CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



175 



tion became involved. We should have avoid- 

 ed the disgraceful exhibition which the conven- 

 tion made of itself before the country and the 

 world. We should have performed our duty 

 to the country as required by the Constitution. 

 We should have counted the votes of the States 

 as the certificates were opened by the pre- 

 siding officer, and, though the result would 

 have been the same, so far as the persons 

 elected are concerned, we should not have felt 

 the sting of mortification and shame which we 

 now all feel at the manner in which that work 

 was done. The Constitution provides express- 

 ly that the Senate which, according to my 

 judgment, means the organized Senate, with 

 its officers and machinery and the House of 

 Eepresentatives, which is the organized House 

 of Representatives with its officers and its ma- 

 chinery shall be present when the Vice-Pres- 

 ident shall open the certificates ; and that ' the 

 votes shall then be counted.' It must be, 

 therefore, if there is in contemplation of the 

 Constitution a proper certificate from a State, 

 and that certificate has been opened by the 

 Vice-President, the duty of the body composed 

 of the Senate and Heuse of Representatives, as 

 described and assembled, to count those votes. 

 It has no right or power to count them merely 

 as a matter of count ; but it must count them 

 for the purpose of the result, for the purpose 

 of ascertaining the result the count itself de- 

 termining the result. This is the obvious, and, 

 it seems to me, the only true meaning of the 

 Constitution. To count them conditionally or 

 hypothetically is no count at all. 



" The Constitution determines the effect of 

 the vote ; the joint convention has nothing to 

 do with that, nor has the House of Representa- 

 tives or the Senate, or both combined. The 

 vote of the State is to be counted, to be counted 

 for a purpose, and that purpose is to ascertain 

 who the people of the United States have by 

 their will determined shall be the President 

 and Vice-President for the four years next 

 after the 4th of March. To count the vote of 

 Georgia according to the concurrent resolution 

 is a mockery ; it is an insult. It matters not 

 that it will not change the result as a matter of 

 fact. If it can constitutionally be so counted 

 in the case when it will not change the result, 

 it may be so counted in case it would change 

 the result. And then the voice of Georgia may 

 be ^stifled; the voice of the people of a sov- 

 ereign State may be suppressed. And it is 

 not Georgia or the people of Georgia, but it is 

 Massachusetts or Wisconsin that may not be 

 allowed to utter its voice on the question." 



The resolutions of Mr. Butler were subse- 

 quently modified by him so as to read as fol- 

 lows : 



Resolved, That the above resolution be, and hereby 

 is, referred to a select committee of five, with leave 

 to report at any time, and report by bill or other- 

 wise. 



Mr. Kelsey, of New York, offered the fol- 

 lowing substitute : 



JResolved, That the subject of an amendment of the 

 joint rules governing the convention of the two 

 Houses of Congress for the purpose of counting 

 electoral votes for President and Vice-President of 

 the United States be referred to a select committee 

 of five, with power to report by bill or otherwise at 

 any time. 



On motion, the resolutions were laid on the 

 table, yeas 130, nays 55, not voting 38. 



In the Senate, on January llth, Mr. Wash- 

 burne, of Illinois, introduced a bill to repeal an 

 act regulating the tenure of certain civil offices, 

 passed March 2, 1867. This bill passed the 

 House, yeas 121, nays 47, not voting 53. 



In the Senate, the Committee on Retrench- 

 ment, to whom the bill was referred, reported 

 it back with an amendment to strike out, as 

 follows : 



That an act regulating the tenure of certain civil 

 offices, passed March 2, 1867, be, and the same is 

 hereby, repealed. 



And to insert in lieu thereof: 



That the first section of the act entitled "An act 

 regulating the tenure of certain civil offices," passed 

 March 2, 1867, is hereby amended, so as to read as fol- 

 lows : That every person (excepting the Secretaries 

 of State, of the Treasury, of War, of the Navy, and 

 of the Interior, the Postmaster-General, and the At- 

 torney-General) holding any civil office to which he 

 has been appointed by and with the advice and con- 

 sent of the Senate, and every person who shall here- 

 after be appointed to any such office, and shall become 

 duly qualified to act therein, is ana shall be entitled 

 to hold such office until a successor shall have been 

 in like manner appointed and duly qualified, except 

 as herein otherwise provided. 



SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the second 

 section of said act is hereby amended so as to read as 

 follows : That it shall be lawful for the President, 

 whenever, during a recess of the Senate, in his opin- 

 ion, the public good shall require it, to suspend any 

 officer appointed as aforesaid, excepting judges of the 

 United States courts, and to designate some suitable 

 person to perform temporarily the duties of such 

 office until the next meeting of the Senate, and until 

 the matter shall be acted upon by the Senate ; and 

 such person so designated shall take the oaths and 

 give the bonds required by law to be taken and given 

 by the person duly appointed to fill such office ; and 

 in case of such suspension it shall be the duty of the 

 President, within twenty days after the first day of 

 such next meeting of the Senate, to report to the 

 Senate such suspension, with the name of the person 

 so designated to perform the duties of such office ; 

 and if the Senate shall concur in such suspension, 

 and advise and consent to the removal of such officer, 

 they shall so certify to the President, who may there- 

 upon remove such officer, and, by and with the advice 

 and consent of the Senate, appoint another person to 

 such office ; but, if the Senate shall refuse to concur 

 in such suspension, the officer so suspended shall 

 forthwith resume the functions of his office, and the 

 powers of the person so performing its duties in his 



, That the House protests against the man- 

 ner of procedure and the order of the President of the f x 



Senate pro tempore, in presence of the two Houses, in stead shall cease : and the official salary and emplu- 

 counting the vote of Georgia in obedience to the order ments of such officer shall, during such suspension, 

 of the Senate only, and against his acts dissolving the * 

 convention and the two Houses at his own will, as an 

 invasion of the rights and privileges of the House. 



belong to the person so performing the duties thereof, 

 and not to the officer so suspended : Provided, how- 

 ever, That the President may, in his discretion, be- 



