CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



195 



that is implied by the fact that his hand shall 

 open the sealed envelope which contains the 

 list of the electoral vote. Then the votes 

 ' shall be counted ' in the presence of the two 

 Houses." 



Mr. Morton : " Counted by whom ? " 



Mr. Bayard : " There is no distinct provision 

 as to that. They shall be ^simply counted in 

 the presence of the two Houses ; but I appre- 

 hend from the fact of their being counted and 

 the result declared that the members of each 

 House are simply witnesses to the count and 

 tally of that vote. That you could not delegate 

 that power to another body I cannot doubt." 



Mr. Anthony, of Rhode Island, said : " If the 

 Senator will allow me I do not wish to inter- 

 rupt him, but I wish to have his view on this 

 question, and perhaps he was going on to the 

 point which I will bring to his attention. Sup- 

 pose the Vice-President receives two packages, 

 each purporting to be the electoral vote of a 

 State?" 



Mr. Oonkling, of New York, said: "Being 

 different from each other ? " 



Mr. Anthony: "Being different from each 

 other?" 



Mr. Bayard: "I can understand the great 

 difficulty of dealing with a question of that 

 kind, and it was in deprecation of the haste 

 with which this question was being disposed 

 of called up here, read by the Senator from 

 Indiana, and the question immediately called 

 for in the Senate that caused me to rise and 

 make the objection I do to this inconsiderate 

 method of dealing with it. I have been trying 

 since this question was suggested by the Sena- 

 tor from Indiana some days ago to find, as well 

 as I could, some method to escape from these 

 difficulties, such as are suggested by the Sena- 

 tor from Rhode Island, and the truth is, that 

 all my theories of government come just about 

 to this : That if they are not to be honorably, 

 honestly, and fairly administered, any laws that 

 you make will be perfectly worthless to procure 

 that justice and certainty, that proper record of 

 the will of the people, which our scheme of gov- 

 ernment was intended to produce. I apprehend 

 that there is no rule which you can frame that 

 will not be open to defeat by some supposititious 

 case. There cannot be the same villainy prac- 

 tised in regard to the electoral votes of the va- 

 rious States of this Union as are alleged, and I 

 believe truly, to have been practised in regard 

 to the returns before the returning board in the 

 State of Louisiana, where I have seen the state- 

 ment made that advantage was taken of the ad- 

 journment of the board for a public holiday, by 

 the clerks who were the custodians of those re- 

 turns, to unseal the packages, to forge false re- 

 turns, to seal them up, and then have them 

 counted by this returning board. What law- 

 can we ever have to meet such atrocities as 

 that, should such a class of men ever be admit- 

 ted in sufficient numbers in the Senate and in 

 the Congress of the United States to do such 

 acts as are alleged, and I believe truly, to have 



been committed by the returning board of Lou- 

 isiana ? There is no cure for that except a pub- 

 lic opinion that shall make it impossible for a 

 man to hold public station without possessing 

 those private virtues upon which society must 

 depend for its existence. You may carry a case 

 to the Supreme Court of the United States, you 

 may carry it to any tribunal you choose, you 

 may invest your judges with every responsi- 

 bility that penalty can secure, and if they be 

 not honest and honorable men your laws will 

 be mockeries, and their decisions will be simply 

 cunning and corrupt evasions of public justice." 



Mr. Anthony : " If the Senator will allow me, 

 perhaps I did not make myself understood. I 

 wish his judgment upon this question. I un- 

 derstand him to say that the Vice-President is 

 simply a ministerial officer ; that he has sim- 

 ply to perform a specific duty prescribed by the 

 Constitution in receiving the votes and in open- 

 ing them and handing them to the tellers to be 

 counted. Suppose the Vice-President receives 

 two packages, each purporting to contain the 

 electoral vote of the State of Louisiana, for in- 

 stance, how is he to decide which one he will 

 place before the two Houses? " 



Mr. Thurman, of Ohio, said : " He must place 

 them both." 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said : " Then who de- 

 cides?" 



Mr. Anthony : " Yes ; who is then to decide ? " 



Mr. Thurman : " The Houses." 



Mr. Anthony: " Not if the rule is repealed." 



Mr. Bayard : " I apprehend that all the votes 

 which are received must be counted, and I do 

 not suppose that he can be expected to know 

 what they are, except from the superscription 

 of the sealed envelope containing them, until 

 they shall have been opened." 



Mr. Anthony : " Then, if I understand the 

 Senator aright, the Vice-President is to deliv- 

 er two, three, four packages, each purporting 

 to contain the electoral vote of a State?" 



Mr. Bayard : " Let me see what the Consti- 

 tution says on the subject. I do not think it is 

 sufficiently clear and satisfactory on that point. 

 It provides for the meeting of the electors in 

 their respective States. It provides for a vote 

 by them by ballot for President and Vice-Pres- 

 ident ; and, after that vote is taken in distinct 

 ballots for the President and the Vice-Presi- 

 dent, it provides that they, the electors, shall 

 make distinct lists of all persons voted for as 

 President and of all persons voted for as Vice- 

 President, and the number of votes for each. 

 It provides that the electors in the several 

 States shall themselves make up these lists and 

 communicate the result, certified and signed 

 by them, and transmit it sealed to the seat of 

 the government of the United States, directed 

 to the President of the Senate. Then it pro- 

 vides that these sealed papers, which have been 

 directed to the President of the Senate (and as 

 we all know are by special messengers placed 

 in his hands and in his custody), shall on a cer- 

 tain day, in the presence of the two Houses 



