[1] _Ancient Law_, p. 126.
[2] _Religion of the Semites_, p. 34.
[3] There is a hint at this even in the Pentateuch, "every great
matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall
judge themselves."
ELDER (O. Eng. _ellarn_; Ger. _Holunder_; Fr. _sureau_), the popular
designation of the deciduous shrubs and trees constituting the genus
_Sambucus_ of the natural order Caprifoliaceae. The Common Elder, _S.
nigra_, the bourtree of Scotland, is found in Europe, the north of
Africa, Western Asia, the Caucasus, and Southern Siberia; in sheltered
spots it attains a height of over 20 ft. The bark is smooth; the shoots
are stout and angular, and the leaves glabrous, pinnate, with oval or
elliptical leaflets. The flowers, which form dense flat-topped clusters
(corymbose cymes), with five main branches, have a cream-coloured,
gamopetalous, five-lobed corolla, five stamens, and three sessile
stigmas; the berries are purplish-black, globular and three- or
four-seeded, and ripen about September. The elder thrives best in moist,
well-drained situations, but can be grown in a great diversity of soils.
It grows readily from young shoots, which after a year are fit for
transplantation. It is found useful for making screen-fences in bleak,
exposed situations, and also as a shelter for other shrubs in the
outskirts of plantations. By clipping two or three times a year, it may
be made close and compact in growth. The young trees furnish a brittle
wood, containing much pith; the wood of old trees is white, hard and
close-grained, polishes well, and is employed for shoemakers' pegs,
combs, skewers, mathematical instruments and turned articles. Young
elder twigs deprived of pith have from very early times been in request
for making whistles, popguns and other toys.
The elder was known to the ancients for its medicinal properties, and in
England the inner bark was formerly administered as a cathartic. The
flowers (_sambuci flores_) contain a volatile oil, and serve for the
distillation of elder-flower water (_aqua sambuci_), used in
confectionery, perfumes and lotions. The leaves of the elder are
employed to impart a green colour to fat and oil (_unguentum sambuci
foliorum_ and _oleum viride_), and the berries for making wine, a common
adulterant of port. The leaves and bark emit a sickly odour, believed to
be repugnant to insects. Christopher Gullet (_Phil. Trans._, 1772, lxii.
p. 348) recommends that cabbages, turnips, wheat and fruit trees, to
preserve them from caterpillars, flies and blight, should be whipped
with twigs of young elder. According to German folklore, the hat must be
doffed in the presence of the elder-tree; and in certain of the English
midland counties a belief was once prevalent that the cross of Christ
was made from its wood, which should therefore never be used as fuel, or
treated with disrespect (see _Quart. Rev._ cxiv. 233). It was, however,
a common medieval tradition, alluded to by Ben Jonson, Shakespeare and
other writers, that the elder was the tree on which Judas hanged
himself; and on this account, probably, to be crowned with elder was in
olden times accounted a disgrace. In Cymbeline (act iv. s. 2) "the
stinking elder" is mentioned as a symbol of grief. In Denmark the tree
is supposed by the superstitious to be under the protection of the
"Elder-mother": its flowers may not be gathered without her leave; its
wood must not be employed for any household furniture; and a child
sleeping in an elder-wood cradle would certainly be strangled by the
Elder-mother.
Several varieties are known in cultivation: _aurea_, golden elder, has
golden-yellow leaves; _laciniata_, parsley-leaved elder, has the
leaflets cut into fine segments; _rotundifolia_ has rounded leaflets;
forms also occur with variegated white and yellow leaves, and
_virescens_ is a variety having white bark and green-coloured berries.
The scarlet-berried elder, _S. racemosa_, is the handsomest species of
the genus. It is a native of various parts of Europe, growing in Britain
to a height of over 15 ft., but often producing no fruit. The dwarf
elder or Danewort (supposed to have been introduced into Britain by the
Danes), _S. Ebulus_, a common European species, reaches a height of
about 6 ft. Its cyme is hairy, has three principal branches, and is
smaller than that of _S. nigra_; the flowers are white tipped with
pink. All parts of the plant are cathartic and emetic.
ELDON, JOHN SCOTT, 1st EARL OF (1751-1838), lord high chancellor of
England, was born at Newcastle on the 4th of June 1751. His grandfather,
William Scott of Sandgate, a suburb of Newcastle, was clerk to a
"fitter"--a sort of water-carrier and broker of coals. His father, whose
name also was William, began life as an apprentice to a fitter, in which
service he obtained the freedom of Newcastle, becoming a member of the
gild of Hoastmen (coal-fitters); later in life he became a principal in
the business, and attained a respectable position as a merchant in
Newcastle, accumulating property worth nearly L20,000.
John Scott was educated at the grammar school of his native town. He was
not remarkable at school for application to his studies, though his
wonderful memory enabled him to make good progress in them; he
frequently played truant and was whipped for it, robbed orchards, and
indulged in other questionable schoolboy freaks; nor did he always come
out of his scrapes with honour and a character for truthfulness. When he
had finished his education at the grammar school, his father thought of
apprenticing him to his own business, to which an elder brother Henry
had already devoted himself; and it was only through the interference of
his elder brother William (afterwards Lord Stowell, q.v.), who had
already obtained a fellowship at University College, Oxford, that it was
ultimately resolved that he should continue the prosecution of his
studies. Accordingly, in 1766, John Scott entered University College
with the view of taking holy orders and obtaining a college living. In
the year following he obtained a fellowship, graduated B.A. in 1770, and
in 1771 won the prize for the English essay, the only university prize
open in his time for general competition.
His wife was the eldest daughter of Aubone Surtees, a Newcastle banker.
The Surtees family objected to the match, and attempted to prevent it;
but a strong attachment had sprung up between them. On the 18th November
1772 Scott, with the aid of a ladder and an old friend, carried off the
lady from her father's house in the Sandhill, across the border to
Blackshiels, in Scotland, where they were married. The father of the
bridegroom objected not to his son's choice, but to the time he chose to
marry; for it was a blight on his son's prospects, depriving him of his
fellowship and his chance of church preferment. But while the bride's
family refused to hold intercourse with the pair, Mr Scott, like a
prudent man and an affectionate father, set himself to make the best of
a bad matter, and received them kindly, settling on his son L2000. John
returned with his wife to Oxford, and continued to hold his fellowship
for what is called the year of grace given after marriage, and added to
his income by acting as a private tutor. After a time Mr Surtees was
reconciled with his daughter, and made a liberal settlement on her.
John Scott's year of grace closed without any college living falling
vacant; and with his fellowship he gave up the church and turned to the
study of law. He became a student at the Middle Temple in January 1773.
