Chapter C: K. Foote to S. J. Tilden (4)

2. If it has been accepted, the whole proceedings should be declared for this reason null and void.

3. The House should proceed to the choice of President according to the Twelfth Amendment, that it may not fail in the performance of one of the highest duties it owes to the Constitution, and in the exercise of its greatest powers; that some person may be duly chosen, so that its candidate may have the legal title before the law and before the people.

JOHN A. McCLERNAND TO TILDEN

"SPRINGFIELD, ILL., _March 2nd, 1877_.

"DEAR SIR,--It is done, and the Presidential office, fairly awarded you by the voice of the people and the electoral colleges, passes to another. I sympathize with you in this your deprivation of right and official dignity. I sympathize also with the country in its consequent humiliation. A stain is cast upon its escutcheon and Republican institutions.

"The result might have been different but for a mistake, honest, doubtless, though it was. If the chairman of our national committee had not wavered and hesitated at a decisive moment, and thereby awakened doubts as to your purpose, the spirit and courage of the Democracy, then showing a bold front, would have precluded the possibility of the electoral commission and its decision, and have settled everything satisfactorily without a blow. I say this in the belief that the capital and business of the country would not have seconded the Republican leaders in an appeal to arms to uphold fraud and usurpation. Right armed with confidence is seldom vanquished.

"But regrets are now idle. Our part is to repair the past in the future. Your leadership in the late canvass regenerated and renewed the Democratic party, and brought it back to the mansion of its fathers. It revived its ancient energy and devotion. It is now capable of great achievements. This is saying much for both you and it, yet not more than the truth. You are now the acknowledged leader of the _reform Democracy_, and your leadership must be continued for the contest of 1880. This is the sentiment and demand of the _Old Guard_ who never desert or surrender.

"Your ob't ser't,
"JOHN A. MCCLERNAND."

ROBERT M. McLANE TO TILDEN

"BALTIMORE, _3rd March, '77_.

"MY DEAR GOVERNOR,--Certainly it is not an agreeable greeting I have to offer, but I cannot let the communication of the foul work in Washington pass into history without expressing to you the disgust I feel and the hope I entertain that the country will yet recover its moral sense, and vindicate the men and principles that have been overthrown by fraud and _quasi force_, for this last alternative was always in the perspective, and as you know greatly influenced and demoralized good men!

"It is certainly to be regretted, I think, that our friends were ever beguiled into the electoral commission scheme, and though I did my best, within the bounds of my influence, to secure from its action the triumph of truth and justice, I have the satisfaction to know that from the hour we had the returns of the Presidential election my utmost effort was directed to influence the House of Representatives to assert its constitutional prerogatives and elect a President, rather than co-operate in the declaration of a result which is false in fact and which outrages the moral and numerical sense of the country. If such a result was inevitable, I could accept it as well as another; but I would have left its consummation to the conspirators who did the counting in the Southern States and the Federal army at the seat of government, under the immediate direction of the retiring President.

"Until I have the pleasure of a personal greeting, I remain,

Very truly and faithfully,
"Yr. friend and obt. servt.,
ROBT. M. MCLANE."

"_To Hon. S. J. Tilden._

A. E. ORR TO TILDEN

"BROOKLYN, _Mch. 3d, '77_.

"MY DEAR GOVERNOR TILDEN,--I regret exceedingly that illness has confined me to the house for the past few days.

"I wanted to say to you personally what I feel towards you in my heart.

"Under cover of law--justice has no part in it--a great wrong has been committed, and you are deprived of a position to which all honest-minded men believe you were fairly elected.

"Knowing you as I have had good opportunity of doing, and the earnestness and truthfulness of purpose which were the incentives to your every action, and your courage to carry out what you deemed to be the path of duty irrespective of consequences to party or persons, I am led to deplore the finding of the electoral commission as a national misfortune--an injustice done to the whole country in greater measure, if possible, than to yourself.

"The good seed of reform which you have sown has not fallen on stony places; it has taken deep root in the hearts of the people, and will bring forth its fruit in due season. Time will show you that you are loved, trusted, and appreciated, and although the people have at this time been denied the pleasure of seeing you enjoy the noble gift they had bestowed upon you, depend upon it, my dear sir, this pleasure on their part has only been postponed for a season.

"With unswerving confidence and sincere friendship,

"Believe me very respectfully,
"A. E. ORR.

"_Thirty-seven Tompkins Pl., Brooklyn._"

HOWARD POTTER TO TILDEN

"_March 3d, '77._

"MY DEAR MR. TILDEN,--I avail of the leave which you gave me, when we met the other afternoon in the street-car, to urge you, now that the campaign is ended in which the Democratic party has 'lost all but honor,' to give them a few valedictory words of counsel and encouragement, and the country some words of admonition and warning.

"You have been the leader of that party, and it seems to me that you owe it--at least to its 'rank and file'--some such acknowledgment of a support which was in the main everywhere honest, devoted, and given upon grounds such as must be just those upon which such a man as you are would desire to be supported.

