CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



199 



will be thrown into the House, and the House 

 is Democratic and will elect a Democrat for 

 President. The responsibility of that action 

 is divided between two hundred and ninety- 

 two men in the House. The responsibility of 

 each one is comparatively small ; there may be 

 something in the objection, enough of form or 

 enough of substance to make an irresponsible 

 majority willing to reject the vote of that 

 State; and the House, by its own action, 

 against the vote of the Senate, may reject the 

 vote of that State and take away from that 

 candidate enough votes to reduce his vote below 

 a majority of all the electoral votes, and the 

 result is that the election goes into the House 

 " Suppose, if you please, as in the case of 

 Arkansas or in the case of Georgia or in the 

 case of Louisiana two years ago, as the rule 

 now stands, the two Houses being different in 

 politics, an objection is made ; we come back 

 into the Senate and we honestly think that the 

 objection is a good one, and we reject the vote 

 of that State. Our vote does it. The House 

 takes a different view of it, just as it did in the 

 Arkansas case only two years ago. They say 

 the objection amounts to nothing. But the 

 House being Democratic and the Senate having 

 rejected the vote of a Democratic State on a 

 frivolous ground as the House think, the House 

 under excitement and men are the same at 

 all times and everywhere will then throw out 

 the vote of the next Republican State upon 

 some frivolous objection. Thus it goes tit for 

 tat until the votes have gone out and the elec- 

 tion goes to the House. 



" That is the operation of the present rule. 

 Can any one fail for a single moment to see 

 the danger of this and the necessity of chang- 

 ing it? It is above all party considerations. 

 It is trifling to talk about party, in my opinion, 

 on such a great question as this. 



"Upon the question of the power of Con- 

 gress to adopt this rule I entertain very great 

 doubts. I do not believe myself the power 

 exists ; but there is a divided sentiment here. 

 We cannot act upon any other position except 

 that the power does exist. I myself do not see 

 how the power does exist, or from what pro- 

 vision it can be inferred; but we have got the 

 rule. The rule in its present condition is a 

 magazine that may be exploded at any mo- 

 ment. Let us therefore relieve it of its danger. 

 It is much safer for this country and that is the 

 ground on which I put the whole thing to say 

 that the vote of a State shall be rejected only 

 by both Houses and not by one House ; and 

 you take from one party, where the Houses are 

 divided in politics, the power to change the 

 result by rejecting the vote of a State. It will 

 be in the power of our friends on the other side 

 in the next House of Representatives and 

 they might act in good faith, but we take a 

 different opinion it will be in their power if 

 an objection is made in the joint convention to 

 the votes of Republican States, the two Houses 

 separating, to throw the election into the 



House, no difference what the votes may be. 

 Under the rule the Republican party cannot 

 elect a President. They might carry every 

 State in the North ; but they cannot elect a 

 President.. Why? Because it is in the power 

 of the House of Representatives, under the 

 operation of the rule, to throw out the vote of 

 every Republican State. We on the other hand 

 could throw out the vote of every Democratic 

 State ; but the result would be that the elec- 

 tion would go into the Democratic House. I 

 am casting no imputation upon any party or 

 any body of men. I am only speaking about 

 the possibilities ; about the fearful temptation 

 spread in the pathway of men. I am only 

 speaking about what may take place under 

 such a rule ; and no rule which admits of such 

 things ought to stand for one moment." 



The Presiding Officer : " The Chair hears no 

 objection, and the reference will be made. The 

 resolution is referred to the Committee on Priv- 

 ileges and Elections." 



Mr. Thurman: "I do not believe there will 

 be the slightest delay. All I hope is, that the 

 committee will consider it fully." 



The Presiding Officer : " The resolution is. 

 committed to the Committee on Privileges and 

 Elections." 



In the Senate, on February 6th, Senator Mor- 

 ton, of Indiana, from the Committee on Privi- 

 leges and Elections, to whom was referred the 

 resolution to amend the twenty-second joint 

 rule, asked to be discharged from its further 

 consideration. At the same time he reported 

 from the committee a bill on the same subject. 

 On February 26th the bill was considered in 

 the Senate. 



Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, said: "We had 

 from the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. An- 

 thony) the other day a very thoughtful dis- 

 quisition on this subject. Questions were then 

 asked in the Senate, and were not answered, as 

 to what should be done where a double vote 

 was returned from a State and where two sets 

 of electors each present their suffrages for dif- 

 ferent candidates from the same State at the 

 same election. No one gave the answer, be- 

 cause the Constitution had provided no means 

 whereby such a contest could be decided. It 

 will be seen that this bill in its second section 

 proposes to meet this very dangerous and diffi- 

 cult question of a contest between two sets of 

 electoral votes from the same State at the 

 same presidential election. It declares that 

 all of these returns, the false as well as the 

 true, shall be opened, and I can construe the 

 language of the bill in no other way than that 

 they shall be counted unless there is a con- 

 current affirmative vote of both Houses reject- 

 ing them. See then the result. There is here, 

 if not the invitation, the opportunity given to 

 raise a false claim in order to defeat a true 

 election and in determining such a claim the 

 false and the true shall stand upon the same 

 level and be only defeated by the same means, 



