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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



siding officer shall then announce the decision of the 

 questions submitted. No votes or papers from any 

 other State shall be acted upon until the objections 

 previously made to the votes or papers from any State 

 shall have been finally disposed of. 



SEC. 7. That while the two Houses shall be in meet- 

 ing, as provided in this act, no debate shall be allowed, 

 and no question shall be put by the presiding officer 

 except to either House on a motion to withdraw ; and 

 he shall have power to preserve order. 



SEC. 8. That when the two Houses separate to de- 

 cide upon an objection that may have been made to 

 the counting of any electoral vote or votes from any 

 State, or other question arising in the matter, each 

 Senator and Representative may speak to such objec- 

 tion or question five minutes, and not oftener than 

 once ; but after such debate shall have lasted two 

 hours it shall be the duty of the presiding officer of 

 each House to put the main question without further 

 debate. 



SEC. 9. That at such joint meeting of the two Houses 

 seats shall be provided as follows : For the President 

 of the Senate, the Speaker's chair ; for the Speaker, 

 immediately upon his left ; the Senators, in the body 

 of the Hall upon the right of the presiding officer ; for 

 the Representatives, in the body of the Hall not pro- 

 vided for the Senators : for the tellers, Secretary ot the 

 Senate, and Clerk of the House of Representatives, at 

 the Clerk's desk ; for the other officers of the two 

 Houses, in front of the Clerk's desk and upon each 

 side of the Speaker's platform. Such joint meeting 

 shall not be dissolved until the count of electoral votes 

 shall be completed and the result declared; and no 

 recess shall be taken unless a question shall have 

 arisen in regard to counting any such votes, or other- 

 wise under this act, in which case it shall be compe- 

 tent for either House, acting separately in the manner 

 hereinbefore provided, to direct a recess of such House 

 not bevond the next day, Sunday excepted, at the 

 hour or* ten o'clock in the forenoon. But if the count- 

 ing of the electoral votes and the declaration of the 

 result shall not have been completed before the filth 

 calendar day next after such first meeting of the two 

 Houses, no further or other recess shall be taken by 

 either House. 



SEC. 10. That section 140 of the Revised Statutes of 

 the United States be, and the same is hereby, so 

 amended that the words " first Wednesday in January- 

 then next ensuing" be stricken out and the words 

 " second Monday next after their meeting" be insert- 

 ed therein. 



SEC. 11. That section 141 of the Revised Statutes of 

 the United States be, and the same is hereby, so 

 amended that the words " first Wednesday " be strick- 

 en out and the words " on or before the day " inserted 

 therein. 



SEC. 12. That sections 131, 135, 136, 142, 147, 148, 

 and 149 be, and the same are hereby, repealed. 



Mr. Edmunds : " The first thing, Mr. Presi- 

 dent, that ought to be considered, undoubtedly, 

 is the state of the Constitution upon this sub- 

 ject, and that is to be found in only two or 

 three places, and in very few and simple words. 

 Article II., section 1, provides, first, that 



" The executive power shall be vested in a President 

 of the United States of America. He shall hold his 

 office during the term of four years, and, together with 

 the Vice -President, chosen for the same term, be elect- 

 ed as follows : 



" Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the 

 Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, 

 equal to the whole number of Senators and Repre- 

 sentatives to which the State may be entitled in the 

 Congress : but no Senator or Representative, or per- 

 son holding an office of trust or profit under the United 

 States, shall be appointed an elector. 



" The electors shall meet in their respective States, 

 etc. 



" That is in section 1 of Article II. ; but the 

 existing provision of the Constitution as to the 

 mode of election is in the twelfth amendment, 

 which I will read in lieu of that : 



" The electors shall meet in their respective States, 

 and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, 

 one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of 

 the same State with themselves ; they shall name in 

 their ballots the person voted for as President, and in 

 distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, 

 and they sliall make distinct lists of all persons voted 

 for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice- 

 President, and of the number of votes for each, which 

 lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed 

 to the seat of the Government of the United States, 

 directed to the President of the Senate ; the President 

 of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and 

 House of Representati ves, open all the certificates and 

 the votes shall then be counted ; the person having 

 the greatest number of votes for President shall be 

 the President, if such number be a majority of the 

 whole number of electors appointed ; and if no per- 

 son have such majority then from the persons having 

 the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of 

 tliose voted for as President, the House of Represent- 

 atives shall choose immediately : by ballot, the Presi- 

 dent. But in choosing the President, the votes shall 

 be taken by States, the representation from each State 

 having one vote. 



" It is unnecessary to read the rest of that 

 provision, as this bill does not bear upon it. 

 Article I., section 8, of the Constitution, clause 

 18, provides this in defining and declaring the 

 powers of Congress : 



" To make all laws which shall be necessary and 

 proper for carrying into execution the foregoing pow- 

 ers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution 

 in the Government of the United States, or in any de- 

 partment or officer thereof. 



" These provisions of the Constitution I be- 

 lieve are all that bear directly upon the ques- 

 tion we now have under consideration, the 

 first being in the natural and logical order of 

 the consideration of this question the one that 

 I first read, the first section of the second arti- 

 cle to which I now invite the careful scrutiny 

 and consideration of the honorable members 

 of the Senate who do me the honor to listen to 

 me. The very first statement is after the dec- 

 laration that the executive power shall be vest- 

 ed in the President, ' that each State shall ap- 

 point ' its electors. This, then, it will be seen, 

 is a duty that is imposed upon the State in lan- 

 guage that it appears to me does not admit of 

 doubt or misconstruction. It is the duty of 

 the State in its political and coequal character, 

 with every one of its sisters, to appoint the 

 number of electors to which it is entitled un- 

 der the Constitution. It is the act of the State, 

 and as Mr. Madison, one of the fathers and 

 constructors of the Constitution, stated in the 

 ' Federalist,' in the time of it and before the 

 Constitution was adopted and as an exposition 

 of the true character of the Constitution in re- 

 spect of the election of the President, 'it is the 

 political act of each one of the States in its 

 definite and independent character,' which it 

 was to exercise freely for itself in selecting the 

 persons who were to express its voice in the 

 election of President. The particular declara- 



