162 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



certificate of the vote from each electoral col- 

 lege shall be attested by the Governor of each 

 State. Does that law substitute the Governor 

 for the Senate and House, or infringe upon their 

 power? So, where two returns come from the 

 same State, this bill submits them to the scru- 

 tiny of the commission, and requires its attesta- 

 tion to the genuineness of the one which is to 

 be counted, unless the Senate and House de- 

 termine to reject the finding of the commis- 

 sion. 



"As I understand the measure, it rests on 

 three propositions : First, that the President of 

 the Senate has not the right to decide what 

 votes to count and what to reject. Second, that 

 both the Senate and the House have the right 

 to decide and direct what is an honest count of 

 legal votes. Third, that, as neither can surren- 

 der this right to the other, and as there are 

 differences of opinion as to the extent of this 

 power whether it is limited to the ascertain- 

 ment of the authenticity of the certified re- 

 turns, or extends to the right of going behind 

 them it provides for a tribunal to decide these 

 questions in cases of conflicting returns, and to 

 determine which return is the true and which 

 of the controverted votes are the proper ones 

 to be counted. In other words, they will take 

 the advice of a commission, the character of 

 which will guarantee a thoroughly-considered 

 and impartial opinion. Upon that opinion the 

 two Houses assembled will finally act. 



" Now, sir, if I had doubts of the wisdom of 

 this plan which I have not I would accept it 

 in preference to the alternative which is now 

 before us. If no mode of adjusting or recon- 

 ciling the present differences can be found, 

 what is the result? Why, that the next Presi- 

 dent will have to be inaugurated by a method 

 and through processes and agencies advocated 

 and pressed by one party alone, with the view 

 to a single object; and that is, the consumma- 

 tion of its own triumph, to which it believes 

 itself entitled. However this presidential con- 

 tested election may be ended, unless this bill 

 passes, one or the other party must determine 

 to submit to what it believes to be a fraudulent 

 perversion of law, Constitution, and right, or to 

 resist by force. Either of these results would 

 be an incalculable calamity. In case of sub- 

 mission-, the whole moral force of the Govern- 

 ment would be destroyed. Both to those who 

 win and those who lose, the Constitution will 

 have become a mere weapon of party warfare, 

 and the manipulation of a venal and corrupt 

 popular vote will be perfected in the hands of 

 bold and bad political adventurers, and in all 

 succeeding elections the forms of constitutional 

 procedure will be more and more recklessly 

 disregarded, until finally the result will be de- 

 lennmed, not by the ballot, but by sword and 

 bayonet." 



Mr. Payne, of Ohio, said: "Mr. Speaker, it 

 is with inexpressible relief to me that I now 

 approach the moment of the consummation of 

 this great measure of statesmanship and public 



policy. From the hour when, under the direc- 

 tion of this House, the Speaker assigned six 

 others with myself to act with a similar com- 

 mittee of the Senate to the important duty 

 of considering whether there were some legis- 

 lative or constitutional mode of adjusting the 

 difficulties and the perils that oppress and en- 

 viron the nation, I have known no moment of 

 ease or rest. From the moment when I first 

 met in that committee with those gentlemen, 

 distinguished as they are for their position in 

 this House and before the country, knowing 

 that, as public men and as partisans, we have 

 differed widely, but with conscientiousness and 

 with firmness; when I saw that the hopes of 

 the nation were centred upon this joint com- 

 mittee of Congress, and that upon their wisdom, 

 their forbearance, their patriotism, their states- 

 manship, hung the stability of society and of 

 business from one end of this country to the 

 other, I have felt a weight upon my spirits, 

 and have seen no relief until this hour of de- 

 liverance, under the blessing of God, has at 

 last come. 



" To my friends here who would go on and 

 count the vote in the old way, let me say a 

 word. You propose that the two Houses shall 

 have nothing to say about it, except to grace 

 the proceeding with their dignified presence; 

 they have nothing to say about the count of 

 the votes. 



" As to the claim that the President of the 

 Senate, against the protest of both Houses of 

 Congress, can count the votes and declare the 

 result, and that the successful candidate is to 

 be inaugurated as President, it ought to be a 

 sufficient answer to say, that the great majority 

 of the people of the United States would re- 

 gard that as a bold and unjustifiable usurpation 

 of power ; and, unless compelled by the strong 

 arm of power, the people of the United States 

 would never acquiesce in or recognize any such 

 usurped power. This grand army of the re- 

 public twenty-two hundred strong, I believe 

 or as many of them as can be excused from 

 police duty throughout the Republic, would 

 not stand very much in the way of the people 

 carrying into execution their indignant rejec- 

 tion of such a claim. 



" Now let me come to the other side of the 

 House, for I have a word to say to those Dem- 

 ocrats who say that the Constitution is suf- 

 ficient in itself; that we do not need this legis- 

 lation. You reject this claim set up on behalf 

 of the President of the Senate, and you say 

 that this power is in the two Houses of Con- 

 gress. I grant you that the two Houses of 

 Congress possess this power that their power 

 in this regard is coequal. I do not grant you 

 that the power of the House is greater time 

 that of the Senate, nor do I believe that claim 

 can be maintained. But grant that it is equal 

 to the Senate : will you tell me how you are to 

 count the vote for President on the second 

 Wednesday of February next, under the pres- 

 ent law ? Why, sir, we have no law. The 



