166 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



now handed to the tellers, and the correspond- 

 ing one received by mail, January. 30th." 



Senator Allison (one of the tellers) read the 

 certificate, and then Senator Ingalls (another 

 of the tellers) proceeded to read the papers 

 accompanying the certificate. 



Senator Oonkling : " I understand the teller 

 is proceeding to read a list of the counties and 

 returns in detail ; and, the counties being 

 twenty-nine in number " 



Mr. Springer : " Thirty -nine." 



Senator Conkling : "Thirty-nine I will 

 correct myself all appearing in long printed 

 lists. I know the act of Congress under which 

 the two Houses have met requires these certifi- 

 cates and papers shall be read. I rise, after 

 consultation with some members of either 

 House about me, to suggest that, by consent, 

 the announcement of the result of these lists 

 by the tellers be deemed by the two Houses a 

 reading satisfying the act, and that these pa- 

 pers go, as they must go under the statute, to 

 the provisional tribunal raised to examine 

 them in the first instance. I can see nothing 

 to be gained by a reading literally of all the 

 figures attenuated upon that printed list." 



The Presiding Officer : " Is there objection 

 to the suggestion of the Senator from New 

 York that the reading of this list be dispensed 

 with, except the footing? (After a pause.) 

 The Chair hears none." 



Senator Ingalls (one of the tellers) read the 

 footing of the votes and the remaining portion 

 of the certificate. 



The Presiding Officer : " Are there objec- 

 tions to the certificates from the State of Flor- 

 ida?" 



Mr. Field, of New York: "The following is 

 an objection to the votes, certificates, and lists 

 mentioned in the return first read. I send it 

 to the desk." 



The Presiding Officer (having examined the 

 paper sent up) : " The objection complies with 

 the law, having attached the signatures of 

 Senators and Representatives. The Clerk of 

 the House will read the objection." 



The Clerk of the House reads as follows : 



The undersigned, Charles W. Jones, Senator of 

 the United States from the State of Florida ; Henry 

 Cooper, Senator of the United States from the State 

 of Tennessee ; J. E. McDonald, Senator of the 

 United States from the State of Indiana ; David 

 Dudley Field, Kepresentative from the State of 

 New York ; J. Randolph Tucker, Representative 

 from the State of Virginia ; G. A. Jenks, Represen- 

 tative from the State of Pennsylvania ; and William 

 M. Springer, Representative from the State of Illi- 

 nois, object to the countingof the votes of Charles 

 H. Pearce, Frederick C. Humphries, William H. 

 Holden, and Thomas W. Long, as electors of Presi- 

 dent and Vice-President of the United States in, for, 

 or on behalf of the State of Florida, and to the paper 

 purporting to be a certificate of M. L. Stearns as 

 Governor of the said State, that the said Charles H. 

 Pearce, Frederick C. Humphries, William H. Hol- 

 den, afid Thomas W. Long, were appointed electors 

 in, for, or on behalf of the said State, and to the pa- 

 pers purporting to be the lists of votes cast by the 

 said Charles H. Pearce, Frederick C. Humphries, 



William II. Holden, and Thomas W. Long, for Presi- 

 dent and Vice-President of the United States, and 

 to the votes themselves, for the reasons and upon 

 the grounds following among others, that is to say : 



1. For that the said Charles H. Pearce, Fred- 

 erick C. Humphries, William H. Holden, and 

 Thomas W. Long, were not appointed by the said 

 State of Florida in such manner as its Legislature 

 had directed, or in any manner whatever, electors 

 of President and Vice-President of the United 

 States. 



2. For that Wilkinson Call, James E. Yonge, 

 Robert B. Hilton, and Robert Bullock, were ap- 

 pointed by tha said State, in such manner as its 

 Legislature had directed, electors of President and 

 Vice-President of the United States. 



3. The manner of appointing electors of Presi- 

 dent and Vice-President of the United States in, 

 for, or on behalf of the State of Florida, was by the 

 votes of the qualified electors at a general election 

 held in said State on the 7th day of November, 1876 ; 

 and the qualified electors of the said State did, on 

 the said 7th day of November, 1876, execute the 

 power by appointing Wilkinson Call, James E. 

 Yonge, Robert B. Hilton, and Robert Bullock, to be 

 such electors ; which appointment gave to the ap- 

 pointees an irrevocable title that could not be 

 changed or set aside, or conferred on any other 

 person. 



4. For that the pretended certificate, or paper 

 purporting to be a certificate, signed by M. L. 

 Stearns as Governor of said State, of the appoint- 

 ment of the said Charles H. Pearce, Frederick C. 

 Humphries, William H. Holden, and Thomas W. 

 Long, to be electors, was and is in all respects untrue, 

 and was corruptly procured and made in pursuance 

 of a conspiracy between the said M. L. Stearns, 

 Charles H. Pearce, Frederick C. Humphries, Wil- 

 liam H. Holden, and Thomas W. Long, and other 

 persons to these objectors unknown, with intent to 

 deprive the people of the said State of the right to 

 appoint electors, and to deprive Wilkinson Call, 

 James E. Yonge, Robert B. Hilton, and Robert Bul- 

 lock, of their right to said office, and to assert and 

 set up fictitious and unreal votes for President and 

 Vice-President, and thereby to deceive the proper 

 authorities of this Union. 



5. For that the said papers, falsely purporting 

 to be the votes for President and Vice-President oT 

 the State of Florida, which are fictitious and unreal 

 and do not truly represent any votes or lawful acts, 

 and are now here objected to, were made out and 

 executed in pursuance of the same fraudulent con- 

 spiracy by the said persons purporting to have cast 

 said votes. 



6. For that the said pretended certificates and 

 the pretended lists of electors connected therewith, 

 so made by the said M. L. Stearns, if the said cer- 

 tificates and lists ever had any validity, which these 

 objectors deny, have been annulled and declared 

 void by a subsequent lawful certificate of the execu- 

 tive of the State of Florida, duly and lawfully made, 

 in which the said Wilkinson Call. Robert Bullock, 

 James E. Yonge, and Robert B. Hilton, are truly and 

 in due form declared to have been duly appointed 

 by the said State in the manner directed by its con- 

 stitution, and also by an act of the Legislature of the 

 said State, in which the title of the said Wilkinson 

 Call, James E. Yonge, Robert B. Hilton, and Robert 

 Bullock, as such electors, is declared to be good and 

 valid. And further, by the judgment of the Circuit 

 Court of the said State of Florida for the second ju- 

 dicial circuit, that being a court of competent juris- 

 diction, upon information in the nature of quo war- 

 ranto brought on the 6th day of December, 1876, 

 before said pretended electors in any form voted for 

 President or Vice-President, as aforesaid, by the 

 State of Florida, on the relation of the said Wilkin- 

 son Call, Robert Bullock, James E. Yonge, and 

 Robert B. Hilton, against the said Charles H. Pearce, 