In 1776 he was called to the bar, intending at first to establish
himself as an advocate in his native town, a scheme which his early
success led him to abandon, and he soon settled to the practice of his
profession in London, and on the northern circuit. In the autumn of the
year in which he was called to the bar his father died, leaving him a
legacy of L1000 over and above the L2000 previously settled on him.
In his second year at the bar his prospects began to brighten. His
brother William, who by this time held the Camden professorship of
ancient history, and enjoyed an extensive acquaintance with men of
eminence in London, was in a position materially to advance his
interests. Among his friends was the notorious Andrew Bowes of Gibside,
to the patronage of whose house the rise of the Scott family was largely
owing. Bowes having contested Newcastle and lost it, presented an
election petition against the return of his opponent. Young Scott was
retained as junior counsel in the case, and though he lost the petition
he did not fail to improve the opportunity which it afforded for
displaying his talents. This engagement, in the commencement of his
second year at the bar, and the dropping in of occasional fees, must
have raised his hopes; and he now abandoned the scheme of becoming a
provincial barrister. A year or two of dull drudgery and few fees
followed, and he began to be much depressed. But in 1780 we find his
prospects suddenly improved, by his appearance in the case of _Ackroyd_
v. _Smithson_, which became a leading case settling a rule of law; and
young Scott, having lost his point in the inferior court, insisted on
arguing it, on appeal, against the opinion of his clients, and carried
it before Lord Thurlow, whose favourable consideration he won by his
able argument. The same year Bowes again retained him in an election
petition; and in the year following Scott greatly increased his
reputation by his appearance as leading counsel in the Clitheroe
election petition. From this time his success was certain. In 1782 he
obtained a silk gown, and was so far cured of his early modesty that he
declined accepting the king's counselship if precedence over him were
given to his junior, Thomas (afterwards Lord) Erskine, though the latter
was the son of a peer and a most accomplished orator. He was now on the
high way to fortune. His health, which had hitherto been but
indifferent, strengthened with the demands made upon it; his talents,
his power of endurance, and his ambition all expanded together. He
enjoyed a considerable practice in the northern part of his circuit,
before parliamentary committees and at the chancery bar. By 1787 his
practice at the equity bar had so far increased that he was obliged to
give up the eastern half of his circuit (which embraced six counties)
and attend it only at Lancaster.
In 1782 he entered parliament for Lord Weymouth's close borough of
Weobley, which Lord Thurlow obtained for him without solicitation. In
parliament he gave a general and independent support to Pitt. His first
parliamentary speeches were directed against Fox's India Bill. They were
unsuccessful. In one he aimed at being brilliant; and becoming merely
laboured and pedantic, he was covered with ridicule by Sheridan, from
whom he received a lesson which he did not fail to turn to account. In
1788 he was appointed solicitor-general, and was knighted, and at the
close of this year he attracted attention by his speeches in support of
Pitt's resolutions on the state of the king (George III., who then
laboured under a mental malady) and the delegation of his authority. It
is said that he drew the Regency Bill, which was introduced in 1789. In
1793 Sir John Scott was promoted to the office of attorney-general, in
which it fell to him to conduct the memorable prosecutions for high
treason against British sympathizers with French republicanism,--amongst
others, against the celebrated Horne Tooke. These prosecutions, in most
cases, were no doubt instigated by Sir John Scott, and were the most
important proceedings in which he was ever professionally engaged. He
has left on record, in his _Anecdote Book_, a defence of his conduct in
regard to them. A full account of the principal trials, and of the
various legislative measures for repressing the expressions of popular
opinion for which he was more or less responsible, will be found in
Twiss's _Public and Private Life of the Lord Chancellor Eldon_, and in
the _Lives of the Lord Chancellors_, by Lord Campbell.
In 1799 the office of chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas falling
vacant, Sir John Scott's claim to it was not overlooked; and after
seventeen years' service in the Lower House, he entered the House of
Peers as Baron Eldon. In February 1801 the ministry of Pitt was
succeeded by that of Addington, and the chief justice now ascended the
woolsack. The chancellorship was given to him professedly on account of
his notorious anti-Catholic zeal. From the peace of Amiens (1802) till
1804 Lord Eldon appears to have interfered little in politics. In the
latter year we find him conducting the negotiations which resulted in
the dismissal of Addington and the recall of Pitt to office as prime
minister. Lord Eldon was continued in office as chancellor under Pitt;
but the new administration was of short duration, for on the 23rd of
January 1806 Pitt died, worn out with the anxieties of office, and his
ministry was succeeded by a coalition, under Lord Grenville. The death
of Fox, who became foreign secretary and leader of the House of Commons,
soon, however, broke up the Grenville administration; and in the spring
of 1807 Lord Eldon once more, under Lord Liverpool's administration,
returned to the woolsack, which, from that time, he continued to occupy
for about twenty years, swaying the cabinet, and being in all but name
prime minister of England. It was not till April 1827, when the
premiership, vacant through the paralysis of Lord Liverpool, fell to
Canning, the chief advocate of Roman Catholic emancipation, that Lord
Eldon, in the seventy-sixth year of his age, finally resigned the
chancellorship. When, after the two short administrations of Canning and
Goderich, it fell to the duke of Wellington to construct a cabinet, Lord
Eldon expected to be included, if not as chancellor, at least in some
important office, but he was overlooked, at which he was much chagrined.
Notwithstanding his frequent protests that he did not covet power, but
longed for retirement, we find him again, so late as 1835, within three
years of his death, in hopes of office under Peel. He spoke in
parliament for the last time in July 1834.
In 1821 Lord Eldon had been created Viscount Encombe and earl of Eldon
by George IV., whom he managed to conciliate, partly, no doubt, by
espousing his cause against his wife, whose advocate he had formerly
been, and partly through his reputation for zeal against the Roman
Catholics. In the same year his brother William, who from 1798 had
filled the office of judge of the High Court of Admiralty, was raised to
the peerage under the title of Lord Stowell.
Lord Eldon's wife, his dear "Bessy," his love for whom is a beautiful
feature in his life, died before him, on the 28th of June 1831. By
nature she was of simple character, and by habits acquired during the
early portion of her husband's career almost a recluse. Two of their
sons reached maturity--John, who died in 1805, and William Henry John,
who died unmarried in 1832. Lord Eldon himself survived almost all his
immediate relations. His brother William died in 1836. He himself died
in London on the 13th of January 1838, leaving behind him two daughters,
Lady Frances Bankes and Lady Elizabeth Repton, and a grandson John
(1805-1854), who succeeded him as second earl, the title subsequently
passing to the latter's son John (b. 1846).
