The Facts of Reconstruction by John Roy Lynch

Author:John Roy Lynch [Lynch, John Roy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780598614087
Google: JlZLAAAAMAAJ
Publisher: Neale publishing Company
Published: 1913-01-15T04:19:10+00:00

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CHAPTER XVII

Table of Contents

THE HAYES-TILDEN CONTEST. THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION

Table of Contents

Although the action of the returning boards in South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida, gave Mr. Hayes a majority of one vote in the Electoral College, the Democrats, who were largely in the majority in the National House of Representatives, were evidently not willing to acquiesce in the declared result—claiming that Mr. Tilden had been fairly elected and that he ought to be inaugurated.

Hon. Henry Watterson, of Kentucky—who was at that time a member of the House—delivered a fiery speech in which he declared that a hundred thousand armed men would march to Washington to see that Mr. Tilden was inaugurated. The situation for a while looked very grave. It seemed as if there would be a dual government, Hayes and Tilden each claiming to be the legally elected President. To prevent this was the problem then before Congress and the American people. Conferences, composed of influential men of both parties, were being frequently held in different parts of the city.

The creation of an electoral commission to pass upon and decide the disputed points involved was finally suggested, and was accepted by a majority of both parties. The name of the originator of this suggestion has never been made public; but it is believed by many that Senator Edmunds, of Vermont, was the man, since he was the principal champion of the measure in the Senate. Subsequent events appeared to indicate that Hon. Wm. M. Evarts of New York, was also an influential party to the scheme, if not the originator of it. At any rate, no one seemed to have been sufficiently proud of it to lay claim to its paternity. It was merely a temporary scheme, intended to tide over an unpleasant, and perhaps dangerous, condition which existing remedies did not fully meet. It was equivalent to disposing of the Presidency by a game of chance—for the composition of the proposed commission was, politically, purely a matter of chance.

As finally agreed upon, the measure provided for a commission to be composed of fifteen members—five from the House, five from the Senate, and five Justices of the Supreme Court. As the Democrats had a majority in the House, it was agreed that they should have three, and the Republicans two of the five members of that body. Since the Republicans had a majority in the Senate it was agreed that they should have three, and the Democrats two of the five members of that body. Of the five justices of the Supreme Court, two were to be Republicans and two, Democrats; the fifth Justice to be an independent—or one who was as near an independent as could be found on the bench of that Court.

When the bill creating this commission came before the House I spoke against it, and voted against it, for two reasons. In the first place, I believed it was a dangerous precedent to subject the Presidency of the United States to such a game of chance as was contemplated by the bill then under consideration.

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