CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



161 



tag President should be accepted by all parties 

 as the lawful Executive of the General Gov- 

 ernment. For one, partisan as from my posi- 

 tion I was supposed to be, but patriotic as I 

 hope henceforth to be regarded, I deemed it 

 my plain duty to labor zealously toward the at- 

 tainment of some just and constitutional plan, 

 whereby but one President should be declared, 

 and by a title which all citizens would respect, 

 and no considerable number of voters would 

 dispute. It was essential to the formation of 

 such a plan that it should be constitutional ; 

 that it should be so absolutely fair between the 

 two political parties, that neither could possi- 

 bly claim or take any advantage by reason of its 

 provisions ; that the scales of judgment should 

 be so evenly poised that the dust in the balance 

 would incline the beam. Such a plan, in my 

 judgment, the committee were able to agree 

 upon and have presented to Congress, and this 

 plan has already received the sanction of the 

 Senate by a majority so overwhelming as to 

 indicate its triumphant passage through this 

 House. No man can predict who will become 

 President by virtue of its operation, but all men 

 can predict that it will be the man who is law- 

 fully entitled to be President. If the law 

 should violate the equity of the case, it is ground 

 for the amendment of the law, but not of re- 

 bellion against its decrees. 



" Unconstitutional ! Why, the very spirit 

 and essence, the pineal gland of the Constitu- 

 tion is in the proposed measure. The old Saxon 

 love of liberty and order is there. It contains 

 the genius of Magna Charta, the great petition 

 of right, the settlement of 1688, the Declara- 

 tion of Independence. It substitutes law and 

 order and right for strife, anarchy, and wrong. 

 It means that whoever shall hold the Executive 

 office, shall hold it by the consent and with 

 the support of all the people of this land. It 

 means that the wheels of business shall again 

 be put in motion, and the welcome hum of 

 vast industries shall again be heard ; that the 

 waiting laborer shall have work, and his wife 

 and children bread. It means the supremacy 

 of the civil to the military power, teaching the 

 needed lesson that the soldier is the servant, 

 and not the master, of the people, who pay his 

 wage the drone in the human hive, to be dis- 

 pensed with when he becomes troublesome to 

 the workers. It means the preservation of the 

 autonomy of the States, and the right of the 

 people therein to regulate and administer their 

 local affairs, without interference from any 

 quarter. Lastly, it means oblivion of all the 

 bitterness of the past, security for the present, 

 hope for the future." 



Mr. Springer, of Illinois, said : " This meas- 

 ure is not a compromise. No litigant compro- 

 mises any of his rights by submitting his case 

 to an honorable arbitration. It is a fair, a con- 

 stitutional, and a peaceful method of settling a 

 serious political complication. Let us puss it 

 unanimously. The people, without regard to 

 party, favor it. The business interests of the 

 VOL. xvii. 11 A 



country demand it. It will reassure all hearts. 

 It will firmly establish the capacity of the 

 American people for self-government. Wo 

 have already set a good example to the world 

 in the peaceful arbitration of a great interna- 

 tional dispute with Great Britain. Let us set- 

 tle our domestic differences with like honora- 

 ble and peaceful methods. 



" When this measure becomes a law, as it 

 surely will, there will be a feeling of relief all 

 over the country. A great threatening calam- 

 ity will have been averted. The revival of 

 trade and commerce will be assured; the hum 

 of industry will again be heard in the land; 

 and our posterity will realize the fact that 



' Pence liath her victories 

 No less renowned than war.' " 



Mr. Garfield, of Ohio, said: "The radical 

 and incurable defect of this bill is, that it puts 

 a vast, cumbrous machine in the place of the 

 simple, plain plan of the Constitution ; it adopts 

 a method which invites and augments the evils 

 from which we now suffer. That there are 

 difficulties in the present situation, I freely ad- 

 mit; that there may be doubt honest doubt 

 in the minds of honest men as to who is elected 

 President, I admit. But I think the bill intro- 

 duced by my colleague from Ohio (Mr. Fos- 

 ter), which provides for submitting to the Su- 

 preme Court those questions of constitutional 

 law about which we differ, would be far bet- 

 ter. To the adjudication of that great and 

 honored tribunal all would bow with ready 

 obedience ; but this novel, dangerous, and cum- 

 brous device is, in my judgment, unwarranted 

 by the Constitution. If we adopt it, we shirk a 

 present difficulty, but, in doing so, we create 

 far greater ones for those who come after us. 

 What to us is a difficulty, will be to them a 

 peril." 



Mr. Lamar, of Mississippi, said : " If I am 

 right in the proposition that the duty to be 

 performed in counting the electoral vote does 

 not attach to the character of the Senate and 

 House as the National Legislature, but is the 

 single function of a special organization pro- 

 vided by the Constitution, I think it cannot be 

 doubted that Congress may by law prescribe 

 the means and agencies whereby the assem- 

 blage may perform its function with facility 

 and efficiency. If, in order to perfect the ma- 

 chinery of that special organization, Congress 

 by law supplements it with this commission, it 

 cannot be objected to unless it violates some 

 constitutional provision as to its character. 

 The power given to this commission is not the 

 power intrusted the Senate and House thus 

 assembled of determining who has received a 

 majority of votes, but is simply the power to 

 test the genuineness of a certain class of con- 

 tested votes, the result of which the two 

 Houses finally determine. Has Congress not 

 the power to do this? Why, sir, the law of 

 1792 provides the means by which the Presi- 

 dent of the Senate shall be guided in receiving 

 the electoral certificates, and requires that the 