Lord Eldon was no legislator--his one aim in politics was to keep in
office, and maintain things as he found them; and almost the only laws he
helped to pass were laws for popular coercion. For nearly forty years he
fought against every improvement in law, or in the constitution--calling
God to witness, on the smallest proposal of reform, that he foresaw from
it the downfall of his country. Without any political principles,
properly so called, and without interest in or knowledge of foreign
affairs, he maintained himself and his party in power for an
unprecedented period by his great tact, and in virtue of his two great
political properties--of zeal against every species of reform, and zeal
against the Roman Catholics. To pass from his political to his judicial
character is to shift to ground on which his greatness is universally
acknowledged. His judgments, which have received as much praise for their
accuracy as abuse for their clumsiness and uncouthness, fill a small
library. But though intimately acquainted with every nook and cranny of
the English law, he never carried his studies into foreign fields, from
which to enrich our legal literature; and it must be added that against
the excellence of his judgments, in too many cases, must be set off the
hardships, worse than injustice, that arose from his protracted delays in
pronouncing them. A consummate judge and the narrowest of politicians, he
was doubt on the bench, and promptness itself in the political arena. For
literature, as for art, he had no feeling. What intervals of leisure he
enjoyed from the cares of office he filled up with newspapers and the
gossip of old cronies. Nor were his intimate associates men of refinement
and taste; they were rather good fellows who quietly enjoyed a good
bottle and a joke; he uniformly avoided encounters of wit with his
equals. He is said to have been parsimonious, and certainly he was
quicker to receive than to reciprocate hospitalities; but his mean
establishment and mode of life are explained by the retired habits of his
wife, and her dislike of company. His manners were very winning and
courtly, and in the circle of his immediate relatives he is said to have
always been lovable and beloved.
"In his person," says Lord Campbell, "Lord Eldon was about the middle
size, his figure light and athletic, his features regular and handsome,
his eye bright and full, his smile remarkably benevolent, and his whole
appearance prepossessing. The advance of years rather increased than
detracted from these personal advantages. As he sat on the
judgment-seat, 'the deep thought betrayed in his furrowed brow--the
large eyebrows, overhanging eyes that seemed to regard more what was
taking place within than around him--his calmness, that would have
assumed a character of sternness but for its perfect placidity--his
dignity, repose and venerable age, tended at once to win confidence and
to inspire respect' (Townsend). He had a voice both sweet and
deep-toned, and its effect was not injured by his Northumbrian burr,
which, though strong, was entirely free from harshness and vulgarity."
AUTHORITIES.--Horace Twiss, _Life of Lord Chancellor Eldon_ (1844);
W.E. Surtees, _Sketch of the Lives of Lords Stowell and Eldon_ (1846);
Lord Campbell, _Lives of the Chancellors_; W.C. Townsend, _Lives of
Twelve Eminent Judges_ (1846); _Greville Memoirs_.
EL DORADO (Span. "the gilded one"), a name applied, first, to the king
or chief priest of a South American tribe who was said to cover himself
with gold dust at a yearly religious festival held near Santa Fe de
Bogota; next, to a legendary city called Manoa or Omoa; and lastly, to a
mythical country in which gold and precious stones were found in
fabulous abundance. The legend, which has never been traced to its
ultimate source, had many variants, especially as regards the situation
attributed to Manoa. It induced many Spanish explorers to lead
expeditions in search of treasure, but all failed. Among the most famous
were the expedition undertaken by Diego de Ordaz, whose lieutenant
Martinez claimed to have been rescued from shipwreck, conveyed inland,
and entertained at Omoa by "El Dorado" himself (1531); and the journeys
of Orellana (1540-1541), who passed down the Rio Napo to the valley of
the Amazon; that of Philip von Hutten (1541-1545), who led an exploring
party from Coro on the coast of Caracas; and of Gonzalo Ximenes de
Quesada (1569), who started from Santa Fe de Bogota. Sir Walter Raleigh,
who resumed the search in 1595, described Manoa as a city on Lake Parima
in Guiana. This lake was marked on English and other maps until its
existence was disproved by A. von Humboldt (1769-1859). Meanwhile the
name of El Dorado came to be used metaphorically of any place where
wealth could be rapidly acquired. It was given to a county in
California, and to towns and cities in various states. In literature
frequent allusion is made to the legend, perhaps the best-known
references being those in Milton's _Paradise Lost_ (vi. 411) and
Voltaire's _Candide_ (chs. 18, 19).
See A.F.A. Bandelier, _The Gilded Man, El Dorado_ (New York, 1893).
ELDUAYEN, JOSE DE, 1st Marquis del Pazo de la Merced (1823-1898),
Spanish politician, was born in Madrid on the 22nd of June 1823. He was
educated in the capital, took the degree of civil engineer, and as such
directed important works in Asturias and Galicia, entered the Cortes in
1856 as deputy for Vigo, and sat in all the parliaments until 1867 as
member of the Union Liberal with Marshal O'Donnell. He attacked the
Miraflores cabinet in 1864, and became under-secretary of the home
office when Canovas was minister in 1865. He was made a councillor of
state in 1866, and in 1868 assisted the other members of the Union
Liberal in preparing the revolution. In the Cortes of 1872 he took much
part in financial debates. He accepted office as member of the last
Sagasta cabinet under King Amadeus. On the proclamation of the republic
Elduayen very earnestly co-operated in the Alphonsist conspiracy, and
endeavoured to induce the military and politicians to work together. He
went abroad to meet and accompany the prince after the _pronunciamiento_
of Marshal Campos, landed with him at Valencia, was made governor of
Madrid, a marquis, grand cross of Charles III., and minister for the
colonies in 1878. He accepted the portfolio of foreign affairs in the
Canovas cabinet from 1883 to 1885, and was made a life senator. He
always prided himself on having been one of the five members of the
Cortes of 1870 who voted for Alphonso XII. when that parliament elected
Amadeus of Savoy. He died at Madrid on the 24th of June 1898.
ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE (c. 1122-1204), wife of the English king Henry II.,
was the daughter and heiress of Duke William X. of Aquitaine, whom she
succeeded in April 1137. In accordance with arrangements made by her
father, she at once married Prince Louis, the heir to the French crown,
and a month later her husband became king of France under the title of
Louis VII. Eleanor bore Louis two daughters but no sons. This was
probably the reason why their marriage was annulled by mutual consent in
1151, but contemporary scandal-mongers attributed the separation to the
king's jealousy. It was alleged that, while accompanying her husband on
the Second Crusade (1146-1149), Eleanor had been unduly familiar with
her uncle, Raymond of Antioch. Chronology is against this hypothesis,
since Louis and she lived on good terms together for two years after the
Crusade. There is still less ground for the supposition that Henry of
Anjou, whom she married immediately after the divorce, had been her
lover before it. This second marriage, with a youth some years her
junior, was purely political. The duchy of Aquitaine required a strong
ruler, and the union with Anjou was eminently desirable. Louis, who had
hoped that Aquitaine would descend to his daughters, was mortified and
alarmed by the Angevin marriage; all the more so when Henry of Anjou
succeeded to the English crown in 1154. From this event dates the
beginning of the secular strife between England and France which runs
like a red thread through medieval history.
