CONGRESS, UNITED STATES (ELECTORAL COMMISSION). 



175 



which by the Constitution and laws of the 

 United States is the date fixed for the final per- 

 formance of electoral functions. 



" These two certificates, therefore, are want- 

 ing in all the elements of constitutional and 

 legal validity which should exist to give them 

 audience before this commission. They con- 

 form in no respect to the laws of the country 

 as they now are, or to the laws of the State as 

 they were on the 6th day of December, when 

 the functions of the electors were ended. More 

 than that: if the first certificate, designated as 

 Certificate No. 1, is a constitutional and legally- 

 certified expression of the vote of the State of 

 Florida, that question, being settled in favor of 

 this certificate, obviates the necessity for con- 

 sidering the certificates numbered 2 and 3. 



" I shall, therefore, cheerfully confine the ar- 

 gument to Certificate No. 1, because, if the ob- 

 jections to that certificate are invalid, and the 

 certificate itself is valid, of course that dis- 

 misses all need of consideration of the other 

 certificates, and we shall have ascertained what 

 is the constitutional and legal electoral vote of 

 the State of Florida. 



" Now, it is not within the scope of my pur- 

 pose to answer otherwise than generally that 

 argument which took up most of the time of 

 the objectors who opened this discussion. I 

 must affirm, however, to this commission, that 

 the first objector was in error in saying that 

 we on this side had nothing to say contradict- 

 ing his assertions of the frauds. We say every- 

 thing in denial of fraud in the State officers. 

 We affirm fraud in directly the reverse sense, 

 and frauds which you would ascertain in the 

 very steps to which he calls our attention, in 

 the action of certain county canvassers certi- 

 fying results for Tilden electors. For example, 

 when he refers to Baker County, I entirely dis- 

 sent from his view of the facts as existing of 

 record in that case ; but if you go into that 

 question in Baker County to verify his asser- 

 tions, we should inevitably ask that you go into 

 Jackson County, where, under other political 

 domination, they rejected 271 votes actually 

 cast for the Hayes electors. We should ask 

 you to go into Alachua County, and find at one 

 precinct a railroad-train of non-resident pas- 

 sengers getting off on their passage through 

 and voting the ticket which was supported by 

 the objector ("Mr. Field) who made the allega- 

 tion againt Baker County. We should invoke 

 your attention to Waldo precinct, of the same 

 county, to find that they had vitiated that poll 

 also by what is called * stuffing the ballot-box.' 

 And so on with other counties passed upon by 

 the State board. 



" We answer, then, the allegation that their 

 charges of fraud have not been denied by us, 

 by stating that, if they are ever reached in the 

 exercise of your jurisdiction, we propose to 

 show, and shall show in that contingency, that 

 there was such a case of fraud in the incipi- 

 ency of that vote which they claim should elect 

 their candidate, as would astonish not only this 



commission, but the whole country, by its pre- 

 sentation. I unite with my friends in con- 

 demning fraud wherever it exists. It should 

 not only vitiate the result which it produced 

 when it is ascertained by the proper tribunals, 

 but it should also condemn every man, public 

 or private, who participated in it. We are not 

 here to defend fraud. We are here, however, 

 to say not only that the allegation of it as 

 made on the other side is not correct, but that 

 the very next step behind the county canvass- 

 ers confronts you with some of the grossest 

 cases of the violation of the popular right to 

 freely cast the vote, and to have that vote 

 counted, which has ever been found in the his- 

 tory of this country. 



" I leave that question now. I do not believe 

 that this commission, by the Constitution or 

 laws, was ever intended, or has the power, to 

 go to the extent that would be required if they 

 attempted to probe these mutual allegations of 

 fraudulent voting and fraudulent canvassing to 

 the bottom by judicial investigation and judi- 

 cial decision. 



" It seems to me that our honorable friends 

 on the other side have been misled by the 

 judicial atmosphere of this hall, consecrated 

 usually to the jurisdiction of a constitutional 

 court of justice. 



" They have presented to you the following 

 questions upon which it is absolutely necessary 

 to come to a decision, upon their theory of 

 your jurisdiction : 



"1. Is this commission a general canvassing 

 board, with power to recanvass the popular 

 vote of the State of Florida? 



" 2. Is this commission a national court of 

 appeal from the State canvassing boards ? 



" 3. Is this commission a judicial court of 

 appeal from the State Circuit Court of Florida 

 in proceedings by writ of quo icarranto f 



" The affirmative of all these propositions is 

 taken by our opponents. They do affirm that 

 yon are a canvassing board with power to 

 recanvass the vote of Florida cast by the peo- 

 ple ; they do affirm that you are not merely n 

 canvassing board, but a national court of ap- 

 peal from the action of the canvassing board 

 of Florida. They do affirm that you are a court 

 so judicial that from the action of the Stato 

 Circuit Court of Florida you can take jurisdic- 

 tion by reviewing that action ; and they do 

 affirm that there 1 is no limit to your power to 

 investigate into the honesty and integrity of 

 the action of the returning board of Florida, 

 and to determine originally, with the powers 

 of a court, to whom the certificate of election 

 should have been awarded. 



"This represents the legal position of our 

 opponents. I ask, therefore, What are the 

 powers of this commission ? I need not re- 

 mind the honorable gentlemen composing it 

 that the assumption of these powers implies 

 that we are to have no election of a President 

 and Vice-President of the United States by the 

 time limited for the commencement of the 