"And what an opportunity this is to say something which the country may ponder!

"What to say no one knows so well as yourself--who have been one of the keepers of the true Democratic 'sacred fire'; and you may be sure that everywhere throughout the land whatever you may say will be read attentively by men of all parties.

"But I won't enlarge. It seems to me that it is a great opportunity to do your party and the country a lasting service, and I have not known how to refrain from urging you again to avail of it. I am, with sentiments of the highest esteem and regard,

Yours faithfully,
"HOWARD POTTER.

"_Hon. S. J. Tilden, &c., &c._"

GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN TO TILDEN

"ST. JAMES HOTEL, BALTIMORE, _March 5, 1877_.

"MY DEAR MR. TILDEN,--I do not doubt that you are overwhelmed with letters just now from your many friends; but I cannot refrain from adding one to the number, to express my intense disappointment that you are not to-day the '_de facto_,' as you truly are the '_de jure_' President of our country. I _did_ believe that the justices of the Supreme Court would, in a case of such vital interest, rise high above all party trammels, carefully ascertain the facts of the case, administer the law with equity and consistency, and hold to the doctrine that fraud must vitiate the acts it was employed to accomplish. I am deeply grieved to find that these justices can, after all, be mere politicians--no better than the least patriotic of the tribe. I regret sincerely that your labor of the last four months has met with such a result, but my confidence in your patriotism is such that I am very sure that, so far as personal considerations are concerned, you will feel the disappointment far less than your friends do for you.

"You will not consider it a liberty if I congratulate you--or rather the party--upon the dignified and high-toned course you have pursued in the midst of the difficulties surrounding you.

"I am sure that we agree in the belief that the worst feature of this memorable business is that open fraud should be triumphant, and that through such means the control of a corrupt party should again be fastened upon our country. I do not know that I am capable of judging dispassionately of the future, but it now appears to me that that future is black indeed, when another than yourself--the honestly elected--holds to-day the name and powers of President.

"Under you I thought the future of my country would be bright and happy: now, I do not care to look beyond the evils of the day--for they are sufficient.

"With sentiments of the highest respect,

"I am, sincerely, your friend,
"GEO. B. MCCLELLAN."

HON. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS TO TILDEN

(THE STAMP OF FRAUD FIRST TRIUMPHANT IN AMERICAN HISTORY)

"BOSTON, _5th March, 1877_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--On this day when you _ought_ to have been the President of these United States, I seize the opportunity to bear my testimony to the calm and dignified manner in which you have passed through this great trial.

"It is many years since I ceased to be a party man. Hence I have endeavored to judge of public affairs and men rather by their merits than by the names they take. It is a source of gratification to me to think that I made the right choice in the late election. I could never have been reconciled to the elevation by the smallest aid of mine of a person, however respectable in private life, who must forever carry upon his brow the stamp of fraud first triumphant in American history.

"No subsequent action, however meritorious, can wash away the letters of that record.

"Very respectfully yours,
"CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS."

HON. ABRAM S. HEWITT TO THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE

(HIS MOTIVES IN SUPPORTING THE ELECTORAL TRIBUNAL)

"WASHINGTON, D. C., _March 3_.

"GENTLEMEN,--The last act of the executive committee was the announcement to the people of the United States that Samuel J. Tilden was elected President, and Thomas A. Hendricks Vice-President.

"This announcement was followed by a scurrilous pronunciamento from the national Republican committee, claiming the election of Hayes and Wheeler. The power to determine the result resided in Congress; but grave differences of opinion, threatening the peace of the country, existed as to the lawful methods of procedure, and the constitutional rights, and the duties of the two Houses in the premises. Committees were therefore raised in both Houses to consider the question, and to confer with each other as to legislation proper to be adopted in order to secure a declaration of the result without confusion and public disorder. The Senate committee had practically perfected a bill for this purpose before the House committee met with them in conference. This bill had received the assent and approval of the three Democratic Senators serving on the committee.

"To have rejected this settlement would, necessarily, have produced division in the Democratic party, and been fatal to its immediate and future success. On the other hand, the bill itself seemed to be so wisely framed in its main features, that the judgment of the Democratic members of the House committee gradually confirmed the action of the Senate committee, and, with some changes which were deemed favorable to the Democratic position, the Electoral bill was approved by all the Democratic members of both committees, and was duly reported and became a law by the vote of a large majority of the Democratic members of both Houses, and was approved by the general judgment of the country.

"The result has disappointed the hopes of every lover of his country. By decisions abhorrent to the natural senses of justice, all proof of fraud was ruled out, and the States of Louisiana and Florida have been counted for Hayes, although all fair-minded men concede that they voted for Tilden. This grievous wrong and its authors I have denounced on the floor of the House, and I have no hesitancy in declaring that, for the first time in our history, the Presidency has been awarded to a candidate who has no just title to its honors.

"But he comes into office as the result of the operation of a law which received the support of the Democratic party, and any attempt to resist its operation would, it seems to me, only deprive us of the support and sympathy of all conservative and fair-minded citizens.