Eleanor bore to her second husband five sons and three daughters; John,
the youngest of their children, was born in 1167. But her relations with
Henry passed gradually through indifference to hatred. Henry was an
unfaithful husband, and Eleanor supported her sons in their great
rebellion of 1173. Throughout the latter years of the reign she was kept
in a sort of honourable confinement. It was during her captivity that
Henry formed his connexion with Rosamond Clifford, the Fair Rosamond of
romance. Eleanor, therefore, can hardly have been responsible for the
death of this rival, and the romance of the poisoned bowl appears to be
an invention of the next century.
Under the rule of Richard and John the queen became a political
personage of the highest importance. To both her sons the popularity
which she enjoyed in Aquitaine was most valuable. But in other
directions also she did good service. She helped to frustrate the
conspiracy with France which John concocted during Richard's captivity.
She afterwards reconciled the king and the prince, thus saving for John
the succession which he had forfeited by his misconduct. In 1199 she
crushed an Angevin rising in favour of John's nephew, Arthur of
Brittany. In 1201 she negotiated a marriage between her grand-daughter,
Blanche of Castile, and Louis of France, the grandson of her first
husband. It was through her staunch defence of Mirabeau in Poitou that
John got possession of his nephew's person. She died on the 1st of April
1204, and was buried at Fontevrault. Although a woman of strong passions
and great abilities she is, historically, less important as an
individual than as the heiress of Aquitaine, a part of which was,
through her second marriage, united to England for some four hundred
years.
See the chronicles cited for the reigns of Henry II., Richard I. and
John. Also Sir J.H. Ramsay, _Angevin Empire_ (London, 1903); K.
Norgate, _England under the Angevin Kings_ (London, 1887); and A.
Strickland, _Lives of the Queens of England_, vol. i. (1841).
(H. W. C. D.)
ELEATIC SCHOOL, a Greek school of philosophy which came into existence
towards the end of the 6th century B.C., and ended with Melissus of
Samos (fl. c. 450 B.C.). It took its name from Elea, a Greek city of
lower Italy, the home of its chief exponents, Parmenides and Zeno. Its
foundation is often attributed to Xenophanes of Colophon, but, although
there is much in his speculations which formed part of the later Eleatic
doctrine, it is probably more correct to regard Parmenides as the
founder of the school. At all events, it was Parmenides who gave it its
fullest development. The main doctrines of the Eleatics were evolved in
opposition, on the one hand, to the physical theories of the early
physical philosophers who explained all existence in terms of primary
matter (see IONIAN SCHOOL), and, on the other hand, to the theory of
Heraclitus that all existence may be summed up as perpetual change. As
against these theories the Eleatics maintained that the true explanation
of things lies in the conception of a universal unity of being. The
senses with their changing and inconsistent reports cannot cognize this
unity; it is by thought alone that we can pass beyond the false
appearances of sense and arrive at the knowledge of being, at the
fundamental truth that "the All is One." There can be no creation, for
being cannot come from not-being; a thing cannot arise from that which
is different from it. The errors of common opinion arise to a great
extent from the ambiguous use of the verb "to be," which may imply
existence or be merely the copula which connects subject and predicate.
In these main contentions the Eleatic school achieved a real advance,
and paved the way to the modern conception of metaphysics. Xenophanes in
the middle of the 6th century had made the first great attack on the
crude mythology of early Greece, including in his onslaught the whole
anthropomorphic system enshrined in the poems of Homer and Hesiod. In
the hands of Parmenides this spirit of free thought developed on
metaphysical lines. Subsequently, whether from the fact that such bold
speculations were obnoxious to the general sense of propriety in Elea,
or from the inferiority of its leaders, the school degenerated into
verbal disputes as to the possibility of motion, and similar academic
trifling. The best work of the school was absorbed in the Platonic
metaphysic (see E. Caird, _Evolution of Theology in the Greek
Philosophers_, 1904).
See further the articles on XENOPHANES; PARMENIDES; ZENO (of Elea);
MELISSUS, with the works there quoted; also the histories of
philosophy by Zeller, Gomperz, Windelband, &c.
ELECAMPANE (Med. Lat. _Enula Campana_), a perennial composite plant, the
_Inula Helenium_ of botanists, which is common in many parts of Britain,
and ranges throughout central and southern Europe, and in Asia as far
eastwards as the Himalayas. It is a rather rigid herb, the stem of which
attains a height of from 3 to 5 ft.; the leaves are large and toothed,
the lower ones stalked, the rest embracing the stem; the flowers are
yellow, 2 in. broad, and have many rays, each three-notched at the
extremity. The root is thick, branching and mucilaginous, and has a
warm, bitter taste and a camphoraceous odour. For medicinal purposes it
should be procured from plants not more than two or three years old.
Besides _inulin_, C_12H_20O_10, a body isomeric with starch, the root
contains _helenin_, C6H8O, a stearoptene, which may be prepared in white
acicular crystals, insoluble in water, but freely soluble in alcohol.
When freed from the accompanying inula-camphor by repeated
crystallization from alcohol, helenin melts at 110 deg. C. By the
ancients the root was employed both as a medicine and as a condiment,
and in England it was formerly in great repute as an aromatic tonic and
stimulant of the secretory organs. "The fresh roots of elecampane
preserved with sugar, or made into a syrup or conserve," are recommended
by John Parkinson in his _Theatrum Botanicum_ as "very effectual to warm
a cold and windy stomack, and the pricking and stitches therein or in
the sides caused by the Spleene, and to helpe the cough, shortnesse of
breath, and wheesing in the Lungs." As a drug, however, the root is now
seldom resorted to except in veterinary practice, though it is
undoubtedly possessed of antiseptic properties. In France and
Switzerland it is used in the manufacture of absinthe.
ELECTION (from Lat. _eligere_, to pick out), the method by which a
choice or selection is made by a constituent body (the electors or
electorate) of some person to fill a certain office or dignity. The
procedure itself is called an election. Election, as a special form of
selection, is naturally a loose term covering many subjects; but except
in the theological sense (the doctrine of election), as employed by
Calvin and others, for the choice by God of His "elect," the legal sense
(see ELECTION, _in law_, below), and occasionally as a synonym for
personal choice (one's own "election"), it is confined to the selection
by the preponderating vote of some properly constituted body of electors
of one of two or more candidates, sometimes for admission only to some
private social position (as in a club), but more particularly in
connexion with public representative positions in political government.
