CONGRESS, UNITED STATES (ELECTORAL COMMISSION). 



183 



majority of votes, decide whether any and what votes 

 from such State are the votes provided for by the 

 Constitution of the United States, and how many 

 and what persons were duly appointed electors in 

 such State, and may therein take into view such pe- 

 titions, depositions, and other papers, if any, as shall 

 by the Constitution and now existing law be compe- 

 tent and pertinent in. such consideration. 



"The language that I have read from the 

 law embraces a succinct and clear declaration 

 of the powers of this commission, and is the 

 only part, I believe, that has direct reference to 

 the testimony we regard as at present before the 

 commission. As to the formal regularity of the 

 evidence that is already before you, I presume 

 there can be no objection. A question was 

 raised in each of the two Houses of Congress 

 after the late presidential election, early in 

 their session, as to what votes, if any, should be 

 counted from tne States of Florida, Louisiana, 

 South Carolina, and Oregon. Upon that ques- 

 tion committees were duly appointed under 

 the authority of the respective Houses to take 

 testimony. In reference to the case of Flori- 

 da, the committees from the two Houses re- 

 spectively proceeded to that State and took 

 testimony in accordance with the uniform 

 methods and custom adopted by committees 

 representing Congress and discharging duties 

 similar to those imposed upon these commit- 

 tees. That testimony, having been so taken, was 

 returned to the two Houses of Congress ; and 

 when objection was made to the counting of 

 the votes from that State at the time they were 

 opened by the President of the Senate, in pur- 

 suance of the mandate of that portion of the 

 law to which I have referred, the certificates 

 from the State of Florida, being three in num- 

 ber, with the papers accompanying those cer- 

 tificates and the objections and the evidence 

 that had been taken by the committees of the 

 House in reference to the regularity and the 

 legality of the vote contained in these certifi- 

 cates, were all transmitted to this commission. 

 I respectfully submit that this evidence, so 

 transmitted, is now before this commission and 

 properly in the cause. Wherever either House 

 of Congress has assumed to exercise the power 

 of instituting an inquiry into a disputed fact, 

 it has uniformly appointed special committees 

 or invested standing committees with author- 

 ity to summon witnesses and take testimony 

 in regard to that fact ; and in this case each of 

 the two Houses appointed its committee to 

 take testimony upon the issue raised in refer- 

 ence to the electoral vote of Florida. That 

 testimony was regularly returned to the two 

 Houses, that were to act upon that vote under 

 the Constitution of the United States ; and such 

 as was taken by the committee of the House 

 has been transmitted by the House in joint ses- 

 sion to this commission, which possesses and 

 is to exercise all the power of the two Houses, 

 or either of them, in the premises. 



"I therefore presume, may it please your 

 honors, that there can be no question in refer- 

 ence to the regularity of that testimony, what- 



ever question may be raised in reference to its 

 admissibility, under the issues you are to try 

 and in reference to its effect upon those issues. 

 I speak now of the mass of testimony generally 

 that was laid upon this table, and respectfully 

 submit that it is now before the commission, 

 and, so far as I am advised, there is no other 

 evidence, with the exception, possibly, of some 

 relating to the particular hour of the day at 

 which the writ of quo warranto was served 

 upon what have been called the Hayes electors ; 

 and with that exception, as stated in the paper 

 read by Mr. O'Conor this morning, I believe 

 there is no question upon which the counsel 

 for the objectors propose to offer any extrinsic 

 evidence whatever. 



" This evidence, which has thus been sent to 

 the commission by the two Houses, is of two 

 separate and distinct characters. First, there 

 is the evidence that was inclosed in the cer- 

 tificates returned from the State of Florida. 

 There were, as I have stated, three certificates: 

 the first certificate being that of the Hayes 

 electors, accompanied by the certificate of the 

 Governor of Florida given to those electors ; 

 the second certificate was accompanied by the 

 certificate of the Attorney-General of Florida; 

 and the third was accompanied by certain ju- 

 dicial records, which, under the express lan- 

 guage of the organic act, were referred to this 

 body for their consideration. 



" The other testimony, to which I have al- 

 ready referred, was extrinsic evidence, taken 

 by the committee acting under the authority 

 and in obedience to the mandate of the House 

 of Representatives. 



" And I may remark that, when the House 

 committee took this testimony, there was full 

 opportunity given to all parties interested in 

 the result of the inquiry to summon whatever 

 witnesses they might desire to have examined, 

 and to cross-examine all that were brought 

 forward. The examination-in-chief was taken 

 with the regularity of all the rules of evidence, 

 and cross-examination was permitted with the 

 broadest latitude those rules allow. And if 

 we were required to repent the experience of 

 that committee under the authority of this 

 commission, and retake that evidence, there 

 could probably be no witness summoned who 

 was not before the committee, possibly no 

 question propounded that was not propounded 

 by some by some of the members of that com- 

 mittee, and no cross-interrogatory propounded 

 that was not propounded, and the answer to 

 which is not now before this honorable tribu- 

 nal. 



" But as this commission is invested with all 

 the powers of Congress, under the law, the 

 question recurs upon the materiality and admis- 

 sibility of the evidence, without regard to its 

 form ; and this brings me to the inquiry as to 

 what are its powers. I owe your honors an 

 apology for undertaking to argue so important 

 a subject, for I did not come into court pre- 

 pared to perform that duty ; and in assuming to 



