"I was glad to learn from a long letter, which I had a few days ago from Judge Field, that the suggestion of which you spoke to Judge Clifford of a submission of the electoral vote to a more impartial tribunal than the Supreme Court, after the recent action of some of its members present, is seriously entertained with a hope of success, and I cannot but flatter myself that Blaine and his adherents, in order to divert the patronage from Hayes to be used against him in 1880, may be willing for such a change in the law of _Quo Warranto_ as, through the action of Florida and Louisiana, may enable you to assume the title, with which I have ventured to address you, before the period named by Judge Clifford for the vindication of popular rights. "I am, yours very truly, "W. B. LAWRENCE." THE NEW YORK "WORLD" AND JOHN BIGELOW (1877) "A correspondent of the _World_ called upon Mr. Bigelow at his residence at Highland Falls yesterday, and in the course of his visit the following conversation took place: "REPORTER. Mr. Bigelow, I understand that you prepared the volume published by the Appletons, in December, 1877, called the _Presidential Counts_, and particularly the analytical introduction prefixed to it, containing what was deemed to be at the time a semi-official Democratic view of the precedents and practice of the government applicable to the counting of the Presidential vote. Also that you were in frequent communication with Mr. Tilden, and in complete possession of his views and purposes during that crisis. "MR. BIGELOW. You are correctly informed, so far as that publication is concerned. "REPORTER. You doubtless read the story related recently by Mr. Mines in the _World_, and derived by him from General Woodford. "MR. BIGELOW. I saw that publication, and glanced over its contents. "REPORTER. The _World_ would like to know whether at any time under the then existing facts of the case, Mr. Tilden entertained any purpose of taking the oath of office as President of the United States? "MR. BIGELOW. That question seems to me to have been fully answered by the analytical introduction about which you have inquired, and which in its general scope--though, of course, not in every detail nor in its particular expressions--may be supposed to represent the doctrines entertained by Mr. Tilden in common with the most eminent jurists and statesmen of the country. I do not undertake to speak for Mr. Tilden, or in any peculiar sense as his representative, but the very nature of the views expounded in the analytical introduction necessarily defined the cases in which it would have been lawful and proper for Mr. Tilden to have taken the oath of office as President, and by inevitable implication the cases in which it would have been unlawful and improper for him to have done so. "There were two contingencies in which it would have been lawful and obligatory on Mr. Tilden to have taken the official oath as President: