CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



159 



passage of the bill, and, being taken, resulted 

 as follows : 



YEAS Messrs. Alcorn, Allison, Barnum, Bayard, 

 Bogy, Booth, Boutwell t Burnside, Chaffee, Chris- 

 tiancy, Cockrell, Conkhng, Cooper, Cragin, Davis, 

 Dawes, Dennis, Edmunds, Frelinghuysen, Gold- 

 Ihwaite, Gordon, Howe, Johnston, Jones of Florida, 

 Jones of Nevada, Kelly, Kernan, McCreery. Mc- 

 Donald, McMillan, Maxey, Merrimon, Morrill, Price, 

 Randolph, Ransom, Robertson, Saulsbury, Sharon, 

 Stevenson, Teller, Thurman, Wallace, Wliyte, Win- 

 doin, Withers, and Wright -47. 



NATS Messrs. Blainej Bruce, Cameron of Penn- 

 sylvania, Cameron of Wisconsin, Clayton, Conover, 

 Dorsey, Eaton, Hamilton, Hamlin, Ingalls, Mitchell, 

 Morton, Patterson, Sargent, Sherman, and West 17. 



ABSENT 'Messrs. Anthony, Ferry, Harvey, Hitch- 

 cock, Logan, Norwood, Oglesby, Paddock, Spencer, 

 and Wadleigh 10. 



So the bill was passed. 



In the House, on January 25th, the bill from 

 the Senate was taken up and read twice, and 

 referred to the Select Committee on counting 

 the electoral vote. The committee immedi- 

 ately reported the same back, and recommended 

 its passage. 



Mr. Hewitt, of New York, said : " Mr. Speak- 

 er, although I think that this bill transcends 

 in importance any measure which is likely to 

 come before Congress during the present gen- 

 eration of men, if I were to consult my own in- 

 clinations I would be quite content to refrain 

 from taking any part in the debate, and to 

 let the question be decided upon its intrinsic 

 merits, with the clear light which has been 

 shed upon it by the conclusive arguments of 

 the members of the committee who have pre- 

 ceded me. But, unhappily, circumstances which 

 I never could have anticipated have placed me 

 in such a position, with reference to one of the 

 great parties of the country, as to give to four 

 or five millions of voters the right to ask me 

 a question which I am bound to answer ; and I 

 may as well admit that they are exercising this 

 right with unbounded liberality, by post and by 

 telegraph. They have acquired this right be- 

 cause I have assured them of my belief that the 

 election in November last resulted in the choice 

 of the Democratic candidates for President and 

 Vice-President. As nothing has occurred since, 

 which could otherwise than strengthen this 

 conviction, as well in their minds as in my own, 

 they are naturally led to ask me why, as a mem- 

 ber of the joint committee which has reported 

 this bill, I have given my assent to a measure 

 which departs from the 'ancient ways' by 

 which the result of twenty-two presidential 

 elections have been determined, and which, if 

 adhered to, would surely result in the formal 

 declaration of the election of our candidates. 

 This question I propose to answer fully, freely, 

 and without any reserve whatever. 



" The main opposition which we had to meet 

 in the late election was the influence of the Ad- 

 ministration, exerted in the organization of its 

 partisans, in the use of patronage, in the con- 

 trol of the personal services of the office-hold- 

 ers, in the levying of assessments, in the direc- 



tion of the press, and in countless other chan- 

 nels, which a party long in power knows well 

 how to use. After their defeat in November 

 there still remained intact the organization, 

 and the powerful will to direct it to its own 

 preservation and perpetuation. The electoral 

 votes necessary to insure the success of its can- 

 didates were claimed without delay, and the 

 means taken to have them counted, through the 

 agency of State administrations and returning 

 boards under the control of the Republican lead- 

 ers in Florida and Louisiana. With the dis- 

 puted votes in Oregon, 185 votes were thus 

 nominally secured for Hayes and Wheeler, with 

 prima facie certificates more or less regular to 

 sustain the claim. 



" It only remained to find some means by 

 which these votes could be counted and de- 

 clared under the existing statute regulating the 

 time and manner of opening the certificates 

 and declaring the result. The plan for effect- 

 ing this object was speedily agreed upon. The 

 twenty -second joint rule, under which the re- 

 sults of the three last presidential elections had 

 been ascertained and declared, was repealed by 

 the Senate. This deprived the House of the 

 right, previously existing, to throw out the vote 

 of a State by an objection to its validity. Thus 

 the votes of Florida and Louisiana, no matter 

 how fraudulent might be the returns and worth- 

 less the certificates based thereon, were made 

 secure to the Republican candidate. But, in or- 

 der that they might be counted at all, it became 

 indispensable to assert the claim of the Vice- 

 President not merely to open, but to count the 

 votes, first deciding upon their validity in all 

 cases where there were duplicate certificates or 

 disputed elections. This claim was therefore 

 promptly set up, and during this week has been 

 boldly maintained in the Senate Chamber by 

 the men who have been most conspicuous in the 

 management of the late election. 



" The scheme was thus complete for counting 

 Tilden out, and counting Hayes in. I became 

 satisfied that, unless this scheme should meet 

 with opposition from the more conservative 

 members of the Republican party, it would be 

 executed ; that the President of the Senate would 

 count the votes and declare the result ; and that 

 the President of the United States would de- 

 liver up his high office to the successor so de- 

 clared, and, by the use of the troops already con- 

 centrated in Washington, see that he was duly 

 inaugurated. 



" Of course, the House of Representatives 

 would notbe silent and passive spectators of this 

 programme. They would insist upon their con- 

 stitutional right to participate in the counting of 

 the vote, and the ascertainment and declaration 

 of the result. They would count the votes of 

 Florida and Louisiana for Tilden and Hen- 

 dricks, and would record the result on the 

 Journal, and make the formal declaration of 

 their election to the offices of President and 

 Vice-President. This duty, made incumbent 

 upon them by the Constitution and their oaths 



