Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1877 — The Great Fraud. [ARTICLE]

The Great Fraud.

The events of the last nine months have indicated very plainly what will be the leading question before the people for some time to come. It is the preservation of the right of the majority to rule. Last year the people elected Mr. Tilden President by a majority of a quarter of a million of the popular vote, and by a majority of twenty-three of the electoral vote. But Mr. Hayes was counted in notwithstanding. The man who was elected was counted out, and the man who was not elected was counted in, and seated, and holds the plaee. As Mr. Tilden has himself said, not long since, the question now is whether our elective system is to be maintained. This is the question of questions. Until it is settled there can be no politics founded on inferior questions of administrative policy. It involves all others —finance, labor and the whole system of popular government. The people must signally condemn the great fraud put upon them. They must strip the example of everything that would attract imitation, and refuse a prosperous immunity to those who reap the benefit of the crime. Judgment is already overtaking them. I believe in keeping the great fraud before the people until we can have it definitely determined whether the majority shall rule or whether elections shall be decided by returning'boards, and “by fraud, by perjury and by forgery,” as the senior Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States says the last one was. It is now the mission of the Democratic party to see to it that this crime is kept always before the people, and that the memory of it shall not die out of the land. On this question it does not seem possible that any sincere patriot or honest man should hesitate long upon which side he will be found.— Letter from Editor M. M. Ham, of the Dubuque Herald.