"Inasmuch as difference of opinion exist in regard to the policy which has been pursued by the Democratic party since the election, and prior to the meeting of Congress, I have only to say that so far as my action is concerned, whatever has been done has received the approval of the executive committee and of the only persons outside of their number who had any right to be consulted.

"An absurd statement has been widely circulated that had declared that 'I preferred the inauguration of Hayes to the shedding of a single drop of blood.' A leading Democratic journalist, who could at any time from his position as a member of the House of Representatives, have ascertained the truth, has circulated this false statement in a letter over his own initials, although it ought to have been known to him that I had contradicted it in a card, widely copied, immediately after its publication. The only remark which I ever made on this subject was in private conversation, not intended to be repeated, and was to the effect that 'I would prefer four years of Hayes' administration to four years of civil war'; and upon this declaration I am willing to stand, because four years of civil war would, in my opinion, utterly destroy constitutional government for this generation at least.

"It has also been insinuated that my course has been affected by the ownership of a large amount of United States bonds. It is enough for me to express the regret that I am not so fortunate as to own any of these desirable securities, and to state that all my means are, as they always have been, used in giving employment to the working-men of this land, suffering so severely from the maladministration of its public affairs.

"I have also been censured for assenting to the completion of the count in accordance with the provisions of the law which I helped to frame, and which received my cordial approval and my vote. As an honorable man, I do not see that any other course was open to me, but if honor had permitted otherwise, my judgment is that it was the wisest course for the country, as well as for the Democratic party, to proceed in accordance with the law to the orderly completion of the count, although we knew that it would result in the installation of Hayes into an office to which he had no honest right, except such as might be deprived from the unjust decisions of a tribunal which we had helped to create. My reasons for this conclusion are as follows: If the count had been defeated, and the bill to provide for a vacancy in the office of President had become a law, a new election would have taken place in November next: meanwhile the office of President would have been filled by a Republican chosen by the Senate. The whole power of the administration would therefore be under the control of the Republican managers. In order to succeed they must hold on to South Carolina and Louisiana, which would necessarily involve sustaining by force the usurping governments of Chamberlain and Packard, with all their unlawful excrescences in the way of unscrupulous returning boards. The patience of the people of these two unhappy States is utterly exhausted. They would break out in open rebellion against a government thus forced on them, and continued in power by the armed forces of the United States. Civil war would result. The Federal government would re-enforce itself with all the troops at its command; the other Southern States would naturally rush to the aid of their suffering sister States; the safety of the colored as well as the white population would be endangered; and a call would be made for volunteers and militia from the Northern States to suppress the rebellion, and thus the flames of civil war would be lighted all over the Union, in the midst of which a free election would be impossible, and a military despotism take the place of civil government. This generation would pass away before the country would recover from the disastrous consequences of such a fratricidal strife.

"In comparison with the evils of anarchy, or of a government of force, which alone could prevent anarchy, four years of usurpation--but usurpation in accordance with the forms of law--seemed to me by far the lesser evil. Besides, we have not yet tested the judgment of the people as to the great outrage upon all justice and right which has been perpetrated. There is no reason to suppose that it will be sanctioned by the popular voice, but if it should be we could not hope to save them from usurpation and despotism by force used against the judgment of a majority of the people.

"To me, therefore, on the one side was anarchy and civil war, inevitable and disastrous of all the hopes of free government; on the other side was peace and order, with free speech, a free press, and the ballot-box still preserved to us.

"Under the circumstances, I could not hesitate as to my course. I felt that, as a patriot and a trusted servant of the Democracy, no other course was left open to me, and I feel sure that its wisdom will be indicated by the early and triumphant success of the Democratic party, standing, as it does, upon the rock of justice and patriotism, from which no amount of passion or provocation has been able to move it.

"For myself, I feel that I have now completed the duty which was assigned to me at St. Louis. The result of the campaign was the unquestionable election of our candidates. That they and the people have been defrauded of their rights is true, but for this result I do not hold myself any more responsible than any other member of Congress upon whom rested the duty of counting and declaring the votes.

"In the course of my very brief public experience, I have already found that my usefulness as a Representative in Congress has been seriously impaired by my position as chairman of this committee, and I had long since determined to ask to be permitted to retire from it as soon as the result of the election was definitely ascertained. The unforeseen complications which arose have necessarily compelled me to postpone the execution of this intention until the present time. Now, however, that all impediments to my retirement are removed, I beg to be released from further service as your chairman, and, thanking you for the honor you have conferred and for the confidence which you have uniformly manifested in my efforts to promote the success of Democratic principles, I have the honor to be,

"Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
"ABRAM S. HEWITT.

"_To the National Democratic Committee._"

WHAT GRANT THOUGHT OF IT

[_From the New York "Sun," March 7, 1877._]

"There are some interesting facts connected with the Louisiana election which it does not seem necessary to keep secret any longer.

