COMMANDMENT. | RESOLUTION. | "_No_ Senator or Representative, | "The Commission, by a majority or _person holding an office of | of votes, is also of the opinion trust or profit under the United | that _it is not competent to prove States, shall be appointed an | that any of said persons, so elector._" | appointed electors_ as aforesaid, | _held an office of trust or | profit under the United States | at the time when they were | appointed_, or that they were | ineligible under the laws of the | State, or any other matter | offered to be proved _aliunde_ | the said certificates and | papers." It would be unjust to cast upon the Electoral Commission the blame of all the wrong that has been practised in this presidential count. The Commission was but a council of advice, which Congress might have taken or not, as it pleased, the only condition being that, in order to reject it, both Houses must have agreed. The responsibility of the final decision lay, after all, upon Congress, or rather, upon the Senate, which voted throughout to follow the Commission. * * * * * The facts thus briefly recited present certain questions--moral, political, and legal--which cannot be considered too soon for our good repute and our self-respect. THE MORAL QUESTION. Whatever differences of opinion there may be about the political and legal questions involved, there can be none about the moral. The presidential office is the gift of the people of the several States, of their own free-will, expressed according to the laws. A falsification of that will is an offense against the State where it is committed, and against all the States. If the falsification is beyond the reach of the law, it is not beyond the reach of the conscience. A robbery is none the less a robbery because it is beyond the range of vision or the arm of justice. If the possessor of an estate has entered through the forgery of a record or the spoliation of a will, which although believed by every neighbor is beyond judicial proof, all the world pronounces his possession fraudulent, even though he scatters his wealth in charities and gathers many companions around his luxurious table. The example is corrupting, but it is against the eternal law of justice that the act should be respected or the actors continue forever to prosper.