140 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



of far greater importance than the particular advan- 

 tage that any man or party may in the course of 

 events possibly obtain. But we have still endeav- 

 ored to provide such lawful agencies of decision in 

 the present case as shall be the most fair and im- 

 partial possible under the circumstances. Each of 

 the branches of the Legislature and the judiciary is 

 represented in the tribunal in equal proportions. 

 The composition of the judicial part of the commis- 

 sion looks to a selection from different parts of the 

 republic, while it is thought to be free from any 

 preponderance of supposable bias ; and the addition 

 of the necessary constituent part of the whole com- 

 mission, in order to obtain an uneven number, is 

 left to an agency the farthest removed from preju- 

 dice of any existing attainable one. It would be 

 'difficult, if not impossible, we think, to establish a 

 tribunal that could be less the subject of party criti- 

 cism than such a one. The principle of its consti- 

 tution is so absolutely fair that we are unable to per- 

 ceive how the most extreme partisan can assail it, 

 unless he prefers to embark his wishes upon the 

 stormy sea of unregulated procedure, hot disputes, 

 and dangerous results, that can neither be measured 

 nor defined, rather than upon the fixed and regular 

 CDurse of law, that insures peace and the order of 

 society, whatever party may be disappointed in its 

 hopes. 



The unfortunate circumstance that no provision 

 had been made on the subject before the election 

 has greatly added to the difficulties of the commit- 

 tses in dealing with it, inasmuch as many of the peo- 

 ple of the country, members of the respective politi- 

 cal parties, will perhaps look with jealousy upon any 

 measure that seems to involve even the possibility 

 of the defeat of their wishes ; but it has also led the 

 committees to feel that their members are bound by 

 tha highest duty, in such a case, to let no bias of 

 party feeling stand in the way of a just, equal, and 

 peaceful measure for extricating the question from 

 the embarrassments that at present surround it. 



In conclusion, we respectfully beg leave to im- 

 press upon Congress the necessity of a speedy de- 

 termination upon this subject. It is impossible to 

 estimate the material loss that the country daily sus- 

 tains from the existing state of uncertainty. It di- 

 rectly and powerfully tends to unsettle and para- 

 lyza "business, to weaken public and private credit, 

 and to create apprehensions in the minds of the peo- 

 ple that disturb the peaceful tenor of their ways and 

 mar their happiness. It does far more : it tends to 

 bring republican institutions into discredit, and to 

 create doubts of the success of our form of govern- 

 ment, and of the perpetuity of the republic. All 

 considerations of interest, of patriotism, and of jus- 

 tice, unite in demanding of the law-making power a 

 measure that will bring peace and prosperity to the 

 country, and show that our republican institutions 

 are equal to any emergency. And in this connec- 

 tion we cannot refrain from the expression of our 

 satisfaction that your committees, composed of 

 equal numbers of opposing parties, have fortunately 

 been able to do what has been attempted in vain 

 heretofore, almost unanimously agree upon a plnn 

 considered by them all to be just, wise, and efficient. 

 We accordingly recommend the proposed act to the 

 patriotic and just judgment of Congress. 

 GEO. F. EDMUNDS, 

 FRED'K T. FRELINGHUYSEN, | 



EOSCOE CONKLING, 

 A. G. THURMAN, 

 T. F. BAYARD. 

 M. W. RANSOM, 

 H. B. PAYNE, 

 EPEAHUNTON, 

 ABRAM S. HEWITT, 

 WILLIAM M. SPRINGER, 

 GEO. W. McCRARY, 

 GEO. F. HOAR, 

 GEORGE WILLARD, 



Senate 

 Committee. 



House 

 Committee. 



Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont, said : " Mr. Pres- 

 ident, as a fitting commencement of the con- 

 sideration of this bill, I ask the Secretary to 

 read the twelfth article of the amendments to 

 the Constitution of the United States, which 

 the bill proposes to execute." 



The Secretary read as follows : 



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-Pres- 

 ident, and they shall make distinct lists of all per- 

 sons 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 government ot 

 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 Representatives, 

 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 elec- 

 tors appointed ; and if no person have such major- 

 ity, then from the persons having the highest num- 

 bers not exceeding three on the list of those voted 

 for as President, the House of Representatives shall 

 choose immediatelyj by ballot, the President. But 

 in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by 

 States, the representation from each State having one 

 vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a 

 member or members from two-thirds of the States, 

 and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to 

 a choice. And if the House of Eepresentatives shall 

 nat choose a President whenever the right of choice 

 shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of 

 March, next following, then the Vice-President shall 

 act as President, as in the case of the death or other 

 constitutional disability of the President. The per- 

 son having the greatest number of vo_tes as Vice- 

 President shall be the Vice-President, if such num- 

 ber be a majority of the whole number of electors 

 appointed ; and if no person have a majority, then 

 from the two highest numbers on the list the Senate 

 shall choose the Vice-President ; a quorum for the 

 purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole 

 number of Senators, and a majority of the whole num- 

 ber shall be necessary to a choice. But no person 

 constitutionally ineligible to the office of President 

 shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the 

 United States. 



Mr. Edmunds : * ; Under this article of the 

 Constitution, Mr. President, some eight or ten 

 millions of the citizens of the United States, 

 authorized by the laws to select a Chief Magis- 

 trate in the way prescribed in this article, have 

 endeavored to execute that duty ; and by a 

 very evenly-balanced number of voices, when 

 you take them as a whole, they are understood 

 to have expressed their preference for two 

 different persons, representing opposing poli 

 cies of legislation and of government, greater 

 or less in principle, and greater or less in de- 

 gree, that it is not necessary for me to refer 

 to. And the contest has been so close, when 

 measured by the constitutional standard of 

 voting by States for electors, that it becomes a 

 matter of serious dispute, either rightly or 

 wrongly, between these five millions of voting 

 citizens upon one side and five millions upon 

 another I express it merely in round numbers 



