CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



183 



votes. He overruled the motion, and he 

 would have overruled a motion to exclude the 

 vote of any State. He took the view of his 

 power, and I think it was correct, that the two 

 Houses were there simply as witnesses ; they 

 were not there to make motions, they were not 

 there to offer objections ; but they were simply 

 there to witness the count ; and so he decided. 

 And when motion after motion was made to 

 exclude the vote of Wisconsin because it was 

 not cast as required by law, he decided every 

 time that nothing was in order but to count 

 the votes. And when they had counted the 

 votes, he said the purpose for which they had 

 assembled had been discharged, and the two 

 Houses separated. They had a great debate 

 in the House over the question, which lasted 

 two or three days, and they came to the con- 

 clusion, substantially, that the two Houses had 

 no power over the question. They had a de- 

 bate in the Senate, and they arrived at the 

 same conclusion in the Senate, although not 

 by resolution, that they were powerless. Now, 

 suppose the election had turned upon the vote 

 of Wisconsin that by counting the vote of 

 Wisconsin Fremont would have been elected, 

 that by rejecting it Buchanan would have 

 been elected. If Mr. Mason had excluded the 

 vote of Wisconsin, his party would have sup- 

 ported it ; if he had received the vote of Wis- 

 consin, the Republicans would have supported 

 it; and in that case he would have had be- 

 yond all question the decision of the election in 

 his own hands. In either case it would, in all 

 probability, have resulted in violence, in insur- 

 rection. The danger was escaped in that case 

 because Buchanan was elected independently 

 of the vote of Wisconsin, and it was no matter 

 how it was cast. But the point to which I 

 call the attention of the Senate was the deci- 

 sion of the Yice-President in that case, that 

 nothing was in order but to count the votes, 

 and that the Houses were there simply to wit- 

 ness that count, but without having any power 

 whatever. 



" Now, Mr. President, I come to the consid- 

 eration of what is called the twenty-second 

 joint rule of the two Houses." 



Mr. Sargent : " Will the Senator allow me to 

 make a suggestion ? " 



Mr. Morton : " Certainly." 



Mr. Sargent : " The Senator, by his amend- 

 ment, it seems to me, does not make provision 

 for one contingency. It may be a remote con- 

 tingency, but still it may arise, and that is, in 

 case no person should receive a majority of the 

 votes thus cast in the various districts, or if 

 two persons receive the same number, it does 

 not provide which shall have the place or how 

 that controversy shall be settled. Perhaps it is 

 not so remote a contingency, when we find 

 the remarkable fact that in districts where 

 thousands and tens of thousands of votes are 

 oast, still on counting them they come out 

 nearly even. There seems to be some law of 

 chance which leads to parallels in such cases 



that are really remarkable. It certainly would 

 not be very remarkable if, after all the votes 

 are cast in the districts and the additional 

 votes are given in the proper manner, it should 

 be found that two persons have an equal num- 

 ber." 



Mr. Morton: "I will state that that contin- 

 gency is not provided for by the amendment. 

 The committee did not agree upon it. I was 

 of the opinion that in such cases as that the 

 election would be by both Houses of Congress 

 in joint convention, each Senator and each Rep- 

 resentative having one vote. I will come to 

 the consideration of that after a while. But 

 in regard to the question of majority we pro- 

 vide for that. We dispense with the require- 

 ment of a majority, and we adopt the plurality 

 system, and I will now speak of that. We in- 

 tend to avoid an election by the House alto- 

 gether, and that that candidate having a plu- 

 rality shall be elected and not require a ma- 

 jority of all the votes cast. We now require 

 a majority of all the electors appointed to elect, 

 and if no candidate gets a majority Of all, then 

 the election goes to the House of Representa- 

 tives, and the election is there not by each 

 member having a vote, but the election is by 

 States. Now one word as to the plurality 

 rule. It is adopted by all the States except 

 three in the election of State officers. It is 

 adopted by all the States in regard to the elec- 

 tion of members of Congress, and no com- 

 plaint is made of it. It is adopted by the 

 States in the election of electors. The elec- 

 tors who have a plurality are elected. A ma- 

 jority is not required to elect electors, even, 

 under the present system. We believe that 

 the election there should be final, that there 

 should be no second election required, and 

 that that candidate who has a plurality of all 

 the votes, that is, a majority over anybody 

 else, shall be elected. It has worked well 

 in the States ; it has been used in most of 

 the States for a hundred years, and no State 

 now proposes to go back from the plurality 

 to the majority system. I now ask for the 

 reading of the twenty-second joint rule." 



The Chief Clerk read as follows : 



The two Houses shall assemble in the hall of the 

 House of Kepresentatives at the hour of one o'clock 

 p. M., on the second Wednesday in February next 

 succeeding the meeting of the electors of President 

 and Vice-President of the United State,s ? and the 

 President of the Senate shall be their presiding offi- 

 cer ; one teller shall be appointed on the part of the 

 Senate, and two on the part of the House of Kepre- 

 sentatives, to whom shall be handed, as they are 

 opened by the President of the Senate, the certifi- 

 cates of the electoral votes ; and said tellers, having 

 read the same in the presence and hearing of the 

 two Houses then assembled, shall make a list of the 

 votes as they shall appear from the said certificates ; 

 and, the votes haying been counted, the result of the 

 same shall be delivered to the President of the Sen- 

 ate, who shall thereupon announce the state of the 

 vote and the names of the persons, if any, elected ; 

 which announcement shall be deemed a sufficient 

 declaration of the persons elected President and 

 Vice-President of the United States, and, together 



