for Hayes. The Republican Representative from Florida,
Mr. Purman, has solemnly declared upon this floor that Florida had
given its vote to Tilden. I am not surprised that two distinguished
Republican Representatives from Massachusetts, Mr. Seelye and Mr.
Pierce, have in such thrilling tones expressed their dissent from the
judgment of this tribunal. By this decision fraud has become one of
the legalized modes of securing the vote of a State. Can it be
possible that the American people are prepared to accept the doctrine
that fraud, which vitiates all contracts and agreements, which
taints the judgments and decrees of courts, which will even annul the
solemn covenant of marriage--fraud, which poisons wherever it enters
--can be inquired into in all the relations of human life save only
where a returning-board is its instrument, and the dearest rights of
a sovereign people are at stake?

"But we are told that we created this tribunal and must abide by
its arbitrament. I propose to do so in good faith. I have, from the
beginning, opposed every movement that looked only to delay. I
have voted against all dilatory motions. But the decision of this
tribunal is too startling and too far-reaching in its consequences
to pass unchallenged. That the returning-board of Louisiana
will find no imitators in our future history is more than I dare
hope. The pernicious doctrine that fraud and perjury are to be
recognized auxiliaries in popular elections is one that may return
to plague its inventors. The worst effect of this decision will
be its lesson to the young men of our country. Hereafter old-fashioned
honesty is at a discount, and villainy and fraud the legalized
instruments of success. The fact may be conceded, the proof
overwhelming, that the honest voice of a State has been overthrown
by outrage and fraud, and yet the chosen tribunal of the people
has entered of solemn record that there is no remedy.

'O Judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts!'

"My criticism of the decision of this tribunal rests upon its
finding in the cases of Louisiana and Florida; upon the Oregon case
I have no criticism to offer. It is true that but two votes of
that State could have been given to Hayes had the decision first
adopted by the Commission been followed in the case of Oregon.
However inconsistent it may be with other rulings of the Commission,
standing alone it is in the main correct. The sanctity of seal of
State and