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The period of time during Grant's administration has become noted for the profligacy and corruption which reigned at Washington. "Whiskey Rings," "Indian Steals," "Credit Mobilier Swindles," and District of Columbia "Paving Frauds" will be long remembered as among the infamous transactions of those days. And the "carpet-bag" governments of the South, inflicted upon the States "lately in rebellion" by the Republican party-"the perfection of knavery;" a "synonym of rascality"-will not be soon forgotten.

The exigencies of the war had compelled the Republican party to emancipate the slaves. That this assertion may not be doubted, the following testimony is adduced; it occurs in the specch of Representative Brown, of Illinois, in Congress, July 18, 1861:

"The war is not for the extermination of slavery, nor has the general government ever assumed the power of, in any shape or manner, controlling the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. These troubles have grown out of precisely the opposite, out of the aggrc3sions of slavery itself and its continued struggles for expansion. But if they force the issue on us, whether the government shall go down to maintain the institution of slavery, or whether slavery shall be obliterated, then I am for the government and against slavery."

And Dixon, of Connecticut, at the same time

said: "If it shall turn out that this government or slavery must be destroyed, then the people of the North will say, rather than let the government perish, let slavery perish."

And in compliance with the necessity here presented, on the 1st of January, 1863, President Lincoln issued his proclamation, declaring that the slaves in the States and parts of States then in rebellion "are and shall be free," which was further stated to be done as 'a fit and necessary war measure upon military necessity." This step was followed by an amendment to the Constitution the same year, forbidding slavery in the United States-the last act in the "irrepressible conflict"-the final result of Calhoun's "forcing the issue on the North❞— hardly foreseen by him.

The right of suffrage also was soon afterwards bestowed on the freed slaves-a measure deemed

by its leaders as necessary to to maintain the ascendancy of the Republican party in the South. But contrary to their sanguine expectations, the negroes have been influenced to a great extent within a few years by their employers and from disaffection with the Republican party, to vote the opposite ticket, and the ballot in their hands has simply increased the strength of the antiRepublicans. On Democratic principles-the right of self-government-the negroes ought to be allowed to to vote. Yet a large and sudden increase of ignorant voters is not desirable in any State.

The Presidential contest of 1876 between Tilden and Hayes will long be remembered for the closeness of the result. Mr. Tilden had 184 electoral votes, one less than necessary for a choice, not including Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida. Each of these States had undoubtedly gone Democratic, but the Republican "returning boards" threw out votes enough to change the result. A long and bitter contest ensued, which was finally submitted to an Electoral Commission created by an act of Congress, composed of five members of each House and five Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, of which, by skillful management, the Republicans secured eight of the fifteen members. The following is the list the Republicans in italics:

Senators, Edmunds, Morton, Frelinghuysen, Thurman and Bayard; members of the House, Payne, Hunton, Abbott, Garfield and Hoar.

The associate justices were Clifford, Miller, Field, Strong, and Bradley.

Composed as this Commission was, of men occupying the highest positions of honor and trust, it would seem that their decision would have been rendered in accordance with the facts of the case, and in favor of Mr. Tilden. But unable to rise above party considerations, by a strict party vote of eight to seven the commission gave the seat to Mr. Hayes.

It is now well known and freely admitted by leading Republicans that Mr. Tilden was the

undoubted choice of the people, and the result was set aside by party management in securing upon the Commission a majority of unscrupulous Republican politicians, who would, and did, stoop to fraud to secure party success.

That ward politicians might have been expected to have done this is, perhaps, quite creditable, but that United States Senators and Justices of the Supreme Court could have thus stultified. themselves, was hitherto supposed to be impossible.

That the election of Mr. Tilden was set aside in utter disregard of the expressed will of the majority, is now generally admitted. The following from the Chicago Journal (Republican), of March 9, 1881, is to the point:

"No man in the Republican party owes so much to Democratic blundering as ex-President Hayes. The first blunder they made was in consenting to the Electoral Commission to settle the dispute about the Presidency when they held the power in their own hands under the Constitution to settle it in favor of their own cand:date. But they waived their right, consented to an arbitration and got euchered."

This is a remarkable confession-that Democrats, or the people rather, may always expect to get euchered whenever they submit their case to the highest tribunals in the land, if composed of Republicans.

A similar declaration was made in the Sen

ate of the United States by Conkling, of New York, at that time one of the "noblest Romar.s of them all." But as "Conk," as they now style him, is no longer Lord Roscoe, his assertions may be derided as of no authority.

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