178 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



ception that the name of a State is not included 

 in tin- resolution; but the fart that some State 

 may have voted, or perhaps has voted, on a day 

 not that fixed by laws of Congress and the 

 Constitution of the United States, is stated in 

 the resolution, and the resolution is predicated 

 upon the assumption that such a fuct exists, 

 and, it it is found to exist, an order is arranged 

 to be taken in tliat event by which that vote 

 can be dUpo-rd ot' without producing any fric- 

 tion in tiie t\\o Houses when they are assem- 

 bled. I leu r leave to sny that in the case of 

 the vote of Wisconsin, in 1867, when such 

 preparation was not made, though the fact was 

 Known and should have been anticipated, the 

 omission of this preparation to make provision 

 for the event lea to such things in the joint 

 meeting of the two Houses, and afterward in 

 each House, and to such disputation and such 

 discontent on the part of members of the House 

 of Representatives and the Senate as to the 

 settlement of that question, and as to whether 

 it was settled or not settled, as it would be de- 

 sirable to avoid. In view of what then oc- 

 eurred, it seems to me it is the part of patriot- 

 ism and prudence that we shall now take some 

 steps for the purpose of anticipating and avoid- 

 ing that danger." 



Mr. Edmunds: "Mr. President, I have lis- 

 tened with great pleasure to the observa- 

 tions of the Senator from Alabama, who has 

 stated that a constitutional election, as we 

 understand it, of a President and Vice-Presi- 

 dent of the United States has been achieved, 

 and that the persons elected are the persons 

 whom he has named, so that all that is left is 

 really a ceremonial, because the Constitution 

 says that the votes, being opened, shall be 

 counted, and that the person who has the ma- 

 jority, being a majority of all the electors ap- 

 Eointed, shall be the President of the United 

 tates. That makes the Constitution the same 

 as if it had said, shall be the President of the 

 United States, whatever anybody may say to 

 the contrary, be that body the President of the 

 Senate, the Senate, the House of Representa- 

 tives, or any two or all three of those bodies to- 

 gether. I think, myself, that is the Constitu- 

 tion, and that the Constitution never intended 

 to leave it, and never has left it, by force of 

 the Constitution alone, to any one or all of 

 these three authorities to determine who has 

 been elected by the States and I emphasize 

 that A-ord as a State-rights man to be the 

 Chief Executive of the nation for the period 

 mentioned in the Constitution. 



" I have no disposition to discuss or criticise 

 the second part of the amendment recom- 

 mended by the committee, in respect of, as it 

 is understood, the State of Georgia, rejecting, 

 as I do, and denouncing not in the sense of 

 personal hostility, but in its broader sense 

 all implications that any amount of casuistry 

 might draw out of the way in which this 

 amendment is stated, either in its first or in its 

 second part, as to an assumption of power on 



the part of anybody under the existing state 

 of the law to decide in the sense of a finality, 

 or in the sense of any legal effect, whether the 

 vote of the State of Georgia ought to be 

 counted or not. 



" So saying and saying this, I think, for all 

 Senators who agree with me in these general 

 principles, and I believe everybody does I am 

 willing for one to acquiesce in this method of 

 not disposing of or deciding upon the question, 

 or rather in this method of not disposing or 

 deciding upon any question whatever. In this 

 state of certainty, as we suppose, it is not neces- 

 sary that we should go into the question of 

 whether you as the President of the Senate, 

 or whether the two Houses together or sepa- 

 rately, or all three, can determine any question 

 arising out of an event like this. 



" With this disclaimer and denunciation of 

 the implications which, as I said before, casuis- 

 try might possibly raise out of the language of 

 this amendment, I am willing to have the cere- 

 mony proceed ; but I submit to the chairman 

 of the committee and to the Senate that the 

 words 4 hall of the House of Representatives ' 

 ought to be stricken out, and the words ' Sen- 

 ate-chamber ' inserted in their place, and I 

 make that motion. 



" I make it not because I suppose or suspect 

 that there is the slightest practical consequence 

 on this occasion in such a change; but prece- 

 dent does make history and does make law in 

 a certain sense, and the time may come (as it 

 has on one occasion already come) when the 

 carrying of these archives, the voice of thirty- 

 eight sovereign States, an eighth of a mile 

 through such a great crowd of people whom 

 you do not know, in a time of high excitement, 

 to the other end of this Capitol building, would 

 be a matter of danger and exposure ; and when 

 you look to the theory of the Constitution I 

 am not talking about the mere legal propriety 

 of going over to the House of Representatives ; 

 I do not for the present deny it or assert it ; 

 but I am talking about the wise thing and the 

 wise spirit of the Constitution that says these 

 votes shall be sent to the President of the Sen- 

 ate. They are sent to him as an officer. The 

 person of the President of the Senate may 

 change from day to day, as we all know, in- 

 cluding the President pro tempore who is the 

 President of the Senate for the time being. 

 They are sent, therefore, to this body, in the 

 person of its presiding officer. I do not mean 

 by that to say that the body has any control 

 over them; but I use that phrase in order to 

 show that they come to the head of this body 

 in his official character. 



"The Constitution itself says that on the 

 day appointed by law, he, having in charge the 

 sacred records, shall open them in the presence 

 of the two Houses, tbat then the votes shall be 

 counted, and so on. I submit, therefore, ear- 

 nestly to my honored friend, the chairman of 

 this committee, and to all other Senators, that 

 the true and only wise place I am not now 



