CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



217 



one of whom at least shall not bo nn inhabitant of the 

 -tun- with tht'tnsrlvcs ; they shall name in their 

 luil l.>ts the person voted for as President, and in dis- 

 tinct luillote the persons voted for as Vico-Presidcnt. 

 uiul thi-y shall make distinct lists of all persons voted 

 fr IIK President and of all persons voted for as Vicc- 

 1 'roii lent, and of the number of votes for each, which 

 lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed 

 to the seat of Government of the United States, di- 

 rected to the President of the Senate. 



"That is plain, clear. The right of the 

 Statos is well defined. It is absolute. It can 

 not be changed, tinkered with in any way, 

 without destroying the virtue and vitality of 

 the instrument. 



" The President of the Senate shall, in the presence 

 of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all 

 the certificates and the votes shall then be counted. 



" The Senator from Delaware [Mr. Bayard] 

 urges as one reason why this bill should pass 

 that it admits a great principle for which he 

 has long contended ; that is, that the President 

 of the Senate has no right to count the votes, 

 but that that power rests in the two Houses of 

 Congress. Well, sir, a declaration of that sort 

 incorporated in a bill of this character may be 

 true, and yet it furnishes no reason why legis- 

 lation should be adopted in this case. Fur- 

 ther: 



" 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 ap- 

 pointed ; ana if no person have such majority, then 

 from the persons having the highest number, not ex- 

 ceeding three, on the list of those voted for as Presi- 

 dent, the House of Representatives shall choose im- 

 mediately, by ballot, the President. 



" It strikes me that this is perfect. It does 

 not require this bill at all in any way or man- 

 ner. 



"Again, the Constitution confers upon a 

 Congress the right to count the electoral votes 

 cast by the several States for President and 

 Vice-President. Is there any doubt about it ? 

 'The President of the Senate shall, in the 

 presence of the Senate and House of Represent- 

 atives, open all the certificates, and the votes 

 shall then be counted.' Here, I beg to say, is 

 a delegated power to some body. To whom? 

 To what body is this power delegated ? There 

 can be no question about it whatever that here 

 is a delegated power by the organic law of the 

 land to Congress. What Congress ? Not the 

 Congress of 1800, or 1804, or 1824, or 1878; 

 and we have no control over this delegated 

 power. It is a power delegated to that Con- 

 gress which has the right under the Constitu- 

 tion to count the votes ; and I undertake to say 

 that this Congress can make no law with regard 

 to the counting of the votes that will bind that 

 Congress upon whom that duty devolves. The 

 duty of counting the electoral votes of the 

 States for the next President and Vice-Presi- 

 dent of the United States will devolve upon 

 the Congress that meets in this building in 

 1880 not this, but the next; and here we 

 undertake to determine a rule of action for a 

 Congress hereafter in part to be elected, and 



upon whom will devolve that duty. The idea, 

 to my mind, is monstrous that a President of 

 the United States has the power in hi- hands, 

 unless there is a two-thirds vote in each branch 

 of the Federal Assembly to override him, to 

 defeat a bill with regard to the important mat- 

 ter of counting the votes for the next Presi- 

 dent of the United States! The very state- 

 ment of it in itself is enough to determine the 

 whole question. 



" Now, what is necessary ? Is any change 

 in the organic law necessary ? If so, are we 

 not competent to advise our fellow country- 

 men, to advise the different States of the 

 Union, that such an amendment to the organic 

 law would be wise, and prudent, and is neces- 

 sary? This whole subject with the next Con- 

 gress will be the simple passage, if anything is 

 necessary, of a joint rule in regard to who 

 shall preside, on which side of the Chamber the 

 Senate shall sit, on which side of the Chamber 

 the House of Representatives shall sit, where 

 the Speaker's chair shall be, and who shall 

 write down the figures. All that is mere mat- 

 ter of a rule to be made by the two Houses 

 and acted upon whenever the count is had. 



" Gentlemen speak as though there was great 

 danger. Sir, I am not an alarmist. I do not 

 believe there is any danger in standing by the 

 Constitution of the United States. I did not 

 believe there was any danger two years ago 

 when a bill was passed under which the choice 

 of the people of the United States was de- 

 frauded out of an office by the illegal act of 

 an unconstitutional machine. The Constitu- 

 tion is the great charter of the rights of the 

 States and the liberties of the people. I do 

 not propose myself to vote for any law, to be 

 a party to any legislation that interferes in the 

 slightest degree with the rights of each of the 

 sovereign States I know that term is not liked 

 about these days, but yet I use it of each of 

 the sovereign States of this confederacy of 

 sovereignties. I have no idea, Mr. President, 

 that this bill is introduced or advocated as a 

 condonation of anything in the past. If I did 

 believe that, I should characterize it with dif- 

 ferent language than what I now do." 



Mr. Hoar of Massachusetts : tl Mr. President, 

 I do not propose at this late hour of the after- 

 noon to discuss the pending measure. I pro- 

 pose to vote for it because, after several years' 

 attempt to reconcile conflicting theories, the 

 best minds which the Senate has been able to 

 charge with the duty have reported that this 

 is the best measure which they can devise to 

 remove the present evil. The evil, however, 

 is essential and inevitable after any legislation 

 may have been adopted, which arises from the 

 construction of the Constitution, which I think 

 the correct construction of the Constitution, 

 which was put upon it by the consent of a 

 large majority of both parties at the time of 

 the last presidential election. I could not be- 

 lieve that the framers of our Constitution, jeal- 

 ous as they were of power, jealous as they were 



