518 



MARYLAND. 



citizens, her self-respect would be wounded by the 

 indignity to which the resolutions and their object 

 would practically be subjected. He, therefore, con- 

 curs in the unfavorable report. 



On February llth Mr. Houston, a member of 

 the Committee on Federal Relations, who had 

 signed the majority report, asked leave to pre- 

 sent a minority report. This expressed a dis- 

 approval of the manner of procedure by which 

 the result attained by the Electoral Commis- 

 sion was reached, but deprecated further agita- 

 tion of the subject. Referring to the position 

 assumed by the Judges of the Supreme Court 

 on the Commission, the report said : 



That while willing to concede that a decision in 

 favor of either view of the constitutional questions 

 involved is entirely reconcilable with the most ex- 

 alted judicial virtue, yet by the decision of said Elec- 

 toral Commission the shameful and alarming spec- 

 tacle was presented to this republic of three judges 

 of its Supreme Court concurring in the same case, 

 and that case involving the welfare of 44,000,000 

 people, that they were concluded by the official re- 

 turns of two States and estopped by the Constitution 

 from an inquiry into their verity, but had full power 

 under that Constitution to inquire into the verity of, 

 annul and set aside 'for another, the regularly authen- 

 ticated electoral return of a third State of the Union ; 

 that such decision is calculated to unsettle the very 

 foundations of our institutions, and to bring them 

 into disrepute among the enlightened nations of the 

 earth ; and that by such prostitution of the Ameri- 

 can ermine to the demand of faction in the most 

 august and exalted cause ever yet adjudicated by a 

 human tribunal, a severe shock has beeh given to 

 the morals of the present generation of Americans, 

 and a heritage of shame to their remotest posterity. 



On February 14th the reports came up for 

 consideration in the House of Delegates. Mr. 

 Blair then offered the following substitute for 

 the report : 



By the House of Delegates Resolved, That the in- 

 stallment of a person as President of the United 

 States who was not elected to that office, by count- 

 ing for him the electoral votes of several States upon 

 returns obtained by the use of military force, and 

 notoriously false and fraudulent, and so declared to 

 be at the time by the highest judicial tribunal of one 

 of said States, composed of the political friends of 

 the person so installed, is regarded by this House 

 as a flagrant usurpation. 



Resolved, That by acquiescence in this usurpation, 

 and in the deposition of the President elected by the 

 greatest majority ever cast by the men whose fathers 

 founded this government, by failing to supply the 

 legislation required to enforce the judicial investiga- 

 tion of this fraud, contemplated by the electoral bill 

 itself, or otherwise to provide for the peaceful asser- 

 tion of the rights of the people, the Congress sanc- 

 tions and invites its repetition in the future, and en- 

 dangers the peace of the country and the stability 

 rf republican institutions, and continues an admin- 

 istration which, by reason of the want of confidence 

 >f all parties in it, has not the power, if it has the 

 ^position, to correct the abuses of government to 

 which the present paralysis of industry and wide- 

 spread bankruptcy are due, and thereby endorse the 

 continuance and aggravation of these evils. 

 > Resolved , That it is manifest that this acquiescence 

 is attributable to the same causes which led to the es- 

 tablishment of the Electoral Commission, by which 

 the House of Representatives was deprived of its con- 

 stitutional power to defeat the fraud consummated by 

 that measure ; and the presence of a Democrat in the 

 Cabinet of the beneficiary of that fraud, and the rela- 



tion to the Administration of the Democratic leaders 

 in Congress who assented to the Electoral Commis- 

 sion and refuse to provide for the judicial inquiry 

 which excused that measure, explain and fix the re- 

 sponsibility alike lor the resort to the Electoral Com- 

 mission and for the continued acquiescence in its 

 result. 



This was accompanied by a speech from Mr. 

 Blair, which he thus concluded : 



Where is any commotion to come from, and who 

 will resist the decree, if they will pass the bill of 

 Mr. David Dudley Field, and the Supreme Court de- 

 cides that Mr. Tilden is President, and the Chief 

 Justice administers to him the oath of office? It 

 would not require sixty days to give effect to the 

 will of the people. The points upon which this case 

 would turn under that bill were all conceded in the 

 argument before the Electoral Commission, and it 

 was only because that Commission held it could not 

 get at them, that even the eight by seven decided 

 against Tilden. There is not a disputed fact nor a 

 doubtful point of law involved in the proceeding un- 

 der Mr. Field's bill to seat Mr. Tilden. His politi- 

 cal adversaries now desire to give him his seat. His 

 so-called political friends only stand in the way, and 

 they fail to assert his title and vindicate the rights 

 of the people, because they now enjoy patronage 

 and power under Hayes, which they apprehend they 

 would not eujoy under Tilden. 



After a lengthy debate the above resolutions 

 were adopted as a substitute for the report of 

 the Committee yeas 37, nays 32. Under a 

 suspension of the rules the resolutions were 

 then read and rejected yeas 34, nays 37. 



On March 18th Mr. Blair offered the follow- 

 ing resolution, which on his motion was re- 

 ferred to the Judiciary Committee : 



Resolved oy the General Assembly of Maryland^ 

 That the Attorney-General of the State be, and he 

 is hereby instructed, in case Congress shall provide 

 for expediting the action, to exhibit u bill in the Su- 

 preme Court of the United States, on behalf of the 

 State of Maryland, with proper parties thereto, set- 

 ting forth the fact that due effect has not been given 

 to the electoral vote cast by this State on the 6th day 

 of December, 1876, by reason of fraudulent returns 

 made from other States and allowed to be counted 

 provisionally by the Electoral Commission, and sub- 

 ject to judicial revision, and praying said Court to 

 make the revision contemplated by the act establish- 

 ing said Commission ; and upon such revision to 

 declare the returns from the States of Louisiana 

 and Florida, which were counted for Rutherford B. 

 Hayes and William A. Wheeler, fraudulent and 

 void, and that the legal electo:al votes of said States 

 were cast for Samuel J. Tilden as President and 

 Thomas A. Hendricks as Vice-President, and that 

 by virtue thereof and of 184 votes cast by other 

 States, of which eight were cast by the State of Ma- 

 ryland, the said Tilden and Hendricks were duly 

 elected ; and praying said Court to decree accord- 

 ingly. 



The resolution, having been reported back 

 to the House, was on March 28th adopted 

 yeas 46, nays 28. In the lower House of Con- 

 gress it was presented by Mr. Swann of Mary- 

 land, referred to the Committee on the Judi- 

 ciary, and ordered to be printed. No further 

 action has been taken. 



An act was passed to appoint a State Tax 

 Commissioner, to hold his office for four years. 

 It is made his duty to assess for State purposes 

 the shares of capital stock in all banks, State 



