"BALTIMORE, _3rd March, '77_.
"MY DEAR GOVERNOR,--Certainly it is not an agreeable
greeting I have to offer, but I cannot let the communication of the
foul work in Washington pass into history without expressing to you
the disgust I feel and the hope I entertain that the country will
yet recover its moral sense, and vindicate the men and principles
that have been overthrown by fraud and _quasi force_, for this last
alternative was always in the perspective, and as you know greatly
influenced and demoralized good men!
"It is certainly to be regretted, I think, that our friends were
ever beguiled into the electoral commission scheme, and though I
did my best, within the bounds of my influence, to secure from its
action the triumph of truth and justice, I have the satisfaction
to know that from the hour we had the returns of the Presidential
election my utmost effort was directed to influence the House of
Representatives to assert its constitutional prerogatives and elect
a President, rather than co-operate in the declaration of a result
which is false in fact and which outrages the moral and numerical
sense of the country. If such a result was inevitable, I could
accept it as well as another; but I would have left its consummation
to the conspirators who did the counting in the Southern States and
the Federal army at the seat of government, under the immediate
direction of the retiring President.
"Until I have the pleasure of a personal greeting, I remain,
Very truly and faithfully,
"Yr. friend and obt. servt.,
ROBT. M. MCLANE."
"_To Hon. S. J. Tilden._