"When Mr. Hewitt had his celebrated interview with President Grant on the 3d of December last, just before the beginning of the recent session of Congress and before the Returning Board of Louisiana made its final declaration, the President said that in his opinion there had been no fair election in that State, and that the electoral votes of Louisiana ought not to be counted at all upon either side.

"'But,' asked the President, 'are you going to buy the Returning Board?' Mr. Hewitt assured him that the Democrats had no such purpose; that they would not buy the Presidency.

"Grant knew that the Returning Board and the Presidential election were for sale because Wells' agent had told him so; and it was natural for a man of his cast of mind to suppose that where the office of President was to be sold for money there would be an active competition for the purchase."

SENATOR FRANCIS KERNAN TO TILDEN

"WASHINGTON, _March 12th, 1877_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--I expected to get over to New York and have a chat with you last week, and hence did not write you. Moreover, I was not in a frame of mind to write, and am not yet. We have been wronged out of the fruits of the last Presidential election. You were clearly and fairly elected by the people, and Hayes has been counted in. This is hard to bear patiently, and the mass of our party feel deeply aggrieved--indeed, they are so disappointed and irritated that a great many of them are disposed to find fault with what was done, and to believe that something more successful could have been devised. Notwithstanding my disappointment at the decisions of the commission, I am of the opinion that from the standpoint we judged and voted when we supported the bill creating the commission, we acted patriotically and wisely--unless the two Houses came to some arrangement as to 'counting' the electoral votes; it looked then as though they would disagree and come to a dead-lock; and the result would have been that the Senate would, under some form of proceeding, have declared Hayes and Wheeler elected; the House would have declared there was no election by electoral votes, and would have elected you President, and opponents were in possession and would have sustained Hayes and Wheeler, and civil war would probably have been the result. This would have entailed great evils on the mass of the people, and might have destroyed the government it was intended to preserve. My judgment was and is that what seemed then a reasonably fair tribunal to decide the question involved, was better than the risk of evil to our people and our system of government. Civil war is the last remedy of a people for political wrongs, and should not be inaugurated till every peaceful remedy has failed. But I will write no more on this subject; when we meet, I shall want to talk the matter over fully.

"I think we shall get away from here the last of this week or early next. The new administration will try to win popular favor and turn attention from the title by which it came to power by good conduct. I believe it means to reform some of the graver abuses which marked the administration under General Grant. I hope it will succeed in doing so. The country needs peace, and to end self-government at the South, and honesty and economy everywhere. I am not very sanguine, but I hope for the best.

"Very truly yours,
"FRANCIS KERNAN."

LOUISE LIVINGSTON HUNT TO TILDEN

"MONTGOMERY PLACE, _May 4th, 1877_.

"DEAR MR. TILDEN,--I did not go to New Orleans after all, but I have just had a letter from there of which I think I must copy a few lines to send you, because they are so full of genuine heart-felt enthusiasm for yourself. They are from my brother--who, I think I told you, first mentioned at our own table here his conviction that you would and ought to be candidate for the Presidency. I had written him recently an account of the three cheers for Louisiana given by Mr. Hewitt's guests in New York on the day of the withdrawal of the troops. Mr. Bayard told me all about it, and I was touched to the heart at the generous feeling that prompted the cheers from the defeated Democrats--and their _great leader_. I mentioned the circumstance in writing to my brother, and here is his answer. 'I read with much pleasure your account of the entertainment where Mr. Tilden was present. The fact is I have felt so strongly his merit, his services, and his patriotism that I want him to be next President. I was, in the beginning, of the first among his friends, and I remain, after the dread experience of the past, where I commenced. Sometimes I am puzzled to think he did not favor an uprising of the people to seat him. _I did!_ Was it because he was wiser that he did not speak when he might have said, _"Vous qui m'aimez suivez moi!"_ I hope so.' 'Yes,' he goes on to say, 'God be praised--the men who have so long oppressed Louisiana are gone. Once more the State breathes free, and, filled with hope of the future, trusts to be again happy and prosperous.'

"I know that these sentiments will not be read by you with indifference, although from one you know not at all.

"I am, as you see by my date, in this spot, which I have loved so dearly from infancy. The snow-storm in the far West has made it cold, but the air is sweet with the fragrance of early spring. The events of each day is the newspaper, and how dull the papers seem after the excitement of the past year. Can't you stir up the elements again? If I dared I could point the way, but perhaps you think women know nothing of politics and would not heed the Sybil!

"With great regard, believe me,

"Very truly yours,
"LOUISE LIVINGSTON HUNT."

W. B. LAWRENCE TO TILDEN

"OCHRE POINT, NEWPORT, _May 26, 1877_.

"DEAR MR. PRESIDENT,--I write to remind you, before you contract any engagements elsewhere, of your promise to pass here so much of the summer as may be agreeable to you. I have only my two unmarried sons with me; and I shall be most happy to place my house at the disposition of yourself and friends. If the ladies are willing to encounter the inconvenience of a bachelor's establishment, it would give me great pleasure to receive them. I shall be ready for you at any time that you may name.

