CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, CONTESTED ELECTIONS IN THE. 235 



bill for the repeal of the pre-emption and 

 timber-culture laws, and the amendment of the 

 homestead law ; the Pacific Railroad funding 

 bill; the bill for the forfeiture of the Northern 

 Pacific grant ; the bill to incorporate the 

 Nicaragua Canal Company; the bill to pay 

 losses of depositors in the Freedmen's Bank ; 

 the bill for the erection of coast defenses ; the 

 bill for the taking of the next census ; the bill 

 for the inspection of meat for export. 



COAGRESS OF THE IXITED STATES, CONTEST- 

 ED ELECTIONS IN THE. In this article are 

 summarized all the principal contested elec- 

 tions that have occurred in Congress sin- e 

 the adoption of the Federal Constitution. It 

 is the usage of the House of Representatives to 

 refer all cases of contested seats to the Com- 

 mittee on Elections. The duty of that com- 

 mittee is to examine and report its opinion 

 upon such matters as shall be referred to it by 

 the House : but such opinion, though clothed 

 with a certain authority, is not conclusive upon 

 the House ; it may be overruled, and not un- 

 frequently is. The usage of the committee is, 

 after an examination into the facts of the case, 

 to elaborate a report in which these facts are 

 set forth with accuracy; from this statement 

 of fact to deduce the reasons for supporting 

 the one or the other candidate ; and to report 

 its opinion to the House, both at length and in 

 the form of a condensed resolution. It is upon 

 this resolution, and not upon the reasons or 

 arguments of the committee, that the House 

 acts, and whether they have or have not con- 

 curred with the committee in their views of 

 each case, will not appear as a matter of rec- 

 ord on their journals, which will only show- 

 that they have concurred with it in the final 

 result. Yet if the House do not dissent from 

 the conclusion of the committee, they may, in 

 general, be presumed to have sanctioned the 

 process of reasoning by which that conclusion 

 was attained. 



The Qualifications of Senators of the United 

 States will be found in the Constitution, Article 

 I, section 3 ; and of Representatives, in Article 

 I, section 2. The debates on amendments origi- 

 nally proposed to be made to the Constitution, 

 in regard to the power of Congress over the 

 subject of elections of members of Congress, 

 will be found in "Lloyd's Debates," vol. ii, p. 

 244, etseq. The original papers and documents 

 of Congress, or the greater portion of them, 

 from the First to the Sixth Congress, were de- 

 stroyed by the English with the Capitol in 1814, 

 and among other important papers those re- 

 lating to contested elections were consumed. 

 "Lloyd's Debates" and the newspapers of the 

 day, however, afford us general information of 

 the transactions recorded in the missing docu- 

 ments. But Congress has frequently ordered 

 or authorized the collection and publication, 

 by the public printer, of proceedings in con- 

 tested elections, either singly or in groups; 

 and such publications are authoritative and 

 should be consulted bv the student. 



