Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 September 1879 — Judge Miller’s Confession. [ARTICLE]

Judge Miller’s Confession.

Two years and a half ago Mr. Justice Miller came down from his place on the bench of the Uuited States Supreme Court anti took this oath: “I do solemnly swear that I will impartially examine and consider all questionssubmited to thecoinmissiou of which I am a. member, and a true judgment give thereon, agreeably to the Constitution and the laws, so help me God.” Evidence was brought before Mr. Justice Miller showing that the lawful vote of Lo lisiana belonged to Mr, Tilden and Mr. Hendricks by a majority on the popular vote of the btate, of more than eight thousand; that a conspiracy had been formed at New Orleans to defraud the people of Louisiana of their voice in tha election of a President; and that the socalled electors had no title to represent Louisiana in the electoral college save what they derived from forged certificates, perjured affidavits, and shameless violations of the law —that their claims rested upon a fabric of fraud without a parallel in the experience of the country. On the evening of Friday, February 16,187 b the Electoral Commission, b.v its infamously memorable vote of eight to seven, gave the vote of Louisian'' to Rutherford B, Hayes. Mr. Justice Miller voted with the eight, not with the seven. With all the evidence before him, with the solemn language of his oath rtill fresh upon his lips, he voted nine times in succession to exclude the facts, the right, the truth, from consideration, and to give effect to the frauds of the conspirators. His vote put Hayes iu the office that belonged to Mr. Tilden. The one excuse that could be offered for Mr. Justice Miller’s share in.that great iniquity was that ho voted under mistake, under the delusion that Hayes was really entitled to the vote of Louisi ana. Even the politicians who sat with him in judgment, the unscrupulous partisans like Morton and Hoar, sought to the end to keep up the pretense of acting under conviction.— But recently, at Block Island, in speak ing of Mr. Tilden in presence of several gentlemen well known to the country, Mr. Justice Miller sairl: “He WAS ELECTED IN LOUISIANA J THAT IS, HE GOT EIGHT OB TEN- TKOUSAND’MOBE ACTU Mj votes thebe than Hayes.” The vote of Louisiana belonged to ’l’ilden; Tilden was legally elected President of the United States in 1876-; Hayes has no right to be in the White House; the decision of the electoral commis aion was fraudulent and false, and- in the face of the facts—all this is truth that has already passed into historv. But, us far as we kuosv, no one of the right who consummated the Fraud hail ever confessed this truth until Mr. Justice Miller confessed it at Block Island. It is a mos t extraordinary and a most humiliating confession to come from the lips of a man who has been honored and trusted by the people of the United States as Mr. Ju»>' tlce Miller ha 3 been honored and trusted.