"I was glad to learn from a long letter, which I had a few days ago from Judge Field, that the suggestion of which you spoke to Judge Clifford of a submission of the electoral vote to a more impartial tribunal than the Supreme Court, after the recent action of some of its members present, is seriously entertained with a hope of success, and I cannot but flatter myself that Blaine and his adherents, in order to divert the patronage from Hayes to be used against him in 1880, may be willing for such a change in the law of _Quo Warranto_ as, through the action of Florida and Louisiana, may enable you to assume the title, with which I have ventured to address you, before the period named by Judge Clifford for the vindication of popular rights.

"I am, yours very truly,
"W. B. LAWRENCE."

THE NEW YORK "WORLD" AND JOHN BIGELOW (1877)

"A correspondent of the _World_ called upon Mr. Bigelow at his residence at Highland Falls yesterday, and in the course of his visit the following conversation took place:

"REPORTER. Mr. Bigelow, I understand that you prepared the volume published by the Appletons, in December, 1877, called the _Presidential Counts_, and particularly the analytical introduction prefixed to it, containing what was deemed to be at the time a semi-official Democratic view of the precedents and practice of the government applicable to the counting of the Presidential vote. Also that you were in frequent communication with Mr. Tilden, and in complete possession of his views and purposes during that crisis.

"MR. BIGELOW. You are correctly informed, so far as that publication is concerned.

"REPORTER. You doubtless read the story related recently by Mr. Mines in the _World_, and derived by him from General Woodford.

"MR. BIGELOW. I saw that publication, and glanced over its contents.

"REPORTER. The _World_ would like to know whether at any time under the then existing facts of the case, Mr. Tilden entertained any purpose of taking the oath of office as President of the United States?

"MR. BIGELOW. That question seems to me to have been fully answered by the analytical introduction about which you have inquired, and which in its general scope--though, of course, not in every detail nor in its particular expressions--may be supposed to represent the doctrines entertained by Mr. Tilden in common with the most eminent jurists and statesmen of the country. I do not undertake to speak for Mr. Tilden, or in any peculiar sense as his representative, but the very nature of the views expounded in the analytical introduction necessarily defined the cases in which it would have been lawful and proper for Mr. Tilden to have taken the oath of office as President, and by inevitable implication the cases in which it would have been unlawful and improper for him to have done so.

"There were two contingencies in which it would have been lawful and obligatory on Mr. Tilden to have taken the official oath as President:

"_First._ If Congress had performed its constitutional duty of counting the electoral votes, and had declared that Mr. Tilden was chosen by the electoral colleges.

"The two Houses of Congress have all the powers of verification of the electoral votes which the Constitution or the laws supply or allow. Nobody else in the Federal government has any such powers. This exclusive jurisdiction of the two Houses has been exercised without interruption from the beginning of the government. It is known to all those who come in contact with Mr. Tilden at this period that he concurred in this view of the powers and duties of the two Houses of Congress themselves to count the electoral vote. He was perfectly free and unreserving in the expression of his opinions on this subject.

"This contingency, however, never presented itself. Congress, before the time fixed by the law for counting the electoral votes, passed the Election bill wherein they substantially abdicated their powers, and enacted that the electoral commission should in the first instance make a count, and that its count should stand, unless overruled by the concurrent action of the two Houses. The electoral tribunal counted Mr. Tilden out, and counted in a man who was not elected. Congress did not overrule their count; consequently, the false count stood as law under the act of Congress.

"_Secondly._ The other contingency in which it would have been lawful and obligatory on Mr. Tilden to have taken the oath of office was, that the House of Representatives on the failure of a choice of President by the electoral colleges had itself proceeded to make the election, voting by States in the manner prescribed by the Constitution.

"This contingency, like the first one, never occurred.

"The House of Representatives has by the express language of the Constitution, jurisdiction, if no person has a majority of the electoral votes, to make the election itself.

"The right of the two Houses to count the electoral votes, and to declare that any person has a majority, is a matter of implication, precedent, and practice. But the right of the House of Representatives to supply the failure of a choice is a matter of positive and express constitutional provision. It is not only a right, but a duty. The provision is mandatory. The House is a witness in the opening of the certificates. It is an actor in counting the votes by its own tellers and in its presence.

"Having such means of knowledge as to the facts, enabling it to ascertain whether a choice has been made by the electoral colleges, it is also expressly vested with a power and duty to act exclusively and conclusively in the event that no person be found to have been chosen by a majority of the votes of those colleges. The House acquires jurisdiction by the fact specified in the Constitution. The assent of the Senate to the existence of that fact is nowhere prescribed or required. No judgment, certification, or act of any official body is interposed as a condition to the assuming of its jurisdiction by the House. When the House has once acted in such a case, no review of its action nor any appeal from its decision is provided for in the Constitution. It is difficult to see why the House in such a case, like all tribunals of original jurisdiction and subject to no appeal, is not the exclusive judge of the fact and the law on which its jurisdiction rests. It was the fear that the Senate might lead a resistance to the rightful judgment of the House, and that General Grant would sustain this revolutionary policy with the army and navy and the militia of the great States in which the Republicans had possession of the State Governments that deterred the assertion of the rights of the House of Representatives, and induced its vote for and acquiescence in the electoral commission.

