the great object for
which the Commission was created, the
eight voted in a way to make the Com
mission utterly useless6 for the principal
purpose for which it has any reason for
being in existence at all. The Senator,
the Judge, the Presidential aspirant, the
party that supposes the eyes of the
American people can be closed to this vi
tai aspect of the matter is making a sig
nal and perilous mistake. The Ameri-
can people know what is honorable,
fair, manly and just; and their Ultimate
decisions always show that they not only
know, but that they act upon their
knowledge, 80.


The single good influence resulting
from the act creating the Commission, is
that the process of counting the vote
and arriving at result has been orderly
and in pursuance of statute law; instead
of turbulent, lawless and anarchical, as
it threatened at one time to be. If the
Democrats in Congress, who are now
sore under their disappointment, shall
do anything as a party to induce fac
tious opposition to the decisions of the
Commission they will make dire mis-
take. The order, and peace, and exemp-
ton from factious proceedings expected
from the constitution of the Commission
should be maintained in good faith,
even though the majority of the Com
mission have abdicated their duty.