CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



141 



for convenience which of their respective 

 candidates has been constitutionally elected. 

 A.nd without any provision of law for the exe- 

 cution of what remains to be done under the 

 Constitution in ascertaining what person has 

 received the highest number of electoral votes 

 being a majority of the whole, we are brought 

 face to face with the question of what means 

 are left for deciding the dispute. Undoubtedly 

 a large proportion of the people of the United 

 States on either side of the question sincerely 

 believe that their candidate has been elected, 

 and sincerely believe that if it be not so finally 

 ascertained a great wrong will have been done, 

 not only to their personal rights and wishes, 

 but to the cause of constitutional government. 



"So, then, Mr. President, it has appeared 

 to us who have been charged with this most 

 onerous and responsible and unpleasant duty 

 that if the Constitution authorized us to lay 

 down a line of procedure that should be clear 

 and definite in itself, and should lead to any 

 result and I use the words with deliberation 

 that should lead to any result, no matter 

 which one, through the calm and orderly prog- 

 ress of the administration of law and through 

 the calm and orderly judgment of a tribunal 

 bound by the most solemn obligations to decide 

 according to the Constitution and the law, it 

 would be a beneficent act for the republic ; 

 and, if on the other hand we should fail to do 

 this, our posterity under this form or some 

 other form of government (no man can tell 

 which) would feel that we had failed in the 

 hour of great need in performing a plain duty. 



"This, then, Mr. President, is the situation; 

 and under this state of things the committee, 

 with almost absolute unanimity, have reported 

 this bill. Opposing political opinions, oppos- 

 ing political educations, warm wishes, partisan 

 feelings, have subsided on both sides, and what 

 all of us, of all opinions, educations, wishes, 

 and feelings, solemnly unite in reporting to 

 you as a just and upright and lawful way, we 

 recommend to your consideration. What is it 

 that \ve recommend ? I will state : 



"The first section of this bill provides in 

 the first part of it for the simple ceremony of 

 the necessary union of the two Houses, or 

 meeting, to state it more exactly, on the occa- 

 sion of determining who has the highest num- 

 ber of votes of the electors for President and 

 Vice-President of the United States. It then 

 proceeds to provide for the cases in which only 

 one set of papers or returns, as they are called, 

 shall have appeared ; and in respect of those 

 cases it provides, substantially, and I do not 

 know but literally, what the bill introduced 

 by my honorable friend from Indiana (Mr. 

 Morton) a year ago, and which passed the Sen- 

 ate, although it was brought back on a motion 

 to reconsider, provided, that no return from 

 a State about which a question should arise, 

 there being only one return, should be left out 

 of the count unless the two Houses should sep- 

 arately agree that it ought to be left out. 



"Then we come to the second section, which 

 covers the difficulties that we have to encounter 

 in the present condition of affairs. The second 

 section provides that, if more than one return 

 or paper purporting to be a return from a State 

 shall have been received by the President of 

 the Senate, purporting to be the certificate of 

 the electoral votes given at the last election, 

 all those returns shall be opened by the Presi- 

 dent of the Senate, just as the Constitution 

 says in terms that all the certificates shall be 

 opened by him in the presence of the two 

 Houses. They shall be read by the tellers, 

 which the bill provides for the appointment 

 of, according to the universal practice from the 

 foundation of the Government, only, I believe 

 almost always hitherto one teller has been ap- 

 pointed on the part of the Senate and two on 

 the part of the House of Representatives, and 

 this bill provides that there shall be two tellers, 

 an equal number, appointed by each House. 

 Having been read by the tellers, the bill then 

 proceeds to declare that all these double, dis- 

 puted papers ' shall thereupon be submitted 

 to the judgment and decision, as to which is 

 the true and lawful electoral vote of such State, 

 of a commission.' You will observe, Mr. Presi- 

 dent, precisely the question that is to be sent 

 to this tribunal for its consideration. It is to 

 inquire which of the papers of the conflicting 

 ones is the paper that the Constitution calls 

 for ; that is, the electoral vote of a State in the 

 Union, as the Constitution says, as it need 

 scarcely have said, but some language must 

 have been employed. It is the constitutional 

 vote of the State, the voice of the State in the 

 manner prescribed by its Legislature in the 

 selection of electors who have voted for Presi- 

 dent, that is to be sought for ; and it is the per- 

 son who has the highest number of those votes 

 I am not now quoting the language of the 

 Constitution, but what everybody understands 

 it to mean who is to be the President. There- 

 fore this tribunal, or commission, as it is styled 

 in the bill more accurately, is called upon to 

 determine one single question between two 

 conflicting papers purporting to be the consti- 

 tutional certificates, and that is, they are to 

 determine which of them is in conformity with 

 the Constitution and which of them is not. It 

 then provides for the appointment of the com- 

 mission, its method of selection ; and I shall 

 have something more to say upon the subject 

 of what they are to decide when I come to a 

 later part of the bill which again refers to what 

 they are to do. 



"The bill then comes to the selection of the 

 commission. It provides that each House on 

 the Tuesday preceding the first Thursday in 

 February which changes the day for this oc- 

 casion to an earlier period than that fixed by 

 the general law, which is the second Wednes- 

 day in February on the Tuesday preceding 

 that day, which I believe in this case is the 

 80th of January, each House shall by a viva 

 vocf vote select five members to compose a part 