"But without speculating upon causes or motives, one thing is certain. The House of Representatives did not elect Mr. Tilden in the manner prescribed by the Constitution. On the other hand, it did concur with the Senate in anticipating and preventing the contingency in which it might have had to act, and in providing beforehand an expedient which was to make its own action in supplying the failure of an election by the colleges impossible. It adopted the electoral law and went through all the forms of the electoral scheme. True, it afterwards passed a declaratory resolution condemning the action of the electoral commission, and asserting that Mr. Tilden had been duly elected. But the Constitution had not provided that a man should or could take office as President on a declaratory resolution of the House of Representatives. If that resolution could have had full effect to abrogate the electoral law which the House had assisted to enact it would have still been a nullity as an exercise of the constitutional power of the House to elect. It created no warrant of authority to Mr. Tilden to take the oath of office.

"I have been somewhat long in answering your question, because the matter is one of importance. I might have disposed of your question more briefly by simply saying that no contingency provided by the Constitution ever existed in which Mr. Tilden could lawfully or properly take the oath of office as President. The idea that Mr. Tilden ever thought of taking the oath of office illegally is, in my judgment, quite as preposterous as is the other idea that he would have omitted to take it if any contingency had arisen in which it was his right or duty to take it, or that any menace would have had the slightest influence in preventing his performing his whole obligations to the people. I will venture to say that if it had been his right and duty to take the oath, he would not have done so at the City Hall in New York surrounded by the forces which, according to Mr. Mines, General Woodford pictured to his imagination, but at the Federal capital, even though he had known that he would be kidnapped or subjected to a drum-head court martial five minutes afterwards. It is doubtless true that revolutionary ideas were entertained by the hierarchy of office-holders in possession of the government. General Grant did utter menaces in published interviews, and did make a display of military force in Washington to overawe Congress. I presume this was a part of the system of intimidation for which he allowed himself to be used by the office-holders and which was intended to act upon public opinion through the fear of disturbance as well as upon Congress. But it is safe to say that whatever other effects they produced they did not prevent Mr. Tilden from taking the oath of office, which he never had any lawful authority to take, in the absence of such action on the part of the House of Representatives as would have fulfilled the conditions prescribed by the Constitution. The fear that he would do so, inducing the Republicans to swear their candidate into office privately on the Saturday previous to the commencement of the term of office besides repeating the ceremony at the inauguration, was born of a consciousness that causes the wicked to flee when no man pursueth. I was aware that about that time Mr. Tilden's home was besieged by emissaries of the press and the telegraph to know if the rumors to that effect which prevailed in Washington were true. This was a species of curiosity which, I believe, Mr. Tilden did not consider it any part of his duty to relieve."

A TALK WITH MR. TILDEN

[_From a Special Correspondent of the "World," July 17, 18--_]

"SEA GIRT, N. J., _July 16_.

"Governor Tilden, as some time ago announced in the _World_, will sail in the Cunard steamer _Scythia_ Wednesday, and is to be accompanied by Secretary of State Bigelow. The trip is purely for recreation, and the travellers will not return until the middle of October. Mr. Tilden, therefore, will be absent from the country and State during what is expected to be the interesting fall campaign. The fact that Mr. Bigelow is to accompany him will perhaps satisfy the politicians and set at rest the question of his renomination as Secretary of State. I have learned while here, authoritatively, that Mr. Bigelow is not and will not be a candidate before the approaching State convention of New York for a renomination.

"Mr. Tilden is looking remarkably well, and declares himself to be very much improved in health by his sojourn at this pleasant resort. He said to me that his trip has no connection whatever with any business enterprise or railroad scheme, as has been announced without authority in some of the papers. As to the events which have happened since the Presidential election and the numerous wild rumors circulated in reference to his political intentions, Mr. Tilden talked very freely. In regard to the electoral commission, he said that he had never had any real confidence in the arbitration of a question where there was so much at stake by a body of that kind. That settlement, he said, involved not only the Presidency, but all the patronage and power of the Federal administration, together with all the schemes, plans, and jobs connected with it. The Republican party and the men who had managed it in the past were too anxious to retain the administration to yield any point in an arbitration. The result of the electoral commission, therefore, was what might have been expected considering the power and influence brought to bear upon the political majority of that body as finally constituted.

He furthermore never liked the scheme as a matter of principle, believing that the true direction of a Democratic appeal was not away from 369 representatives of the people towards fifteen individuals, and still less from fifteen individuals towards one to be selected necessarily with a large element of chance, not to say of trick and device. He thought there should rather have been an appeal from the 369 representatives to the 8,000,000 of voters through a new election. He was distrustful of the secrecy, celerity, and improvidence with which the arrangement was carried through and ushered into being. But the proposition appealed to the hopes of the business classes, which were anxious above all things for a settlement of almost any kind, at almost any price, and as it was presented by the unanimous report of the joint committee, it become the representative, and the only representative, of the public desire for peace.

