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Page 10
Perhaps the nation did not realize the danger; but the danger was
present, and threatened to be overwhelming. The Republican party in
possession of the Government was not willing to lose its advantage,
and the Democratic party, declaring its majority to be rightful, was
ready to rise in insurrection. As to the facts in the case, neither
Samuel J. Tilden nor General R.B. Hayes was clearly elected to the
presidency. The Democrats had carried two or three States by the
persuasion of shotguns, and the Republicans with the aid of electoral
commissions had counted in the electoral votes of a State or two which
they did not carry at all. The excitement increased with the approach
of winter, and it was proposed in a leading Democratic journal of the
West that a hundred thousand Democrats should rise and march unarmed
on Washington City, there to influence the decision of the disputed
question.
When Congress convened in December, the whole question of the disputed
presidency came at once before that body for settlement. The situation
was seriously complicated by the political complexion of the Senate
and the House of Representatives. In the former body the Republicans
had a majority sufficient to control its action, while in the House
the Democratic majority was still more decisive and equally willful.
At length the necessity of doing _something_ became imperative. The
great merchants and manufacturers of the country and the boards of
trade in the principal cities grew clamorous for a peaceable
adjustment of the difficulty. The spirit of compromise gained ground,
and it was agreed to refer the disputed election returns to a joint
high commission, to consist of five members chosen from the United
States Senate, five from the House of Representatives, and five from
the Supreme Court.
The judgment of this tribunal was to be final. The commission was
accordingly constituted. The disputed returns were sent, State by
State, to the High Court for decision. That body was itself divided
politically, and _every member decided each question according to his
politics_. The Republicans had seven votes in the court, the Democrats
seven votes, and one vote, that of Judge Joseph P. Bradley, was said
to be independent. But Judge Bradley was a Republican in his political
antecedents, and whenever a question came to a close issue, he decided
with his party.
On the second of March, only three days before the time for the
inauguration, a final decision was reached. The Republican candidates
were declared elected _by one electoral vote_ over Tilden and
Hendricks. Mr. Tilden had himself counseled peace and acquiescence.
The decision was sullenly accepted by the Democrats, and the most
dangerous political crisis in American history passed harmlessly by
without violence or bloodshed. No patriot will care to see such a
crisis come again.
THE DOUBLE FETE IN FRANCE AND GERMANY.
The Third Republic of France has passed its twenty-fifth anniversary,
and the German Empire has just celebrated its semi-jubilee. The French
held their f�te in September of 1895, and on the eighteenth of the
following January all the Fatherland shouted greetings to the grandson
of old Wilhelm the Kaiser. The Gaul and the Teuton have thus agreed to
be happy coincidently; but for very different reasons! The Gaul has
his Republic and the Teuton his Empire. Side by side on the map lie
the two great powers, representing in their history and present aspect
one of the strongest contrasts to be found in human annals.
What the German Empire is we may permit the Emperor himself, in his
recent anniversary address, to explain. His speech shows that Germany,
of all civilized nations, has gone furthest in the direction of
unqualified imperialism. The utterances of Emperor William surpass the
speeches of the Czar himself, in avowing all the pretensions and
fictions of monarchy in the Middle Ages. The Hohenzollern potentate
openly makes the pretence of governing his subjects by rights and
prerogatives in nowise derived from the people, but wholly derived
from himself and his grandfather. Why should Germany be an Empire and
France a Republic? How could such an amazing historical result come
into the world? The French Republic and the new Empire of Germany were
not made by generals and kings and politicians in 1870-71. Indeed,
nothing is made by the strutters who are designated with such titles.
The two great powers having their centres at Berlin and Paris have
their roots as deep down as the subsoil of the ages. They grew out of
antecedents older than the Crusades, older than Charlemagne, older
than Augustus and the Christ. They came by law--even if the result
_has_ surprised the expectation of mankind.
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