ATTEMPT TO REOPEN THE QUESTION OF THE TITLE TO
THE PRESIDENCY
In general the determination of the title to the Presidency
was acquiesced in in a manner highly creditable to the people.
The Democratic party submitted to their disappointment in
a manner which was on the whole exceedingly praiseworthy.
This was due very largely to the influence of Mr. Lamar,
of Mississippi, and I suppose to that of Mr. Bayard, of Delaware.
But there were not wanting persons who were willing to revive
the question for political advantage, whatever the effect
upon the public tranquillity. On May 13, 1878, when the President
had been for more than a year in the quiet possession of his
office, Mr. Clarkson N. Potter, of New York, introduced in
the House of Representatives a resolution for the appointment
of a Committee to investigate alleged frauds in the States
of Louisiana and Florida, in the recent Presidential election.
This resolution was adopted by the House, in which every
possible parliamentary method for its defeat was resorted
to by the Republican minority. The Republicans were exceedingly
alarmed, and the proceeding seemed likely to create a financial
panic which would disturb and injure the business of the country.
Shortly after Mr. Potter's committee was appointed, it was
expected that a report would be made denying the validity
of President Hayes's title, and that the Democratic House
of Representatives would be advised to refuse to acknowledge
him as President. This would have thrown the Government into
great confusion and would have made a square issue. A caucus
of Republican Senators was held, and the following gentlemen
were appointed a Committee, with directions to report what
action, if any, ought to be taken in the Senate in the matter:
Mr. Edmunds, Mr. Howe, Mr. Conkling, Mr. Allison, Mr. Sargent,
Mr. Ingalls, Mr. Oglesby, Mr. Jones (of Nevada), Mr. Christiancy,
Mr. Blaine, Mr. Hoar.
I was requested by my associates to prepare an address to
the people, to be signed by the Republican Senators, arraigning
the Democratic leaders for their unjustifiable and revolutionary
course, and pointing out the public danger. The Committee
had a second meeting, when I read to them the following address,
which I had prepared and which I still have in my possession:
"Our sense of the presence of a great public danger makes
it our duty to address you. We are satisfied that the leaders
of the Democratic Party meditate an attack on the President's
possession of his office, the results of which must be the
destruction of the reviving industries of the country, civil
confusion and war. There has been difference of opinion whether
the count of the electoral vote, which under the Constitution
determines the President's title, must be made by the two
Houses of Congress, or by the President of the Senate in their
presence. In the count of electoral votes, which resulted
in the declaration of the election of President Hayes, both
methods concurred, the action of the two Houses being in accordance
with a law regulating their proceedings, enacted in the last
Congress to meet the case by large majorities of both branches.
The title of President Hayes, therefore, not only rests upon
the strongest possible Constitutional sanction, but the honor
of both the great parties in the country is solemnly pledged
to maintain it.
"Yet the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives
has set on foot a proceeding, which they call an investigation,
intended, if they can get control of the next Congress, to
pave the way for the expulsion of President Hayes, and the
seating of Mr. Tilden in his place. It will be the President's
duty to maintain himself in office, and the duty of all good
citizens to stand by him. The result is Civil War.
"We know that many Democratic Senators and Representatives
disclaim in private the purpose we attribute to their leaders,
and denounce the wickedness and folly of an attempt to set
aside the accepted result of the last election of President.
You doubtless know that many of your Democratic neighbors
give you the same assurance. Be not lulled by these assurances
into a false security. He is little familiar with the history
of that party who does not know how its members follow in
compact columns where its leaders point the way. Like assurances
preceded the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Like assurances
on the part of many Democrats at the South preceded the late
rebellion. Such convictions on the part of the Democrats,
however honest or earnest, of the danger and dishonor of the
proceedings just inaugurated found expression in but a single
dissenting vote in the House of Representatives.
"They say that they believe that the result in two of the
States was accomplished by fraud. We believe, on the other
hand, that those States, and others whose votes were counted
for Tilden, were strongly Republican, and would have been
counted for Hayes without a question, but for violence and
crime. The Constitution provides the time, place and manner
in which these contentions must be settled. They have been
so settled as between Hayes and Tilden, and it is only by
usurpation and revolution that a subsequent Congress can undertake
to reopen them. You know how easily party majorities persuade
themselves, or affect to persuade themselves, of the existence
of facts, which it is for their party interest to establish.
"At the end of his four years the President lays down his
office, and his successor is chosen. The people have in their
hands this frequent, easy and peaceful remedy for all evils
of administration. The usurpation by Congress of the power
to displace a President whenever they choose to determine
that the original declaration of the result of an election
was wrong, on whatever pretence it is defended, is a total
overthrow of the Constitution.
"If you would ward off this blow at the national life, you
have one perfect means of defence, the election of a Republican
majority in the next House of Representatives."
When they had all agreed to it, Mr. Conkling, a member of
the Committee who had not attended the previous meeting,
came in late. The document was read to him. He opposed the
whole plan with great earnestness and indignation, spoke with
great severity of President Hayes, and said that he hoped
it would be the last time that any man in the United States
would attempt to steal the Presidency. Mr. Conkling's influence
in the Senate and in the country was then quite powerful.
It was thought best not to issue the appeal unless it were
to have the unanimous support of the Republicans. But the
discovery of some cipher dispatches, implicating some well-
known persons, including one member of Mr. Tilden's household,
in an attempt to bribe the canvassing boards in the South
and to purchase some Republican electors in the South and
one in Oregon, tended to make the leading members of that
party sick of the whole matter. President Hayes served out
his term peacefully and handed over the executive power, not
only to a Republican successor, but to a member of the majority
of the Electoral Commission. So it seems clear that the bulk
of the American people had little sympathy with the complaints.