It is thus distinguished from arbitrary methods of appointment, either
where the right of nominating rests in an individual, or where pure
chance (such as selection by lot) dictates the result. The part played
by different forms of election in history is alluded to in numerous
articles in this work, dealing with various countries and various
subjects. It is only necessary here to consider certain important
features in the elections, as ordinarily understood, namely, the
exercise of the right of voting for political and municipal offices in
the United Kingdom and America. See also the articles PARLIAMENT;
REPRESENTATION; VOTING; BALLOT, &c., and UNITED STATES: _Political
Institutions_. For practical details as to the conduct of political
elections in England reference must be made to the various text-books on
the subject; the candidate and his election agent require to be on their
guard against any false step which might invalidate his return.
_Law in the United Kingdom._--Considerable alterations have been made in
recent years in the law of Great Britain and Ireland relating to the
procedure at parliamentary and municipal elections, and to election
petitions.
As regards parliamentary elections (which may be either the "general
election," after a dissolution of parliament, or "by-elections," when
casual vacancies occur during its continuance), the most important of
the amending statutes is the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Act 1883.
This act, and the Parliamentary Elections Act 1868, as amended by it,
and other enactments dealing with corrupt practices, are temporary acts
requiring annual renewal. As regards municipal elections, the Corrupt
Practices (Municipal Elections) Act 1872 has been repealed by the
Municipal Corporations Act 1882 for England, and by the Local Government
(Ireland) Act 1898 for Ireland. The governing enactments for England are
now the Municipal Corporations Act 1882, part iv., and the Municipal
Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Practices) Act 1884, the latter annually
renewable. The provisions of these enactments have been applied with
necessary modifications to municipal and other local government
elections in Ireland by orders of the Irish Local Government Board made
under powers conferred by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898. In
Scotland the law regulating municipal and other local government
elections is now to be found in the Elections (Scotland) (Corrupt and
Illegal Practices) Act 1890.
The alterations in the law have been in the direction of greater
strictness in regard to the conduct of elections, and increased control
in the public interest over the proceedings on election petitions.
Various acts and payments which were previously lawful in the absence of
any corrupt bargain or motive are now altogether forbidden under the
name of "illegal practices" as distinguished from "corrupt practices."
Failure on the part of a parliamentary candidate or his election agent
to comply with the requirements of the law in any particular is
sufficient to invalidate the return (see the articles BRIBERY and
CORRUPT PRACTICES). Certain relaxations are, however, allowed in
consideration of the difficulty of absolutely avoiding all deviation
from the strict rules laid down. Thus, where the judges who try an
election petition report that there has been treating, undue influence,
or any illegal practice by the candidate or his election agent, but that
it was trivial, unimportant and of a limited character, and contrary to
the orders and without the sanction or connivance of the candidate or
his election agent, and that the candidate and his election agent took
all reasonable means for preventing corrupt and illegal practices, and
that the election was otherwise free from such practices on their part,
the election will not be avoided. The court has also the power to
relieve from the consequences of certain innocent contraventions of the
law caused by inadvertence or miscalculation.
Election petitions.
The inquiry into a disputed parliamentary election was formerly
conducted before a committee of the House of Commons, chosen as nearly
as possible from both sides of the House for that particular business.
The decisions of these tribunals laboured under the suspicion of being
prompted by party feeling, and by an act of 1868 the jurisdiction was
finally transferred to judges of the High Court, notwithstanding the
general unwillingness of the bench to accept a class of business which
they feared might bring their integrity into dispute. Section 11 of the
act ordered, _inter alia_, that the trial of every election petition
shall be conducted before a _puisne judge_ of one of the common law
courts at Westminster and Dublin; that the said courts shall each select
a judge to be placed on the rota for the trial of election petitions;
that the said judges shall try petitions standing for trial according to
seniority or otherwise, as they may agree; that the trial shall take
place in the county or borough to which the petition refers, unless the
court should think it desirable to hold it elsewhere. The judge shall
determine "whether the member whose return is complained of, or any and
what other person, was duly returned and elected, or whether the
election was void," and shall certify his determination to the speaker.
When corrupt practices have been charged the judge shall also report (1)
whether any such practice has been committed by or with the knowledge or
consent of any candidate, and the nature thereof; (2) the names of
persons proved to have been guilty of any corrupt practice; and (3)
whether corrupt practices have extensively prevailed at the election.
Questions of law were to be referred to the decision of the court of
common pleas. On the abolition of that court by the Judicature Act 1873,
the jurisdiction was transferred to the common pleas division, and again
on the abolition of that division was transferred to the king's bench
division, in whom it is now vested. The rota of judges for the trial of
election petitions is also supplied by the king's bench division. The
trial now takes place before two judges instead of one; and, when
necessary, the number of judges on the rota may be increased. Both the
judges who try a petition are to sign the certificates to be made to the
speaker. If they differ as to the validity of a return, they are to
state such difference in their certificate, and the return is to be held
good; if they differ as to a report on any other matter, they are to
certify their difference and make no report on such matter. The director
of public prosecutions attends the trial personally or by
representative. It is his duty to watch the proceedings in the public
interest, to issue summonses to witnesses whose evidence is desired by
the court, and to prosecute before the election court or elsewhere those
persons whom he thinks to have been guilty of corrupt or illegal
practices at the election in question. If an application is made for
leave to withdraw a petition, copies of the affidavits in support are to
be delivered to him; and he is entitled to be heard and to call evidence
in opposition to such application. Witnesses are not excused from
answering criminating questions; but their evidence cannot be used
against them in any proceedings except criminal proceedings for perjury
in respect of that evidence. If a witness answers truly all questions
which he is required by the court to answer, he is entitled to receive a
certificate of indemnity, which will save him from all proceedings for
any offence under the Corrupt Practices Acts committed by him before the
date of the certificate at or in relation to the election, except
proceedings to enforce any incapacity incurred by such offence. An
application for leave to withdraw a petition must be supported by
affidavits from all the parties to the petition and their solicitors,
and by the election agents of all of the parties who were candidates at
the election. Each of these affidavits is to state that to the best of
the deponent's knowledge and belief there has been no agreement and no
terms or undertaking made or entered into as to the withdrawal, or, if
any agreement has been made, shall state its terms. The applicant and
his solicitor are also to state in their affidavits the grounds on which
the petition is sought to be withdrawn. If any person makes an agreement
for the withdrawal of a petition in consideration of a money payment, or
of the promise that the seat shall be vacated or another petition
withdrawn, or omits to state in his affidavit that he has made an
agreement, lawful or unlawful, for the withdrawal, he is guilty of an
indictable misdemeanour. The report of the judges to the speaker is to
contain particulars as to illegal practices similar to those previously
required as to corrupt practices; and they are to report further whether
any candidate has been guilty by his agents of an illegal practice, and
whether certificates of indemnity have been given to persons reported
guilty of corrupt or illegal practices.
