CONGRESS. (COUNTING THE ELECTORAL VOTE.) 



229 



Representatives the certificate received by mes- 

 senger. The certificate will be read." 



After the announcement of the electoral 

 votes of the several States, Mr. Edmunds called 

 upon the tellers to report the state of the vote 

 and give the result of their computations. 

 Whereupon Mr. Hoar presented the following 

 statement : 



List of Votes for President and Vice-President of 

 the United States, for the constitutional term to 

 commence on the 4th day of March, 1885. 



GBORGB F. HOAB, /Tellers on the part of the 



GEORGE H. PENDLKTON, J Senate. 

 J. WARREN KEIFER, J Tellers on the part of the 

 J. F. CLAY, ) House of Representatives. 



Mr. Edmunds, the President of the Senate 

 and of the joint convention, then said : " Sena- 

 tors and members of the House of Representa- 

 tives, the tellers have Reported to the presiding 

 officer the state of the vote which you have 

 heard, from which it appears that Grover 

 Cleveland, of the State of New York, has re- 

 ceived 219 votes for the office of President of 

 the United States, and that James G. Blaine, 

 of the State of Maine, has received 182 votes 

 for the same office ; that Thomas A. Hendricks, 

 of the State of Indiana, has received 219 votes 

 for the office of Vice-President of the United 

 States, and that John A. Logan, of the State 



of Illinois, has received 182 votes for the same 

 office. 



" Wherefore, I do declare that Grover Cleve- 

 land, of the State of New York, has received 

 a majority of the votes of the whole number 

 of electors appointed, as they appear in the 

 certificates read by the tellers, and so appears 

 to have been elected President of the United 

 States for four years, commencing on the 4th 

 day of March, 1885 ; and that Thomas A. Hen- 

 dricks, of the State of Indiana, has received a 

 majority of the votes of the whole number of 

 electors appointed, as they appear in the cer- 

 tificates read by the tellers, and so appears to 

 have been elected Vice-President of the United 

 States for four years, commencing on the 4th 

 day of March, 1885. And the President of the 

 Senate makes this declaration only as a public 

 statement, in the presence of the two houses 

 of Congress, of the contents of the papers 

 opened and read on this occasion, and not as 

 possessing any authority in law to declare any 

 legal conclusion whatever." 



After the return of the Senate to its own 

 Chamber, and the reading of the report of the 

 tellers on the proceedings of the joint conven- 

 tion assembled to count the electoral votes, 

 Mr. Conger, of Michigan, said by way of pro- 

 test against the closing declaration of the Presi- 

 dent pro tempore of the Senate in announcing 

 to the joint convention the result of the vote: 

 " Mr. President, the proper mode of presenting 

 my view upon that question I do not know 

 that I understand ; but I desire here as one of 

 the Senators of this body to say that I entirely 

 dissent from the declaration that the President 

 of the Senate has no other power in announc- 

 ing the electoral vote than to merely announce 

 the facts. I do not know by what authority 

 a question so long in dispute, and perhaps with 

 the views of the Senate and of the people ot 

 the United States almost equally divided, 

 should bo attempted to be settled by making a 

 statement of one view of it a part of the dec- 

 laration. I merely speak of it, however, to 

 express my dissent from that declaration of 

 the presiding officer that he is only to make a 

 statement of the result, and has no other power 

 in the case." 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, and Mr. Ingalls, of 

 Kansas, concurred in this criticism, and the 

 latter offered the following resolution, which 

 was subsequently referred to the Committee on 

 Privileges and Elections : 



Resolved, That the Senate does not assent to tho 

 concluding declaration of the President of the Senate 

 in the announcement of the vote for President and 

 Vice-President of the United States made in the pres- 

 ence of the two houses of Congress this day. 



Mr. Edmunds, the President pro tempore of 

 the Senate, said in explanation : " The Chair 

 begs leave to state, with the indulgence of the 

 Senate, that the Senate, in the opinion of the 

 Chair, is in no way responsible for the decla- 

 ration that the President of the Senate made 

 on the occasion referred to. Neither the Sen- 