"The events which are now attracting so much public attention in New Orleans and the disclosures which, perhaps, may follow, Mr. Tilden seemed to consider only as the logical outcome of the revolutionary acts of last fall and winter. 'In a government like ours,' he said, 'such fraudulent practices as were reported from New Orleans last November sooner or later must come to the light, and the guilty parties with their practices must be made known. It was so with the ring frauds in New York; it has been the case to a certain extent in Washington, and a like result will follow in New Orleans. It is against the natural course of events that deeds of this kind should ultimately fail of being brought to light in all their enormities.' All this was said with philosophic calmness and without any heat whatever.

"In regard to his own political future, Mr. Tilden had nothing to say except that he could not see any possible contingency which could induce him to be a candidate for or to seek an election to a seat in the United States Senate. He felt entirely confident of the success of the Democratic party this fall in all the large central States, and especially in New York, by a very large majority, believing that events were all pointing in that direction. To the charge that he has been seeking to control the nominations of the next Democratic State convention of New York, he gave a direct denial, and added that he thought it unwise to interfere in any way as between the numerous friends who are seeking position on the State ticket. His absence abroad during the time for holding the convention and selecting the delegates would, he said, preclude any interference on his part. He thought, however, that the drift of public sentiment was towards a new ticket altogether, with none of the present incumbents upon it. He hoped that the ticket would be so made up as to be recognized as thoroughly able, strong, and upright. He appeared to be specially anxious that the Democracy should secure a majority in the next State Senate, in order that the evils which have been brought about by Republican control of that body might be corrected.

H. C."

Mr. Tilden spent the summer of 1877 in Europe. On his return he was serenaded by the Young Men's Democratic Club, on which occasion he made a brief speech, in the course of which he said, according to the New York _Tribune_ of October 26, 1877:

"The increase of power in the Federal government during the
last twenty years, the creation of a vast office-holding class,
with its numerous dependents, and the growth of the means of
corrupt influence, have well nigh destroyed the balance of
our complex system. It was my judgment in 1876 that public
opinion, demanding a change of administration, needed to embrace
two-thirds of the people at the beginning of the canvass, in
order to cast a majority of the 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 over the great corporations of our country and
acquire the means of addressing their interests and their
fears; let it take jurisdiction of riots which it is the duty
of the State to suppress; let it find pretexts for increasing
the army, and soon those in possession of the government will
have a power with which no opposition can successfully compete.
The experience of France under the Third Napoleon shows that,
with elective forms and universal suffrage, despotism can
be established and maintained. In the canvass of 1876 the
Federal government embarked in the contest with unscrupulous
activity. A member of the Cabinet was the head of a partisan
committee. Agents stood at the doors of the pay offices to
exact contributions 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, was moved about the country as an
electioneering instrument. All this was done under the eye
of the beneficiary of it, who was making the air vocal with
professions of civil service reform, to be begun after he had
himself exhausted all the immoral advantages of civil service
abuses. Public opinion in some States was overdone by corrupt
influences and by fraud. But so strong was the desire for reform
that the Democratic candidates received 4,300,000 suffrages.
This was a majority of the popular vote of about 300,000, and
of 1,250,000 of the white citizens. It was a vote of 700,000
larger than General Grant received in 1872, and 1,300,000 larger
than he received in 1868. For all that, the rightfully elected
candidates of the Democratic party were counted out, and a 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. I do
not denounce the fraud as affecting my personal interests, but
because it stabbed the very foundations of free government.
[Loud cheers.] I swear in the presence of you all, and I 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 I call upon you to unite with me in the defence of
our sacred and precious inheritance. The government of the
people must not be suffered to become only an empty name." [Loud
applause.]

The remainder of Mr. Tilden's address was as follows:

