(HIS MOTIVES IN SUPPORTING THE ELECTORAL TRIBUNAL) "WASHINGTON, D. C., _March 3_. "GENTLEMEN,--The last act of the executive committee was the announcement to the people of the United States that Samuel J. Tilden was elected President, and Thomas A. Hendricks Vice-President. "This announcement was followed by a scurrilous pronunciamento from the national Republican committee, claiming the election of Hayes and Wheeler. The power to determine the result resided in Congress; but grave differences of opinion, threatening the peace of the country, existed as to the lawful methods of procedure, and the constitutional rights, and the duties of the two Houses in the premises. Committees were therefore raised in both Houses to consider the question, and to confer with each other as to legislation proper to be adopted in order to secure a declaration of the result without confusion and public disorder. The Senate committee had practically perfected a bill for this purpose before the House committee met with them in conference. This bill had received the assent and approval of the three Democratic Senators serving on the committee. "To have rejected this settlement would, necessarily, have produced division in the Democratic party, and been fatal to its immediate and future success. On the other hand, the bill itself seemed to be so wisely framed in its main features, that the judgment of the Democratic members of the House committee gradually confirmed the action of the Senate committee, and, with some changes which were deemed favorable to the Democratic position, the Electoral bill was approved by all the Democratic members of both committees, and was duly reported and became a law by the vote of a large majority of the Democratic members of both Houses, and was approved by the general judgment of the country. "The result has disappointed the hopes of every lover of his country. By decisions abhorrent to the natural senses of justice, all proof of fraud was ruled out, and the States of Louisiana and Florida have been counted for Hayes, although all fair-minded men concede that they voted for Tilden. This grievous wrong and its authors I have denounced on the floor of the House, and I have no hesitancy in declaring that, for the first time in our history, the Presidency has been awarded to a candidate who has no just title to its honors. "But he comes into office as the result of the operation of a law which received the support of the Democratic party, and any attempt to resist its operation would, it seems to me, only deprive us of the support and sympathy of all conservative and fair-minded citizens.