Year: 1876


| New York World, l3th.l


! Senator Bayard, who was in town yester-
/ day at the New York hotel, was waited on by
] a reporter of the World, with whom he spoke
! freely, as follows, about the situation in
/ Louisiana:


RepoIter-Senator Bayard, / have called
| from the World to ask if you are going to
/ be present at the session of the Louisiana re-
| turning board?


Senator Bayard-Certainly not Sugges-
/ tiOns have been made from very respectable
/ quarters that it would be well for me to form
| one of a select corps of observation upon the
| action of the Louisiana returning board, but
| as am in the habit of acting upon what
| believe to be lawful warrant, and see no such
warrantin this case, cannot conceive in what
capacity could be expected to act in further
| ance of an honest return of the Louisiana
vote. What status a citizen Of Delaware,
whether he happened or not to be a member
/ of the senate or the house, or to hold any
other Office under his own State or the United
States, could occupy before board of Louis
lana State officials, is more than | can dis
cover.


R.-You do not then approve, | presume,
of the Presidents action In inviting certain
gentlemen of other States to visit louisiana
for this purpose?


D. luc dGIiUu VI iilC IGflOlClIG, III
my Judgment, is not only as much without
authority as the suggestions Of my party
| friends made to me, but it seems to me to be
still more improper than those suggestions,
because, beng made by the President, 1t I'M
plies an official power to interfere in matters
which ought to be and are strictly pndepend-
ent of him and of his action. In my opinion
it only makes the case worse when Federal
official volunteers by virtue of his office to
create agents not only unknown to the law,
but in violation of the law, because they are
to assume functions which are reposed In
other hands by the law. No matter what
may be the issue of the returns or the con-
duct ofthe returning board, either set of such
delegates would be totally without power to
arrest the wrong in feri or to remedy it when
accomplished Neither the prevention nor
the cure lies with them nor with the Presi-
dent, but boSt do exist elsewhere, ample and
well-defned


R.-Then, senator, you do not recognize
any value whatever in the action of such
extra-legal delegates, even if the President
had selected for the mission the best-mOwn
and most judicious men in the country, and
these had accepted the mission?


Senator B-The partisan or non partisan
character of the President selections does
not touch the question of his want of author
ity, or theirs, to make mquisiton into Louis
lana elections. Had the persons named by
the President been, what they are not, un-
biased and dlsinterested witnesses of an i'm
portant historical event, their testimony
might have gone far to satisfy public opinion
in regard to matters passing under their per-
sonal observation. But the President, by
emitting to name even one of those who have
not supported his administration has put the
idea of impartiality out of the question.


R.-DO you think senator, that the DEM
Ocratic party should take any action as the
matter now stands?


Senator B-I hate the very name of party
in connection with such an emergency as now
apparently confronts the American people.
Whether successfully or not, | should ask or
seek nothing to-day from any man, either as
Democrat or as a Republican, but simply
try to control him by sense Of his duty as
citizen to the constitution and laws of his
country. | have given my adhesion to the
Democratic party because believe it to be
the party of law and order, and believe to-
day that its success is firmly intrenched in
both, and that it only needs that its candi-
dates and its members should stand by the
law as 1t is written, in letter and in spirit, in
order to have the full cOnsummation of its
victory in the results of the Presidential cleo
ton of Tuesday last. Therefore it is that
strenuously deprecate any resort, no matter
how well-mtentioned, to irregular methods
for controlling legal results To apply these
remarks to the case in point. Whether in
dealing with Louisiana, South Carolina
or Florida, what | mean to say is this:
The elections in these States have been
heidi the votes have been cast, the ballots
are, or ought to be, in existence, and they dis
close, or did disclose, majority on one side
or on the other Which way these majori-
ties, or any of them, are, is question of fact
which is or ought to be capable of distinct
and positive proof if the laws have not been
violated. 1t is by that fact that the Ameri
can people must stand, and not by any false
and counterfeit presentment of that fact,
whether prepared by the fraud of an official
hand OR not. Never was there an occasion
more gravely calling for an utter absence Of
anything like personal irritation or party
heat; but, at the same time, never was there
an occasion demanding more deliberate and
grave determination to insist upon the very
truth and right of this question, under the
authority of the law and of the law alone.
Our path Will then be plainly marked out for
us, and we can and will tread it with an un-