Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1878 — GRANT DESPARS —CONKLING INVENTS THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION. [ARTICLE]

GRANT DESPARS —CONKLING INVENTS THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION.

Conklinpjremarks: “One evening I went to the White House and found Grant more gloomy than usual. He had come to believe it inevitable that his term should end in bloodshed. In the course of a long consultation I suggested to him that there seemed to me one way out of the trouble, and only one, and I suggested to him the plan of tho ElectoraljCommission. He grasped It in a moment, declared it the very thing, and that it would save the country. I pledged him to secrecy, saying that if it became known that the plan was ours, it would be sure to bede seated by the Democrats, and I left him much relieved. In the morning when I went to the White House, I found Sherman with the President—who had told him all the plan —and both of them expressed themselves with unbounded satisfaction. In the opinion of President Grant—and I must say that I concurred with him—this submission of the question to the highest legislative and judicial representatives of the people wa all that saved us from bloodshed. “It was exceedingly difficult to do anything wfth’the Democratic Senators and Congressmen at the start. You have no idea of the delicate and difficult work of . the Committee of Fourteen who drew up the act for the organization of the Electoral Commission. It was fought over, not only section by section, but line by line and word for word. At times it seemed impossible that we should ever come to any agreement. Yet we kept cn our work, because a majority cf the fourteen were absolutely oonvinced that this was the only method of preventing civil war and reaching any conclusion on the Presidential question. Some of the Democratic members of the committee have told me since then that more than once they left the room fully determined never to return. They thought the difference irreconcilable,and wore determ ined to yield nothing.