PRESIDENT CANNOT ACT ON IRRESPONSIBLE RUMORS. 437 to go into New Jersey, New York, and North Carolina, to secure an honest count of the popular votes actually cast, public opinion everywhere would have revolted against such an interference. Presidential electors are officers of a state. The ascertainment of the persons in any state who had been chosen by its people to cast their votes for a president and a vice-president of the United States is a matter entirely in the hands of state authorities. Like all other state elections, these elections of presidential electors are regulated exclusively by the state laws. Νο branch of the federal government is authorized to interfere with these elections, or with the mode of ascertaining the results. No law of the United States had ever been passed which had authorized the federal executive to take measures to secure an honest count of the popular votes actually cast. That is exclusively the function of the state officers or boards appointed under state laws to discharge the duty. If there is danger of popular violence being exerted to overawe the state authorities, or to prevent the peaceable discharge of their functions, it is like any other case of "domestic violence." On application of the state legislature, or of the state executive when the legislature cannot be convened, the federal government can protect the state against domestic violence. It is not for the president of the United States to act upon rumors put in circulation by irresponsible persons. He can only act upon an official application made to him by the state authorities. Mr. W. E. Chandler was thus the author of the "visiting statesmen" plan of operations. President Grant became its patron, and exerted his influence to carry it out. He added to it, however, something that Mr. Chandler did not contemplate. Mr. Chandler did not design to have any but Republicans go into the three states. What he was aiming at was to prevent the Democrats of those states from "wresting" the electoral votes of states away from the Republicans. For this purpose he wished to have representative and prominent men of his own party go into those states and operate with the returning boards, so as to secure the electoral votes of those states for Hayes and Wheeler. President Grant, although willing to support the "visiting states 1 The Constitution, Art. IV. § 4. men" plan, was astute enough to see the stupidity of sending Republicans only, as had been suggested by W. E. Chandler; and he so expressed himself in his despatch to General Sherman, on November 10th, ordering troops to be sent. He said that "It is to be hoped that representative and fair men of both parties will go." Such an interference from without was entirely improper and unlawful. The professed object of the visiting statesmen was to secure "an honest count," but the very proceeding itself was calculated to make the returning boards feel that an honest count meant the return of such electors as they might agree to return without any honest regard for the popular votes. The visiting statesmen, both Republican and Democratic, appeared before the respective returning boards and contested the returns of the popular votes. This was a matter with which no one outside of the respective states should ever have interfered. The result was, in each of the three states, that Republican electors were declared to have been chosen, and at the same time contradictory certificates of the electors chosen were forwarded to Washington. I must now speak with reluctance on a painful part of this subject. Whether Mr. Hayes was directly or indirectly represented before either of the returning boards, it is certain that promises were made in his behalf by persons who were well understood to be acting by his authority. Some will be mentioned: McLin, secretary of state and ex-officio member of the Returning Board of Florida, testified before the Potter Committee as follows: "Looking back now to that time" (of the canvass), "I feel that there was a combination of influences that must have operated most powerfully in blinding my judgment and swaying my action." What the "combination of influences" were he in part disclosed: "I was shown numerous telegrams, addressed to Governor Stearns and others, from the trusted leaders of the Republican party in the North, insisting that the salvation of the country depended upon the vote of Florida being cast for Hayes. These telegrams also gave assurances of the forthcoming of money, and troops if necessary, in securing the victory for Mr. Hayes. Following these telegrams, trusted Northern Republicans, party leaders, and personal friends of Mr. Hayes, arrived in Florida as rapidly as the railroads could bring them. I was sur rounded by these men, who were ardent Republicans, and especially by friends of Governor Hayes. One gentleman particularly-Governor Noyes, of Ohio-was understood to represent him, and speak with the authority of a warm personal friend, commissioned with power to act in his behalf. These men referred to the general distraction of the country should Mr. Tilden be elected, the intense anxiety of the Republican party of the North, and their full sympathy with us. I cannot say how far my action may have been influenced by the intense excitement that prevailed around me, or how far my partisan zeal may have led me into error; neither can I say how far my course was influenced by the promises made by Governor Noyes that if Mr. Hayes became president I should be rewarded. Certainly their influences must have had a strong control over my judgment and action." Q. "Now, sir, state to the committee, if you please, what promises these visiting statesmen from the North made to the Republican leaders and the Returning Board if the state should go for Mr. Hayes?" A. "Well, General Wallace told me on several occasions that if Mr. Hayes should be elected that the members of the Returning Board should be taken care of, and no doubt about that; that Governor Noyes represented Mr. Hayes, and spoke for him and was in favor of it. Then, on one occasion, William E. Chandler came to me and stated that he didn't like to say it to me, but he would say it to me, and he spoke for General Wallace also, that if the state went and was canvassed for Mr. Hayes that the members of the Returning Board-at least, he referred to a majority of the board, Dr. Cowgill and myself-would be well taken care of, and there would be no doubt of it. He said he was authorized to say that." McLin further testified that Dr. Cowgill told him that in March, 1877, he was in Washington and saw Hayes frequently; "that he was received very kindly by the president, and given free admission to the White House at all times; and that he had expressed himself as being under great obligations to him and me in the canvass, and that he felt not only under political obligations, but personal obligations that he would certainly pay at an early day." Nearly thirty of those persons who were most active in securing the return of Republican Electors in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina by the returning boards were afterwards appointed to offices of trust and profit by the administration which was brought into power by means of their "returns.” William E. Chandler, who came to the rescue on the morning of Wednesday, November 8, 1876, and re-encouraged the demoralized National Committee, conceived the plan of counting Hayes in, organized the conspirators, and left the same day for Florida to execute a part of the hazardous undertaking, and did his work thoroughly well, but became disgusted with the fraudulent administration when it abandoned Packard in Louisiana and Chamberlain in South Carolina, and, not being promptly rewarded for his services, attacked Hayes, and proved that by deserting the Louisiana and South Carolina carpet-baggers he thereby acknowledged to the world that he had not been elected president. Francis C. Barlow, the one "visiting statesman" who was troubled with a conscience, and endeavored to fulfil the duties to which he had been invited by the President of the United States, in accordance with sentiments expressed by the chief executive of the nation, was not rewarded with any office, but was bitterly assailed for his alleged betrayal of his party. NOTE. The preceding thirteen chapters are all of the proposed second volume available for publication. It will be observed that they do not include several important topics named in the prospectus quoted in the Preface. The editor does not regard it as within his present duty to attempt to supply the missing chapters; to do so would savor of presumption. The "Notes" in the Appendix will, however, contain some brief comments relating to the omitted topics, or some of them.-J. C. C. Mr. Curtis proposed to write chapters under the following titles, but died without accomplishing that purpose: 1 CHAPTER XIV. IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 1 See Notes, Appendix. |