UNITED STATES. 



803 



declaring that Tilden and Hendricks were elected. 

 Tilden and Hendricks subsequently made similar 

 public declarations themselves. A tew timid mem- 

 bers have long held back, and some of them, after 

 being coerced to the final vote, still pretend that they 

 will bolt as soon as their partial and one-sided inves- 

 tigation shall be ended. In other words, they intend, 

 after hearing suborned evidence, to bring in a ver- 

 dict that Hayes is a usurper, and that he shall not 

 remain in omce. These men have no control in the 

 Democratic party. They dared not even follow Al- 

 exander H. Stephens or unite against caucus dicta- 

 tion to the extent of showing some semblance of 

 fair play. They will be impotent in the future as 

 they have been in the past. Moreover, it is difficult 

 to believe in their sincerity, in view of the public 

 avowal of their party that its purpose is, if possible, 

 to displace the President. 



It is a matter of history that the resolution just 

 adopted was framed to express this object. The 

 Speaker of the House was consulted in advance as 

 to whether he would rule that it was a privileged 

 question. The party managers were anxious to con- 

 ceal their purposes if possible. In this they were 

 defeated \>y the Speaker, who would not rule it a 

 question of privilege unless it clearly assailed the 

 title of the President. The resolution being offered, 

 he read a carefully prepared opinion, deciding it to 

 be a question of the highest privilege, because it in- 

 volved the question of the validity of Hayes's title. 

 Here are his very words : 



"A higher privilege than the one here involved, 

 and broadly and directly presented, as to the right- 

 ful occupancy of the chief executive chair of the Gov- 

 ernment, and the connection of high Government 

 officials with the frauds alleged, the Chair is unable 

 to conceive. The Chair finds enumerated among the 

 questions of privilege set down in the Manual the fol- 

 lowing, 'Election of President.' The Chair, there- 

 fore, rules that the preamble and resolution embrace 

 questions of privilege of the highest character, and 

 recognizes the right of the gentleman from New York 

 to offer the same." 



Upon this the Republicans commenced a struggle 

 against the revolutionary scheme, which, after five 

 days' duration, terminated in the success of the con- 

 spirators. The Republicans offered to favor the full- 

 est investigation into all alleged frauds, by which- 

 ever party charged to have been committed; but the 

 Democracy pursued its course shamelessly and re- 

 lentlessly,' and stifled all inquiry into attempts at 

 bribery in Oregon, South Carolina, and Louisiana, 

 and violence in several of the States. Neither amend- 

 ment nor debate was allowed. The inexorable pre- 

 vious question was applied and enforced. 



Tnis scheme, if pursued and it is now fully inau- 

 gurated can only have the effect of further paralyz- 

 ing business of all kinds, preventing the restoration 

 of confidence, which seemed promising, casting a 

 gloom over every household, and bringing our na- 

 tion into reproach before the civilized world. The 

 peace of the country is the first consideration of pa- 

 triots. This new effort of the Democracy to inaugu- 

 rate anarchy and Mexicanize the Government, by 

 throwing doubts upon the legitimacy of the title of 

 the President, is in keeping with the record of that 

 party, one wing of which rebelled against the Gov- 

 ernment, while the other wing gave them aid and 

 comfort. 



We call, therefore, upon all who opposed the re- 

 bellion of 1861, without distinction of party, to rally 

 a^ain to the support of law and order and stable gov- 

 ernment, and to overwhelm with defeat the reckless 

 agitators who, to gain political power, would add to 

 the present distresses of the country, by shaking the 

 foundations of the Government they failed in a four 

 years' war to destroy. 



Bv unanimous order of the Committee : 



EUGENE HALE, Chairman. 



GEORGE C. GOKHAM, Secretary. 



For the names of the members of Congress 

 who composed this Committee of Investiga- 

 tion, and for the substance of their report, see 

 PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



On the 28th of May a letter of the Chair- 

 man of the Committee of Investigation, Clark- 

 son N. Potter, was published, which appeared 

 to have been written to refute the charge of 

 revolution contained in the Republican ad- 

 dress, and to answer many questions relative 

 to the purpose of the Committee then exciting 

 the public mind. Subsequent events have cor- 

 responded with its statements, so that it pre- 

 sents the aspect of affairs at that time better 

 than a sketch of the same. Mr. Potter had 

 received a letter from a friend in New York 

 containing inquiries in relation to the inves- 

 tigation and the effect of his resolution. He 

 replied : 



WASHINGTON, May 27, 1878. 



MY DEAR Sin : I have your letter of the 25th. I 

 agree with you in wishing Congress would adjourn. 

 I am one of those who think the world id governed 

 too much. I should be glad to see the power of 

 Congress over matters of private and special legisla- 

 tion entirely cut off. And since much of the public 

 legislation proposed disturbs business and unsettles 

 industry, I have thought it might be well if Con- 

 gress, unless convened by the President, met but 

 every other year, as is the case with the Legislatures 

 in some of the States. I accordingly proposed an 

 amendment to the Constitution providing for bien- 

 nial sessions of Congress, but it had not been re- 

 ceived with any favor. Other sections of the country 

 do not feel as we do about this, and want currency, 

 or subsidy, or other legislation. 



You ask me why Mr. Stephens was "howled" 

 down. The "howling" was by the newspapers. 

 To interrupt the pending order of business by a 

 motion or a statement requires unanimous consent, 

 and every member has the absolute right to object 

 to the interruption. This objection is expressed by 

 the words, " I object," or a demand for " the regular 

 order." Sometimes one person will prevent the in- 

 terruption. Sometimes the desire to prevent it is 

 general, and then the cry of "regular order" will 

 be from many persona. It so happened that there 

 was a very general unwillingness to hear Mr. Ste- 

 phens. He had suggested that we should receive 

 and adopt the Hale amendment. It was reported 

 that he has given the Republicans a list of twenty- 

 two names who would follow him in any motion of 

 his to prevent investigation. About this he wa 

 grossly mistaken, and this made our side especially 

 unwilling to hear him. But you will observe that 

 when I rose to make a proposition to Mr. Hale, and 

 the Republican outcry prevented my being heard, it 

 was announced by the press that "Mr. Potter's in- 

 quiry was interrupted," while Mr. Stephens was 

 head-lined as " the venerable statesman howled down 

 by Potter's mob." 



You ask me why we would not let the Hale amend- 

 ment be attached to our resolution. Because it wa 

 not germane. An inquiry into frauds accomplished 

 and which changed tne electoral vote ia proper to 

 prevent their repetition, but an inquiry into mere at- 

 tempts at fraud which resulted in nothing is not 

 first, because we understood it contained recitals to 

 which we could not assent, and which would have 

 forced us to vote against our own resolution ; second, 

 because we offered Mr. Hale every opportunity to 

 have his amendment adopted as a separate resolu- 

 tionthat it was not so offered shows it was really 

 not desired ; third, because its incorporation into tn 

 resolution might have had the effect of preventing 

 any report upon the resolution. As it is, the Com- 