The Corrupt Practices Acts apply, with necessary variations in details,
to parliamentary elections in Scotland and Ireland.
The amendments in the law as to municipal elections are generally
similar to those which have been made in parliamentary election law. The
procedure on trial of petitions is substantially the same, and wherever
no other provision is made by the acts or rules the procedure on the
trial of parliamentary election petitions is to be followed. Petitions
against municipal elections were dealt with in 35 & 36 Vict. c. 60. The
election judges appoint a number of barristers, not exceeding five, as
commissioners to try such petitions. No barrister can be appointed who
is of less than fifteen years' standing, or a member of parliament, or
holder of any office of profit (other than that of recorder) under the
crown; nor can any barrister try a petition in any borough in which he
is recorder or in which he resides, or which is included in his circuit.
The barrister sits without a jury. The provisions are generally similar
to those relating to parliamentary elections. The petition may allege
that the election was avoided as to the borough or ward on the ground of
general bribery, &c., or that the election of the person petitioned
against was avoided by corrupt practices, or by personal
disqualification, or that he had not the majority of lawful votes. The
commissioner who tries a petition sends to the High Court a certificate
of the result, together with reports as to corrupt and illegal
practices, &c., similar to those made to the speaker by the judges who
try a parliamentary election petition. The Municipal Elections (Corrupt
and Illegal Practices) Act 1884 applied to school board elections
subject to certain variations, and has been extended by the Local
Government Act 1888 to county council elections, and by the Local
Government Act 1894 to elections by parochial electors. The law in
Scotland is on the same lines, and extends to all non-parliamentary
elections, and, as has been stated, the English statutes have been
applied with adaptations to all municipal and local government elections
in Ireland.
_United States._--Elections are much more frequent in the United States
than they are in Great Britain, and they are also more complicated. The
terms of elective officers are shorter; and as there are also more
offices to be filled, the number of persons to be voted for is
necessarily much greater. In the year of a presidential election the
citizen may be called upon to vote at one time for all of the following:
(1) National candidates--president and vice-president (indirectly
through the electoral college) and members of the House of
Representatives; (2) state candidates--governor, members of the state
legislature, attorney-general, treasurer, &c.; (3) county
candidates--sheriff, county judges, district attorney, &c.; (4)
municipal or town candidates--mayor, aldermen, selectmen, &c. The number
of persons actually voted for may therefore be ten or a dozen, or it may
be many more. In addition, the citizen is often called upon to vote yea
or nay on questions such as amendments to the state constitutions,
granting of licences, and approval or disapproval of new municipal
undertakings. As there may be, and generally is, more than one candidate
for each office, and as all elections are now, and have been for many
years, conducted by ballot, the total number of names to appear on the
ballot may be one hundred or may be several hundred. These names are
arranged in different ways, according to the laws of the different
states. Under the Massachusetts law, which is considered the best by
reformers, the names of candidates for each office are arranged
alphabetically on a "blanket" ballot, as it is called from its size, and
the elector places a mark opposite the names of such candidates as he
may wish to vote for. Other states, New York for example, have the
blanket system, but the names of the candidates are arranged in party
columns. Still other states allow the grouping on one ballot of all the
candidates of a single party, and there would be therefore as many
separate ballots in such states as there were parties in the field.
The qualifications for voting, while varying in the different states in
details, are in their main features the same throughout the Union. A
residence in the state is required of from three months to two years.
Residence is also necessary, but for a shorter period, in the county,
city or town, or voting precinct. A few states require the payment of a
poll tax. Some require that the voter shall be able to read and
understand the Constitution. This latter qualification has been
introduced into several of the Southern states, partly at least to
disqualify the ignorant coloured voters. In all, or practically all, the
states idiots, convicts and the insane are disqualified; in some states
paupers; in some of the Western states the Chinese. In some states women
are allowed to vote on certain questions, or for the candidates for
certain offices, especially school officials; and in four of the Western
states women have the same rights of suffrage as men. The number of
those who are qualified to vote, but do not avail themselves of the
right, varies greatly in the different states and according to the
interest taken in the election. As a general rule, but subject to
exceptions, the national elections call out the largest number, the
state elections next, and the local elections the smallest number of
voters. In an exciting national election between 80 and 90% of the
qualified voters actually vote, a proportion considerably greater than
in Great Britain or Germany.
The tendency of recent years has been towards a decrease both in the
number and in the frequency of elections. A president and vice-president
are voted for every fourth year, in the years divisible by four, on the
first Tuesday following the first Monday of November. Members of the
national House of Representatives are chosen for two years on the
even-numbered years. State and local elections take place in accordance
with state laws, and may or may not be on the same day as the national
elections. Originally the rule was for the states to hold annual
elections; in fact, so strongly did the feeling prevail of the need in a
democratic country for frequent elections, that the maxim "where annual
elections end, tyranny begins," became a political proverb. But opinion
gradually changed even in the older or Eastern states, and in 1909
Massachusetts and Rhode Island were the only states in the Union holding
annual elections for governor and both houses of the state legislature.
In the Western states especially state officers are chosen for longer
terms--in the case of the governor often for four years--and the number
of elections has correspondingly decreased. Another cause of the
decrease in the number of elections is the growing practice of holding
all the elections of any year on one and the same day. Before the Civil
War Pennsylvania held its state elections several months before the
national elections. Ohio and Indiana, until 1885 and 1881 respectively,
held their state elections early in October. Maine, Vermont and Arkansas
keep to September. The selection of one day in the year for all
elections held in that year has resulted in a considerable decrease in
the total number.
Another tendency of recent years, but not so pronounced, is to hold
local elections in what is known as the "off" year; that is, on the
odd-numbered year, when no national election is held. The object of this
reform is to encourage independent voting. The average American citizen
is only too prone to carry his national political predilections into
local elections, and to vote for the local nominees of his party,
without regard to the question of fitness of candidates and the
fundamental difference of issues involved. This tendency to vote the
entire party ticket is the more pronounced because under the system of
voting in use in many of the states all the candidates of the party are
arranged on one ticket, and it is much easier to vote a straight or
unaltered ticket than to change or "scratch" it. Again, the voter,
especially the ignorant one, refrains from scratching his ticket, lest
in some way he should fail to comply with the technicalities of the law
and his vote be lost. On the other hand, if local elections are held on
the "off" or odd year, and there be no national or state candidates, the
voter feels much more free to select only those candidates whom he
considers best qualified for the various offices.
On the important question of the purity of elections it is difficult to
speak with precision. In many of the states, especially those with an
enlightened public spirit, such as most of the New England states and
many of the North-Western, the elections are fairly conducted, there
being no intimidation at all, little or no bribery, and an honest count.
It can safely be said that through the Union as a whole the tendency of
recent years has been decidedly towards greater honesty of elections.
