Congressional Record-House. 1927
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1877. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 1927 Mr. SARGENT. I believe the time is proposed to be occupied by all precedent.s, all propriety, and, I might say, of common decency, eulogies. had been selected as the chairman of the national executive commit The PRESIDETI p1·o tempore. They may not occupy the whole of tee of the republican partr. His tastes, habits, and force of charac · the time. The Chair refers to the time between the conclusion of the ter give him a wonderful influence over the mind of the President, eulogies and twelve o'clock. and by this appliment the republican party secured to it.self the use Mr. SARGENT. ~ suggest, then, that there shall be no legislative and control of the Army and all the powers of the Administration. business between ten and twelve. ["Agreed."] In the course of the campaign the exigency of the party demands '!'he PRESIDENT pro tempore. It will then be the understanding troops in Louisiana, South Carolina, and ]!'lorida, and at once, without that there will be no legislative business to-morrow until twelve any real cause and without the shadow of authority in law, they are o'clock. The question is on the motion of the Senator from Maine, sent. The pretext is to protect colored voters; the fact is to prevent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of executive business. colored men from voting the democratic ticket. The State govern The motion was agreed to; and the Senate proceeded to the con ments is these States had been organized and sustained for ten years sideration of executive business. After five minutes spent in execu by Federal bayonets. The entire ma.chinery of the election was in tive session the doors were reopened, and (at six o'clock and fifty the hands of the republicans; all the supervisors, clerks, registrars, minutes p.m.) the Senate took a recess until to-morrow, Tuesday, and marshals, with their deputies, were their appointees. There were February 27, at ten o'clock a. m. fourteen hundred supervisors outside of New Orleans and sixteen hundred in the city. There were in all seventy-five hundred employes and tools of the party scattered ovAr the State, distribut.ed to every neighborhood and around every ballot-box; but all this was not enough. They must have troops, and troops were added. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. The people, white and colored, would not be intimidated. .A.s the difficulties grew their resolution strengthened. Goaded by the out MONDAY, FelJruary 26, 1877. rages and wrongs under which they suffered, and with an energy and power given by despair, they rose superior to all difficulties, and on The SPEAKER, (at twelve o'clock and ten minutes p.m.) The the day of election gave Mr. Tilden a maJority of 10,000 votes. There Chair decides that a new legislative day begins, and the Chaplain was no violence, no bloodshed ; peace and quiet prevailed every will now offer prayer. where; and now at last a glorious victory had crowned their efforts. Prayer by Rev. I. L. TOWNSEND. The news was flashed over the country, andforthemoment it was al The Journal of Saturday was then approved. most universally conceded that honesty and reform had triumphed and ELECTORAL VOTE OF PENNSYLVANIA. that Mr. Tilden was the next President. But hold t a voice is heard from the administration: there must be no surrender and the State Mr. CHITTENDE)T. Mr. Speaker, I desire to say a few words for must be counted for Hayes. It can only be done through the return our country, which I hold to be something better and more than any ing board, and only then through fraud. But even this board hesi political party. For more than twelve months the leaders and the tated and trembled to-enter upon their work of infamy. They re rank and file· of both the great political parties which divide this quired support. They needed advisers. Nothing short of the voice country have been engaged in a hand to hand struggle for suprem and power of the administration would afford indemnity against the acy, in constant neglect of vital public interests. For more than eight consequences of their great crime. That voice is heard. .A. number months, since the nominations for the Presidency were made, the peo of gentlemen are requested to visit New Orleans "to see that there is ple at large have taken an unusual interest in this uncommonly in a fair count;" and with this request comes the further announce tense contest. If we look over the record of the proceedings of this ment "that no man worthy of the office would hold it by fraud." We House we shall find that, including the thirty-two speeches for which recall at once the memorable words, "Let us have peace;" "Let no leave to print was granted on Saturday last, there have been made guilty man escape;" "The reuublican party must unload;" and now and put into the RECORD within the last month here several hun "There must be a fair count." Miserable deception, base subterfuge. dreds of partisan speeches. I think, Mr. Speaker, that it is high .A.s in the former, so these words mean just the reverse of what they time for us to stop for a single moment to inquire the cost to the peo express. ple of this partisanship; and I wish especially to inquire the cost of Who is selected to stand between the two great parties, maddened eontinuing it for another year, under the Constitution and the laws by excitement, and to see to it that justice waa done and a fair count and the precedents established by the commission f I want to know had f Common honesty, common sense, and common decency would if any gentleman has an arithmetic competent to compute that cost. say at once they must be men of both parties ; moderate, conservative, Such are the questions which come to us to-day in all our letters, over just and as far as possible removed from the infiuence of either can all the wires; they come to the Representatives of the American peo did~te. But this did not snit the purposes of the conspiracy, and other ple from every whither. men are selected. Among them we find the distinguished Represent I know that honorable gentlemen upon the other side of the House ative from Maine, a. republican of the straitest sect, taken from the concede their defeat, that they have frankly and unqualifiedly stated bosom of the President's political family, and the son-in-law of his their purpose to accept t.he decision of tne great commission which administration. [Laughter.] Yes, sir, I mean what I say; for the they themselves organized. But why this delay over a trivial objec chairman of the national executive re:publican committee was indeed tion Y I know that it is the business of lawyers to" make the worse the-Administration during the campaign•. This, gentlemen, is~ for appear the better cause," and the weak the stronger. I know that tunate selection for Mr. Hayes; he 18 the vicegerent of the President they are paid alike for defending the wicked and the just, but J have and the mouth-piece of his administration. He always baa a lordly and also observed that the final judgment of the highest courts on earth is impressive air; he walks like a lord and talks like a lord, and in con usually in harmony with the average common sense of mankind. sequence of this there has been a suggestion that he is a lineal de That is almost always true, and I venture to predict in this presence scendant of Lord Hale, and the inference is that his name is inherited. that if this question which has now delayed the Honse for a full day, He arrives at New Orleans; he feels the importance of his work, and is practically, could be submitted to a jury of twelve men, or of twelve more lordly still. The board is fully impressed; the two colored mem hundred men, or twelve thousand men of good common sense, they bers cannot repress their satisfaction with and admiration of the would say unanimously, in either case, that there was absolutely man, and it finds expression in the following couplet: nothing in it. Now, in the name of our common country, why on the verge of this Massa HaJ.e. 0 Massa Hale1 a sure nnff lord is he ; prodigious crisis wait another moment before deciding it f He spurns de dirt beneaf hl8 feet beca.nse it is dirty. Sir, I am not here to apologize for the Louisiana returning board. [Great laughter.] · I am not here to congratalate any man on this floor or elsewhere that If he chooses to exercise his power the board is but wax in his hands. through the proceedings of that board we are to have a. President, The president of the board is enraptru:ed with .such a respe~table ~nd but I believe sincerely that according to the Constitution and the lordly association, and at once he conceives the Idea thatheh1mself IB a forms of law there waa nothing left for the commission to do but to peer, and not n. vassal. This leaves the distinguished Senator from,O hlo count that vote. I recognize also that honors are easy between Lou and the equally distinguished me~ber ~om that Stat~ •. both b1~er, isiana and Oregon, and for the rest- rigid partisans both the confidential friends and political advisers Mr.