CHAPTER IV.

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY-CONCLUSION.

Election of Mr. Tilden by the People-Causes Preventing Ilis Inauguration-Stultification of the Republicans by the Electoral Commission Decisions-Hancock and Garfield-Causes of Defeat of General 11ancock-Summary of Democratic Principles and Actions.

THE returns of the popular vote of 1876, as published in the New York Tribune Almanac, also clearly indicate the election of Mr. Tilden: For S. J. Tilden....... For R. B. Hayes.....

Tilden's majority......

.4,285,992

.4,033,768

252,224

It may be said that this monstrous injustice ought not to have been submitted to by the American people. To this it is only necessary to answer, that the cause had been submitted to a very high court, with the confident expectation that justice would be done. To the decisions of lawfully constituted authorities it is the practice of our people, and especially of the Democracy, to bow, and though this decision was heinously and flagrantly wrong, no instance can be pointed to of a Democratic hand being raised in oppcsition. Very different the conduct of General Grant, the Republican President, who surrounded Washington with soldiers while this delicate subject was under discussion. And it follows as

a necessary consequence that the remarkable frauds and Star Route stealings of the Hayes administration since find their only parallel in those perpetrated during Grant's terms of the previous years. Had Mr. Tilden been assigned the seat to which he had been fairly elected, it is just to presume that the same high principle of opposition to official corruption which had so distinguished his course as Governor of New York State would have been displayed at Washington, and the Chief Magistracy of the nation would not have been, during his time at least, as it has been during the last administrations, the headquarters of "dens of thieves."

Another incident in connection with the selection of Mr. Hayes by the Electoral Commission should be here noticed. In Louisiana and South Carolina there was a conflict between the two parties, each claiming control of the State goverament. It has been stated in certain quarters that the installation of Mr. Hayes was conceded by the Democrats on the condition that the "Carpet Bag" State governments of these States should not be recognized by the Hayes administration. This arrangement, whether formally stipulated between the parties or not, was, however, immediately carried into effect, and the "travelling politicians" soon after packed their valises, with hearty objurgations on the "wise men " who had made their political venture at the South "a fool's errand."

The curious part of this transaction remains to be noticed. The same vote which was given for Mr. Tilden in one of these States, and which was decided to be illegal by the Electoral Commission, was afterwards held to be valid, and the State government elected by it was recognized by the Republican party.

The truth probably is, that the Southern people were so tired, had been so plundered by the "Carpet Bag" adventurers, that they were will ing to consent to almost any measure that would relieve them of the incubus. For, under the rule of the miscreants, the debts of South Carolina and Louisiana had more than trebled in

years.

a few

And now it came to pass that one of the actors in this chapter of fraud and connivance in defeating the people's will, and who had also been implicated in some of the peculiar transactions of Grant's administration, was selected to be the standard-bearer of the Republican party. When it is remembered besides that Mr. Garfield had supported the bill increasing the Presidential salary from $25,000 to $50,000-a measure very obnoxious to the great majority of the American people-it is amazingly strange that he should have been elected in 1880 over General Hancock, of whose patriotism, ability and honesty there was not a shadow of doubt.

Two causes combined to produce this effect. The first was, that the South had been, since

Reconstruction, solidly Democratic. This fact was distorted, and every effort made to keep alive the ill-feeling produced by the late war, and to alarm the fears of the North-that Democratic success meant re-enslavement of the black people, payment of Southern war debts, the re establishment of the Southern Confederacy, and a hundred other things equally absurd.

Another cause for this defeat was the tariff question. The position of the old Democratic party-" revenue the object, protection the incident"-is undoubtedly the correct one as combining "the greatest good to the greatest number" of citizens, and if fairly placed before the people will command their support. The opposite position" protection the object, revenue the incident"-is too absurd to deserve much comment. But sustained by powerful rings of intercsted manufacturers, it exerted a deciding influence upon this political campaign, which resulted in the election of Mr. Garfield.

As the statement has often been made that the Democratic party is dead-was killed by the war, etc., their vote in the Presidential election of 1880 is appended. It will be readily seen that although not successful the vote polled still indicates the active existence of a very large and powerful party:

For Garfield.......
For Hancock........

Republican majority.

....4,445,839
.4,443,535

2,304

These figures, published soon after the election, were slightly changed by the fuller returns,* increasing Mr. Garfield's majority, which may be set down at less than 3,000 in round numbers, out of an aggregate vote of over 9,000,000. The total vote, indeed, including 308,486 for Weaver (Greenbacker), and 10,835 for Dow (Temperance), was published as 9,210,695. By these figures it would appear certain that the Democratic party, without the aid of the government patronage or thieving rings, is neither dead nor yet sleeping.

From the incidents already narrated in this work, the following general deductions may be stated as Democratic principles:

1st. It is the right of the people to govern themselves; through representatives if desired.

2d. As differences of opinion exist in all societies, it is necessary that the will of a designated majority shall be obeyed.

3d. That all laws ought to be based upon the principle of the greatest good to the greatest number.

4th. That the habits of economy and frugality of the people ought to be practiced by their representatives.

In conclusion it may be said, that when these principles are carried out to their legitimate

*The New York Spirit of the Times, April, 1881, published the result from returns on record at Washington, giving Mr. Garfield less than 500 votes more than General Hancock received.