This is owing to a number of causes: (1) The selection of a single day
for all elections, and the consequent immense number voting on that day.
Some years ago, when for instance the Ohio and Indiana elections were
held a few weeks before the general election, each party strained every
nerve to carry them, for the sake of prestige and the influence on other
states. In fact, presidential elections were often felt to turn on the
result in these early voting states, and the party managers were none
too scrupulous in the means employed to carry them. Bribery has
decreased in such states since the change of election day to that of the
rest of the country. (2) The enactment in most of the states of the
Australian or secret ballot (q.v.) laws. These have led to the secrecy
of the ballot, and hence to a greater or less extent have prevented
intimidation and bribery. (3) Educational or other such test, more
particularly in the Southern states, the object of which is to exclude
the coloured, and especially the ignorant coloured, voters from the
polls. In those southern states in which the coloured vote was large,
and still more in those in which it was the majority, it was felt among
the whites that intimidation or ballot-box stuffing was justified by the
necessity of white supremacy. With the elimination of the coloured vote
by educational or other tests the honesty of elections has increased.
(4) The enactment of new and more stringent registration laws. Under
these laws only those persons are allowed to vote whose names have been
placed on the rolls a certain number of days or months before election.
These rolls are open to public inspection, and the names may be
challenged at the polls, and "colonization" or repeating is therefore
almost impossible. (5) The reform of the civil service and the gradual
elimination of the vicious principle of "to the victors belong the
spoils." With the reform of the civil service elections become less a
scramble for office and more a contest of political or economic
principle. They bring into the field, therefore, a better class of
candidates. (6) The enactment in a number of states of various other
laws for the prevention of corrupt practices, for the publication of
campaign expenses, and for the prohibition of party workers from coming
within a certain specified distance of the polls. In the state of
Massachusetts, for instance, an act passed in 1892, and subsequently
amended, provides that political committees shall file a full statement,
duly sworn to, of all campaign expenditures made by them. The act
applies to all public elections except that of town officers, and also
covers nominations by caucuses and conventions as well. Apart from his
personal expenses such as postage, travelling expenses, &c., a candidate
is prohibited from spending anything himself to promote either his
nomination or his election, but he is allowed to contribute to the
treasury of the political committee. The law places no limit on the
amount that these committees may spend. The reform sought by the law is
thorough publicity, and not only are details of receipts and
expenditures to be published, but the names of contributors and the
amount of their contributions. In the state of New York the act which
seeks to prevent corrupt practices relies in like manner on the efficacy
of publicity, but it is less effective than the Massachusetts law in
that it provides simply for the filing by the candidates themselves of
sworn statements of their own expenses. There is nothing to prevent
their contributing to political committees, and the financial methods
and the amounts expended by such committees are not made public. But
behind all these causes that have led to more honest elections lies the
still greater one of a healthier public spirit. In the reaction
following the Civil War all reforms halted. In recent years, however, a
new and healthier interest has sprung up in things political; and one
result of this improved civic spirit is seen in the various laws for
purification of elections. It may now be safely affirmed that in the
majority of states the elections are honestly conducted; that
intimidation, bribery, stuffing of the ballot boxes or other forms of
corruption, when they exist, are owing in large measure to temporary or
local causes; and that the tendency of recent years has been towards a
decrease in all forms of corruption.
The expenses connected with elections, such as the renting and preparing
of the polling-places, the payment of the clerks and other officers who
conduct the elections and count the vote, are borne by the community. A
candidate therefore is not, as far as the law is concerned, liable to
any expense whatever. As a matter of fact he does commonly contribute to
the party treasury, though in the case of certain candidates,
particularly those for the presidency and for judicial offices,
financial contributions are not general. The amount of a candidate's
contribution varies greatly, according to the office sought, the state
in which he lives, and his private wealth. On one occasion, in a
district in New York, a candidate for Congress is credibly believed to
have spent at one election $50,000. On the other hand, in a
Congressional election in a certain district in Massachusetts, the only
expenditure of one of the candidates was for the two-cent stamp placed
on his letter of acceptance. No estimate of the average amount expended
can be made. It is, however, the conclusion of Mr Bryce, in his
_American Commonwealth_, that as a rule a seat in Congress costs the
candidate less than a seat for a county division in the House of
Commons. (See also BALLOT.)
ELECTION, in English law, the obligation imposed upon a party by courts
of equity to choose between two inconsistent or alternative rights or
claims in cases where there is a clear intention of the person from whom
he derives one that he should not enjoy both. Thus a testator died
seized of property in fee simple and in fee tail--he had two daughters,
and devised the fee simple property to one and the entailed property to
the other; the first one claimed to have her share of the entailed
property as coparcener and also to retain the benefit she took under the
will. It was held that she was put to her election whether she would
take under the will and renounce her claim to the entailed property or
take against the will, in which case she must renounce the benefits she
took under the will in so far as was necessary to compensate her sister.
As the essence of the doctrine is compensation, a person electing
against a document does not lose all his rights under it, but the court
will sequester so much only of the benefit intended for him as will
compensate the persons disappointed by his election. For the same reason
it is necessary that there should be a free and disposable fund passing
by the instrument from which compensation can be made in the event of
election against the will. If, therefore, a man having a special power
of appointment appoint the fund equally between two persons, one being
an object of the power and the other not an object, no question of
election arises, but the appointment to the person not an object is bad.
Election, though generally arising in cases of wills, may also arise in
the case of a deed. There is, however, a distinction to be observed. In
the case of a will a clear intention on the part of the testator that he
meant to dispose of property not his own must be shown, and parol
evidence is not admissible as to this. In the case of a deed, however,
no such intention need be shown, for if a deed confers a benefit and
imposes a liability on the same person he cannot be allowed to accept
the one and reject the other, but this must be distinguished from cases
where two separate gifts are given to a person, one beneficial and the
other onerous. In such a case no question of election arises and he may
take the one and reject the other, unless, indeed, there are words used
which make the one conditional on the acceptance of the other.
Election is either express, e.g. by deed, or implied; in the latter case
it is often a question of considerable difficulty whether there has in
fact been an election or not; each case must depend upon the particular
circumstances, but quite generally it may be said that the person who
has elected must have been capable of electing, aware of the existence
of the doctrine of election, and have had the opportunity of satisfying
himself of the relative value of the properties between which he has
elected. In the case of infants the court will sometimes elect after an
inquiry as to which course is the most advantageous, or if there is no
immediate urgency, will allow the matter to stand over till the infant
attains his majority. In the cases of married women and lunatics the
courts will exercise the right for them. It sometimes happens that the
parties have so dealt with the property that it would be inequitable to
disturb it; in such cases the court will not interfere in order to allow
of election.