"The step, from an extreme degree of corrupt abuses in the
elections to a subversion of the elective system itself, is
natural. No sooner was the election over than the whole power
of the office-holding class, led by a Cabinet minister, was
exhorted to procure, and did procure, from the State canvassers
of two States, illegal and fraudulent certificates, which were
made a pretext for a false count of the electoral votes. To
enable these officers to exercise the immoral courage necessary
to the parts assigned to them, and to relieve them from the
timidity which God has implanted in the human bosom as a limit
to criminal audacity, detachments of the army were sent to
afford them shelter. The expedients by which the votes 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 dictatorial power over all the
questions in controversy, and the menace of the enforcement of
his pretended authority by the army and navy, the terrorism
of the business classes and the kindred measures by which the
false count was consummated, are known. The result is the
establishment of a precedent destructive of our whole elective
system. [Applause.] The temptation to those in possession of
the government to perpetuate their own power by similar methods
will always exist, and if the example shall be sanctioned by
success, the succession of government in this country will come
to be determined by fraud or force, as it has been in almost
every other country; and the experience will be reproduced here
which has led to the general adoption of the hereditary system
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 Republic has been the only example in
the world of a regular and orderly transfer of governmental
succession by the elective system. To destroy the habit of
traditionary respect for the will of the people, as declared
through the electoral forms, and to exhibit our institutions as
a failure, is the greatest possible wrong to our own country.
It is also a heavy blow to the hopes of patriots struggling to
establish self-government in other countries. It is a greater
crime against mankind than the usurpation of December 2, 1851,
depicted by the illustrious pen of Victor Hugo. The American
people will not condone it under any pretext or for any purpose.
[Cheers.] Young men! in the order of nature, we who have
guarded the sacred traditions of our free government will soon
leave that work to you. Within the life of most who hear me,
the Republic will embrace 100,000,000 of people. Whether its
institutions shall be preserved in substance and in spirit, as
well as in barren forms, and will continue to be a blessing to
the toiling millions here and a good example to mankind, now
everywhere seeking a larger share in the management of their
own affairs, will depend on you. Will you accomplish that duty
and mark these wrong-doers of 1876, with the indignation of a
betrayed, wronged, and sacrificed people? [A voice--'You bet
we will.' Laughter.] I have no personal feeling, but thinking
how surely that example will be followed if condoned, I can
do no better than to stand among you, and do battle for the
maintenance of free government. I avail myself of the occasion
to thank you, and to thank all in our State and country who have
accorded to me their support, not personal to myself, but for
the cause I have represented, and which has embraced the largest
and holiest interests of humanity." [Continued applause.]

SOME OF THE SPECIFIC TEMPTATIONS BY WHICH THE ELECTORS OF LOUISIANA AND FLORIDA WERE DEBAUCHED

[_From the New York "Sun."_]

LOUISIANA

MEN CONNECTED WITH THE RETURNING BOARD.

_Names._ _Political Employment in 1876._ _Office Held Now._

J. Madison Wells President Returning Board Surveyor Port of New Orleans
Thos. C. Anderson Member Returning Board Deputy Collector Port of New
Orleans
L. M. Kenner Member Returning Board Deputy Naval Officer
G. Casanave Member Returning Board Brother of U. S.
Storekeeper, N. O.
Chas. S. Abell Secretary Returning Board Inspector Custom House
York A. Woodward Clerk Returning Board Clerk Custom House
W. M. Green Clerk Returning Board Clerk Custom House
B. P. Blanchard Clerk Returning Board Clerk Custom House
G. P. Davis Clerk Returning Board Clerk Custom House
Chas. Hill Clerk Returning Board Clerk Custom House
Geo. Grindley Clerk Returning Board Clerk Custom House
Jno. Ray Counsel for Returning Board Special Agent Treasury
Department and Counsel
for Mr. Sherman
S. S. Wells Son of J. Madison Wells Inspector Custom House
A. C. Wells Son of J. Madison Wells Special Deputy Surveyor,
N. O.
F. A. Woolfley Affidavit Taker United States Commissioner
R. M. J. Kenner Brother Returning Board Kenner Clerk Naval Office

STATE OFFICERS AND MANAGERS.

_Names._ _Political Employment in 1876._ _Office Held Now._

Michal Hahn State Registrar Superintendent Mint
A. J. Dumont Chairman Republican State Com. Inspector Custom House
J. P. McArdie Clerk to Republican State Com. Clerk Custom House
W. P. Kellogg Governor United States Senate
L. J. Souer Kellogg's Agent to Buy Mem.
of Leg. Appraiser Custom House
W. G. Lane Kellogg's Agent to Buy Mem. U. S. Commissioner
of Leg. Circuit Court, La.
S. B. Packard Candidate for Governor Consul to Liverpool
Geo. L. Smith Candidate for Congress Collector New Orleans
James Lewis Police Commissioner, N. O. Naval Officer
Jack Wharton Adjutant-General of Louisiana United States Marshal
A. S. Badger General of State Militia Postmaster, N. O.,
$3500; now Collec.
H. S. Campbell Chief of Affidavit Factory United States
Attorney, Wyoming
H. Conquest Clark Kellogg's Secretary (knew of forgery
of Electoral Certificates) Private Secretary to
Commissioner
Internal Revenue
Wm. F. Loan Chief of Police and Supervisor of
Fifteenth Ward, N. O. Inspector Tobacco
Internal Revenue
W. L. McMillan Canvassed State for Hayes Pension Agent New
Orleans, now
Postmaster

ELECTORS.

_Names._ _Political Employment _Office Held Now._
in 1876._

W. P. Kellogg Elector at Large United States Senator
J. Henri Burch Elector at Large State Senator
Peter Joseph Elector Clerk Custom House
L. A. Sheldon Elector Counsel for John Sherman
Morris Marks Elector Collector Internal Revenue
A. B. Levisee Elector Special Agent Treasury
Department
O. H. Brewster Elector Surveyor-General

SUPERVISORS AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH THE ELECTION

_Names._ _Political Employment in 1876._ _Office Held Now._