The reappointment was made on the 5th of January, 1877. The Chief of the
Appointment Division in the Interior Department was asked and testified
about it as follows:
"_Q._ Who recommended his appointment in January?
_A._ I think the probability is (although there is no evidence of
it) that there was no recommendation, further than his own
application to the President.
_Q._ You do not know of any recommendation?
_A._ I do not know of any.
_Q._ There is none on file?
_A._ There is none on file to the best of my knowledge. There is
none on file in the Interior Department."
Who does not perceive the shallow trick by which Brewster pretended to
have divested himself of his Federal office that he might vote; only to
be reinvested as soon as he had voted?
The letter of resignation, with its false date, and its pretended
acceptance, to take effect as of a time past, were evident shams to make
it appear that he was not holder of a Federal office when he was
elected; his affecting to be absent on the 6th of December, and coming
in immediately to fill the vacancy occasioned by his own absence, in
order to make it appear that his appointment was made on that 6th of
December, instead of the 7th of November, and his barefaced application
on the third day thereafter to be reappointed to the Federal office,
from which he could not possibly have perfected his resignation before
the 20th of November--all these were but so many contrivances to evade
the highest enactment known to our civil polity. In the eye of reason
and of law, he acted during the whole period under that influence of
office which it was the design of the Constitution to prevent, and he
must have entered more thoroughly into the work of his Federal master
than if he had not gone through the form of resigning, inasmuch as that
placed him, more than before, in his master's power.
Let us now place side by side the commandment of the Constitution and
the resolution of the Electoral Commission:
COMMANDMENT. | RESOLUTION.
|
"_No_ Senator or Representative, | "The Commission, by a majority
or _person holding an office of | of votes, is also of the opinion
trust or profit under the United | that _it is not competent to prove
States, shall be appointed an | that any of said persons, so
elector._" | appointed electors_ as aforesaid,
| _held an office of trust or
| profit under the United States
| at the time when they were
| appointed_, or that they were
| ineligible under the laws of the
| State, or any other matter
| offered to be proved _aliunde_
| the said certificates and
| papers."
It would be unjust to cast upon the Electoral Commission the blame of
all the wrong that has been practised in this presidential count. The
Commission was but a council of advice, which Congress might have taken
or not, as it pleased, the only condition being that, in order to reject
it, both Houses must have agreed. The responsibility of the final
decision lay, after all, upon Congress, or rather, upon the Senate,
which voted throughout to follow the Commission.
* * * * *
The facts thus briefly recited present certain questions--moral,
political, and legal--which cannot be considered too soon for our good
repute and our self-respect.