CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



JOT 



YEAS Allison, Anthony, Armstrong, Bailey, Bar- 



nuiii, l'..n:ird, Buck, Blaine, Booth, BurtiMtlc, "Butler, 



Hi f Pennsylvania, (.'mnuron of Wisconsin, 



Chn.-tiimry. Cockrell. Coke, Colliding, Davis of Illi- 



t' \Vc.-t Virginia, 1 >;i\ves. Dennis, I 

 Kerry, (iurland, (;<>r<l<>n, Hiiiiilin, Harris, Hereford, 

 !l"\vc, In, 'alls, .lories of Florida, Ki'llo^rir, Kcr- 

 n.iiu KirkwiHi.l, Mcl>..ituld, Me.Millan, McPhcrson, 

 Matthews, Muxey, Merriiii"ii, Mitchell, Morrill. Oirli's- 

 ly, I'uddork, Patterson, Randolph, Hansom, Rollins, 

 Saimdcrs SjK-ncer, Teller, Voorhecs, Wadleigh, Win- 

 il 'in. Withers 68. 



NAYS Eaton, Hill, McCreery, Morgan, Wallace, 

 \Vliyto . 



-XT Bruce, Chaffce, Conover, Dorsey, Ed- 

 munds, <;n>ver, .Johnston, Jones of Nevada, Lamar, 

 Plumb, Sargent, Saulsbury, Sharon, Thurraan 14. 



So the resolutions were agreed to. 



The Presiding Officer: " The Vice-President 

 has appointed as the seclect committee in rela- 

 tion to the violation of the rights of American 

 citizens at the recent elections, under the reso- 

 lution of the Senator from Maine [Mr. Blaine], 

 Mr. Teller, Mr. Cameron of Wisconsin, Mr. 

 Kirk wood. Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Plumb, Mr. Bay- 

 ard, Mr. Wallace, Mr. Bailey, and Mr. Gar- 

 land." 



For the report of the committee, see PUBLIC 

 DOCUMENTS. 



In the Senate, on December 10th, Mr. Ed- 

 munds of Vermont proceeded to explain the 

 bill from the Committee on the Judiciary to 

 regulate the counting of the votes for President 

 and Vice-President. The bill was read as fol- 

 lows: 



A bill to amend sundry provisions of chapter 1. title 3, of the 

 Revised Statutes of the United States, relating to presi- 

 dential elections, and to provide for and regulate the 

 counting of the votes for President and Vice-President 

 and the decision of questions arising thereon. 



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Represent- 

 atives of th". United States of America in, Congress 

 assembled, That the electors of President and Vice- 

 President shall be appointed in each State on the first 

 Tuesday in October in every fourth year succeeding 

 the election of a President and Vice-President, and on 

 the same day in October whenever there shall he a 

 vacancy in !>>;M the offices of President and Vice- 

 President declared and certified as hereinafter pro- 

 vided ; but no Senator or Representative or person 

 holding an office of trust or profit under the United 

 States shall be appointed an elector. 



SECTION 2. Whenever there shall be a vacancy in 

 both the offices of President and Vice-President occur- 

 ring more than two months next preceding the first 

 i.v in any month of October other than that next 

 preceding the expiration of the term of office for which 

 the President and Vice-President last in office were 

 elected, the Secretary of State shall forthwith cau>e a 

 notification thereof to be made to the executive of 

 every State, and shall also cause the same to 1x3 pub- 

 lished in at least one of the newspapers printed in each 

 State. The notification shall specify that electors of 

 President and Vice-President of the United States 

 shall be appointed in the several States on the first 

 Tuesday in October then next ensuing. 



SEC. 3. The electors of each State shall meet and 

 L'ive their votes on the second Monday in January 

 next following their appointment, at such place ih 

 each State as the Legislature of such State shall direct. 



SEC. 4. Each State may provide, by law enacted 

 prior to the day in this act named for the appointment 

 of the electors, for the trial and determination of any 

 controversy concerning the appointment of electors, 



before tho time fixed for the meeting of the electors, 

 in any manner it shall deem expedient. Kvery such 

 determination made pursuant to such law HO enacted 

 bct'on; mi'xl day, and mode prior to the said time of 

 meeting of the electors, shall be conclusive evidence 

 of the lawful title of the electors who shall have been 

 so determined to have been appointed, and shall gov- 

 ern in the wanting of the electoral votes, as provided 

 in the Constitution and as hereinafter regulated. 



SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of the executive of each 

 State to cause three lists of the names of the electors 

 of such State, dulv ascertained to have been chosen, to 

 be made and certified and to be delivered to the elec- 

 tors on or before the day on which they are required 

 by this act to meet. 



SEC. 6. Congress shall be in session on the second 

 Monday in February succeeding every meeting of the 

 electors. The Senate and House of Representatives 

 shall meet in the Hall of the House of Representatives 

 at the hour of one o'clock in the afternoon on that 

 day | and the President of the Senate shall be their 

 presiding officer. Two tellers shall be previously ap- 

 pointed on the part of tho Senate, and two on the part 

 of the House of Representatives, to whom shall be 

 handed, as they are opened by the President of the 

 SenatCj all the certificates, ana papers purporting to 

 be certificates, of the electoral votes, which certificates 

 and papers shall be opened, presented, and acted upon 

 in the alphabetical order of the States, beginning with 

 the letter A ; and said tellers, having then read the 

 same in the presence and hearing of the two Houses, 

 shall make a list of the votes as they shall appear from 

 the said certificates ; and the votes "having been ascer- 

 tained and counted as in this act provided, the result 

 of the same shall be delivered to the President of the 

 Senate, who shall thereupon announce tho state of the 

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

 which announcement shall be deemed a sufficient dec- 

 laration of the persons elected President and Vice- 

 President of the United States, and, together with a 

 list of the votes, be entered on the Journals of the two 

 Houses. Upon such reading of any such certificate or 

 paper the President of the Senate shall call for objec- 

 tions, if any. Every objection shall be made in writ- 

 ing, and shall state clearly and concisely, and without 

 argument, the ground thereof, and shall be signed by 

 at least one Senator and one member of the House of 

 Representatives before the same sliall be received. 

 When all objections so made to any vote or paper 

 from a State shall have been received and read tho 

 Senate shall thereupon withdraw, and such objections 

 shall be submitted to the Senate 1'or its decision ; and 

 the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall in 

 like manner submit such objections to tho House of 

 Representatives for its decision ; and no electoral vote 

 or votes from any State from which but one return has 

 been received shall be rejected except by the affirma- 

 tive votes of both Houses. If more than one return 

 or paper purporting to be a return from a State shall 

 have been received by the President of the Senate, 

 those votes, and those only, shall be counted which 

 shall have been regularly given by the electors who 

 are shown by the evidence mentioned in section 4 of 

 this aet to have been appointed; but in case there 

 shall arise the question wUeb of two or more of such 

 State tribunals, determining what electors have been 

 appointed, as mentioned in section 4 of this act, i> the 

 lawful tribunal of such State, the votes regularly given 

 of those electors, and those only, from such State shall 

 be counted whoso title as electors the two Houses, act- 

 ing separately, shall concurrently decide is supported 

 by the decision of the tribunal of such State so pro- 

 vided for by its Legislature. And in such case of 

 more than one return, or paper purporting to be a re- 

 turn, from a State, if there shall have been no such 

 determination of the question in the State as aforesaid, 

 then those votes and those only shall be counted which 

 the two Houses, acting separately, shall concurrently 

 decide to be the lawful votes of the legally appointed 

 electors of such State. When the two Houses have 

 voted they shall immediately again meet, and the pro- 