ELECTORAL COMMISSION, in United States history, a commission created to
settle the disputed presidential election of 1876. In this election
Samuel J. Tilden, the Democratic candidate, received 184 uncontested
electoral votes, and Rutherford B. Hayes, the Republican candidate,
163.[1] The states of Florida, Louisiana, Oregon and South Carolina,
with a total of 22 votes, each sent in two sets of electoral ballots,[2]
and from each of these states except Oregon one set gave the whole vote
to Tilden and the other gave the whole vote to Hayes. From Oregon one
set of ballots gave the three electoral votes of the state to Hayes; the
other gave two votes to Hayes and one to Tilden.
The election of a president is a complex proceeding, the method being
indicated partly in the Constitution, and being partly left to Congress
and partly to the states. The manner of selecting the electors is left
to state law; the electoral ballots are sent to the president of the
Senate, who "shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of
Representatives, open all certificates, and the votes shall then be
counted." Concerning this provision many questions of vital importance
arose in 1876: Did the president of the Senate count the votes, the
houses being mere witnesses; or did the houses count them, the
president's duties being merely ministerial? Did counting imply the
determination of what should be counted, or was it a mere arithmetical
process; that is, did the Constitution itself afford a method of
settling disputed returns, or was this left to legislation by Congress?
Might Congress or an officer of the Senate go behind a state's
certificate and review the acts of its certifying officials? Might it go
further and examine into the choice of electors? And if it had such
powers, might it delegate them to a commission? As regards the procedure
of Congress, it seems that, although in early years the president of the
Senate not only performed or overlooked the electoral count but also
exercised discretion in some matters very important in 1876, Congress
early began to assert power, and, at least from 1821 onward, controlled
the count, claiming complete power. The fact, however, that the Senate
in 1876 was controlled by the Republicans and the House by the
Democrats, lessened the chances of any harmonious settlement of these
questions by Congress. The country seemed on the verge of civil war.
Hence it was that by an act of the 29th of January 1877, Congress
created the Electoral Commission to pass upon the contested returns,
giving it "the same powers, if any" possessed by itself in the premises,
the decisions to stand unless rejected by the two houses separately. The
commission was composed of five Democratic and five Republican
Congressmen, two justices of the Supreme Court of either party, and a
fifth justice chosen by these four. As its members of the commission the
Senate chose G.F. Edmunds of Vermont, O.P. Morton of Indiana, and F.T.
Frelinghuysen of New Jersey (Republicans); and A.G. Thurman of Ohio and
T.F. Bayard of Delaware (Democrats). The House chose Henry B. Payne of
Ohio, Eppa Hunton of Virginia, and Josiah G. Abbott of Massachusetts
(Democrats); and George F. Hoar of Massachusetts and James A. Garfield
of Ohio (Republicans). The Republican judges were William Strong and
Samuel F. Miller; the Democratic, Nathan Clifford and Stephen J. Field.
These four chose as the fifteenth member Justice Joseph P. Bradley, a
Republican but the only member not selected avowedly as a partisan. As
counsel for the Democratic candidate there appeared before the
commission at different times Charles O'Conor of New York, Jeremiah S.
Black of Pennsylvania, Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, R.T. Merrick of the
District of Columbia, Ashbel Green of New Jersey, Matthew H. Carpenter
of Wisconsin, George Hoadley of Ohio, and W.C. Whitney of New York. W.M.
Evarts and E.W. Stoughton of New York and Samuel Shellabarger and
Stanley Matthews of Ohio appeared regularly in behalf of Mr Hayes.
The popular vote seemed to indicate that Hayes had carried South
Carolina and Oregon, and Tilden Florida and Louisiana. It was evident,
however, that Hayes could secure the 185 votes necessary to elect only
by gaining every disputed ballot. As the choice of Republican electors
in Louisiana had been accomplished by the rejection of several thousand
Democratic votes by a Republican returning board, the Democrats insisted
that the commission should go behind the returns and correct injustice;
the Republicans declared that the state's action was final, and that to
go behind the returns would be invading its sovereignty. When this
matter came before the commission it virtually accepted the Republican
contention, ruling that it could not go behind the returns except on the
superficial issues of manifest fraud therein or the eligibility of
electors to their office under the Constitution; that is, it could not
investigate antecedents of fraud or misconduct of state officials in the
results certified. All vital questions were settled by the votes of
eight Republicans and seven Democrats; and as the Republican Senate
would never concur with the Democratic House in overriding the
decisions, all the disputed votes were awarded to Mr Hayes, who
therefore was declared elected.
The strictly partisan votes of the commission and the adoption by
prominent Democrats and Republicans, both within and without the
commission, of an attitude toward states-rights principles quite
inconsistent with party tenets and tendencies, have given rise to much
severe criticism. The Democrats and the country, however, quietly
accepted the decision. The judgments underlying it were two: (1) That
Congress rightly claimed the power to settle such contests within the
limits set; (2) that, as Justice Miller said regarding these limits, the
people had never at any time intended to give to Congress the power, by
naming the electors, to "decide who are to be the president and
vice-president of the United States."
There is no doubt that Mr Tilden was morally entitled to the presidency,
and the correction of the Louisiana frauds would certainly have given
satisfaction then and increasing satisfaction later, in the retrospect,
to the country. The commission might probably have corrected the frauds
without exceeding its Congressional precedents. Nevertheless, the
principles of its decisions must be recognized by all save
ultra-nationalists as truer to the spirit of the Constitution and
promising more for the good of the country than would have been the
principles necessary to a contrary decision.
By an act of the 3rd of February 1887 the electoral procedure is
regulated in great detail. Under this act determination by a state of
electoral disputes is conclusive, subject to certain formalities that
guarantee definite action and accurate certification. These formalities
constitute "regularity," and are in all cases judgable by Congress. When
Congress is forced by the lack or evident inconclusiveness of state
action, or by conflicting state action, to decide disputes, votes are
lost unless both houses concur.
AUTHORITIES.--J.F. Rhodes, _History of the United States_, vol. 7,
covering 1872-1877 (New York, 1906); P.L. Haworth, _The Hayes-Tilden
disputed Presidential Election of 1876_ (Cleveland, 1906); J.W.
Burgess, _Political Science Quarterly_, vol. 3 (1888), pp. 633-653,
"The Law of the Electoral Count"; and for the sources. Senate
Miscellaneous Document No. 5 (vol. 1), and House Miscel. Doc. No. 13
(vol. 2), 44 Congress, 2 Session,--_Count of the Electoral Vote.
Proceedings of Congress and Electoral Commission_,--the latter
identical with _Congressional Record_, vol. 5, pt. 4, 44 Cong., 2
Session; also about twenty volumes of evidence on the state elections
involved. The volume called _The Presidential Counts_ (New York, 1877)
was compiled by Mr. Tilden and his secretary.