Year: 1876

tors or the Hayes electors. We think IT our
duty to allay, as far as we can, the appre-
tensions Of civil disturbance which may be
felt by the business community during
the period of suspense We are strongly
disturbance. One foundation Of this
confident belief is the peace-loving
and law-abiding temper Of the American
people, who reprobate a renewal OF civil
strife. But there are other arguments even
more conclusive, resting on the folly, futliity
and hopelessness of resistance to the official
count on the second Wednesday OF Febru-
ary.. Neither side will be disposed to net
the part Of bull planting himself on rail-
way track to butt and oppose the approach
ing LOCOMOTIVES; for it can be made plain
enough that an attempt to install as Presl-
dent the candidate who may be excluded
by the regular count would be as self-de-
structive as butting locomotive. Neither
party will undertake anything so insane
after deliberate survey of the situation.


For the sake of our argument we will
suppose the most dangerous and threaten
ing conjuncture that can arise-namely, the
election of Mr. Hayes by the votes of the
three doubtful States. If the local Board Of
Canvassers in any one of them should
award its electoral votes to Mr.. Tilden
there will be an end of the contro-
versy AS each Of these boards is republican
none of them will declare that the demo-
cratic candidate has received a majority
unless that be really the case, and there would
then be no shadow of o reason for declaring
his opponent elected. The only imaginable
source of trouble is such action by all three
Of the canvassing boards as will give every
one of the doubtful States to Hayes. 1t is
that state of things, and that only, which
can by any possibility raise the question of
resistance, and in that case the regularity of
the selection would be disputed by the dem
ocrats, if disputed at all.


We are entirely convinced that if Mr..
Hayes shall be declared elected the demo-
Gratis will attempt nothing SO futile and
chimerical as to resist his inauguration. At
that stage of events Mr.. Tilden could not be
made President without a revolution, and
his party will not be SO utterly demented
as to court certain destruction by at
tempting anything of the kind. We
will 60 into no hair-splitting refine
ments as to the separate powers
of the House and the Senate when assem-
bled to superintend the counting of the
electoral votes. These are matters on which
the constitution is not explicit, and which
afford abundant scope for legal ingenuity
without any possibility of reaching solid
conclusions. No such contingency as
disputed count was in the contemplation of
the trainers Of the constitution, and they
accordingly made no provision for It.
Whatever ground may be taken as to
separate authority of the House and Senate
in such conjuncture can be regarded only
as a strained and doubtful inference from
language which is, at best, ambiguous.
Brushing aside all such legal cobwebs we
will rest our arguments on plain, broad. un-
questioned and incontrovertible provisions
of the constitution.


1t may be disputed what the respective
powers of the two houses may be during the
progress of the count, but it is not open to
dispute that no President can exercise the
functions of his Office without the consent of
the Senate. The first act Of a new President
is to send to the Senate the names of the
men whom he proposes as members of his
Cabinet. None of them can be appointed
ate;" and Senate whose majority believes
that man who sends nominations
has never been elected President, and
has no legal title to the Office,
will not even consider his appointments,
much less confirm them. IT, therefore, the
House, by its separate action, should declare
Mr.. Tilden elected in defiance of the Senate
such action would be nugatory for any par
pose Of investing him with the functions of
the Office He could do no act as President
without the support and cooperation of
body which rejected and derided his claims,
and which would refuse to receive any CON-
munication from him in that character What
could he do then? What could the House
do or anybody do to invest him with ac-
tual authority? Just nothing-''precisely
neither more nor less than nothing" Even
if his supporters should be mad enough TO
take up arms and attempt to install him by
force it would make no difference for the in
surmountable barrier of the Senate would
stand. The Senate would still share
the power of appointment, and tho
President, whose title it denied, would re-
main without Cabinet and could not
perform the first administrative net. This
conclusion, we repeat, does not rest on
strained construction Of doubtful powers,
but on one Of the plainest Of the cardinal
provisions of the constitution. Nothing can
be more absolutely certain that neither force
dent whose claims to the Office
are not recognized by the Senate.
It would therefore be sheer idiocy