uld follow in
sad progression to the end of time. This is not, however, the moral
condition of the world. The _lex talionis_ has been abolished by the law
of civilization and the higher law of the gospel.

In this case of Louisiana there can be neither excuse nor palliation for
the misconduct of the Returning Board.

On the 10th of November, President Grant telegraphed to the General of
the Army instructions about troops in Louisiana and Florida, and added
that "_no man worthy of the office of President should be willing to
hold it if counted in or placed there by fraud_. Either party can afford
to be disappointed in the result. _The country cannot afford to have the
result tainted by the suspicion of illegal or false returns._" And
again: "The presence of citizens from other States, I understand, is
requested in Louisiana, to see that the Board of Canvassers makes _a
fair count of the vote actually cast_. It is to be hoped that
representative and fair men of both parties will go."

Did the President of that day misrepresent his party, or his successor,
or has the party changed and the successor also? Had the virtuous
impulses of November faded away in February? Was there a change of heart
or a change of opportunity? Neither Congress nor the Electoral
Commission could give an _honest_ title, without investigating the
honesty of the transactions on which the title was founded; and yet a
President has been installed, in the face of rejected offers to prove
frauds, the grossest, the most shameless, and the most corrupting, in
all our history.

Then what was the object of the committees of each House of Congress,
sent into the disputed States? Was it to blind the people? Was it to
conceal a meditated fraud? On the very first day of the session,
December 4th, Mr. Edmunds, in the Senate, moved certain resolutions, of
which this was one:

"_Resolved further_, That the said committee" (the Committee on
Privileges and Elections) "be, and is hereby, instructed to inquire
into the eligibility to office under the Constitution of the United
States of any persons alleged to have been ineligible on the 7th
day of November last, or to be ineligible as electors of President
and Vice-President of the United States, to whom certificates of
election have been, or shall be, issued by the Executive authority
of any State, as such electors, and _whether the appointment of
electors_, or those