Just elections
By coincidence I have been reading Ronald White’s new biography of Ulysses Grant (” American Ulysses”) and have gotten to the election of 1876 pitting Democrat Samuel versus Republican Rutherford Hayes. Suspicions of fraud ran so high and the vote returns were so hotly contested that a special electoral commission was created by Congress to resolve the issue. In words we should heed today as we face a similar situation, President Grant wrote to his friend Tecumseh Sherman, “Either party can afford to be disappointed in the result but the Country cannot afford to have the result tainted by the suspicion of illegal or false returns.”
William Hairston
Sulligent, Ala.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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