CONGRESS, UNITED STATES (ELECTORAL COMMISSION). 



195 



proceedings, at the various stages that are to be 

 passed in the business of filling the offices, so 

 that there shall be no vacant and no disputed 

 succession de facto, who does not see that you 

 introduce the means of defrauding and defeat- 

 ing the political action entirely, and turning it 

 into a discussion of the mere right that shall 

 leave the office vacant till the mere riglit is de- 

 termined ? 



" It is an absolute novelty, unknown in the 

 States, unknown in the nation, that judicial in- 

 quiries can be interposed to stop the political 

 action that leads up to the filling of offices. 

 The interest of the State is that the office shall 

 be filled. Filling it is the exercise of a political 

 right, the discharge of a political duty. Such 

 safeguards as can be thrown about the ballot- 

 box, about the first canvass, the second can- 

 vass, the third canvass, the final canvass in the 

 States, about the final counting before the two 

 Houses, and that shall not retard or defeat the 

 progress to the necessary end, are provided. 

 These are provided ; these are useful ; but you 

 do not step with a judicial investigation into a 

 ballot-box upon a suggestion that it has been 

 stuffed, and stop the election till that quo war- 

 ranto is taken ; and then, when you get to the 

 first canvasser, stop his count from going on 

 because it is a false count, and have a court 

 decide ; and so with the county canvassers, stop 

 their transaction in the rapid progress to the 

 result aimed at, to wit, filling the office, with 

 a quo. warranto there, and then in the State 

 canvass, and then here. It is an absolute nov- 

 elty. No judicial action has ever been accept- 

 ed and followed except the mandamus to com- 

 pel officers to act ; nothing else. That was not 

 retarding : that was ascertaining ; that was 

 compelling ; that was discarding delays on the 

 question of right. 



" The novelty, as I have said, of the situation 

 produces strange results. Never before has 

 there been the retardation of the political 

 transactions of counting an election ; and, to 

 accomplish that, almost a miracle has been 

 needed, for the sun and the moon have been 

 made to stand still much longer than they did 

 for Joshua in the conflict in Judea. You will 

 find that an attempt to bring judges I do not 

 now speak of judges in the official capacity 

 that some portion of this bench occupy in the 

 Supreme Court, but I mean judges in the na- 

 ture of judicial function and its exercise into 

 the working of this scheme of popular sover- 

 eignty in its political action will make it as in- 

 tolerable in its working, will so defraud and 

 defeat the popular will by the nature and 

 necessary consequences of the judicial inter- 

 vention, that, at last, the government of the 

 judges will have superseded the sovereignty 

 of the people, and there will be no cure, no 

 resource, but that which the children of Israel 

 had to pray for a king." 



The President: "Mr. O'Con or, the commis- 

 sion will now hear you." 



Mr. O'Conor : " Mr. President and gentlemen 



of the commission : I will not say probably, 

 because it may be said certainly, the most 

 important case that has ever been presented 

 to any official authority within these United 

 States is now brought before this honorable 

 commission for its investigation and decision. 

 It is brought here under circumstances that 

 give absolute assurance, as far as absolute as- 

 surance can exist in human things, of a sound, 

 upright, intelligible decision, that will receive 

 the approval of all just and reasonable men. 

 The great occasion which has given rise to the 

 construction of this tribunal has attracted the 

 attention of every enlightened and observing 

 individual in the civilized world. This com- 

 mission acts under that observation. The con- 

 clusion at which it may arrive must necessarily 

 pass into history ; and from the deeply inter- 

 esting character, in all their aspects, of the pro- 

 ceedings had, and the judgment to be pro- 

 nounced, that history will attract the attention 

 of students and men of culture and intelligence 

 as long as our country shall be remembered ; 

 for it cannot be supposed that a question will 

 ever arise and be determined in a similar man- 

 ner, which, by its superior magnitude, impor- 

 tance, delicacy, and interest, will obscure this 

 one, or cause it to be overlooked. 



"The selection of members to this commis- 

 sion was made by a choice of five individuals 

 equal assumed to be equal, pronounced to be 

 equal, if not superior to any others to be found 

 in the House of Representatives, and a similar 

 choice of similar individuals taken from the 

 Senate; thus placing the entire legislative 

 representation of our whole country under the 

 observation of present and future times in 

 respect to whatever shall here be done. To 

 that has been added a selection of five other 

 members from the highest judicial tribunal 

 known under our Constitution and laws, and 

 certainly a tribunal equal in official majesty 

 and dignity, as well as in intellectual power, to 

 any that has ever existed. Evidently, from the 

 whole frame of the procedure, these appoint- 

 ments were made with an earnest intent, and 

 indeed a fixed resolution, to have here repre- 

 sented in this tribunal w hatever of perfect im- 

 partiality and fairness, whatever of purity and 

 integrity, whatever of learning and dignity of 

 position, our country could afford. This, too, is 

 a public act of the highest authority that could 

 be invoked to express the sovereign will of the 

 whole people. 



"The questions to be considered are of a 

 public character and of a judicial nature. 

 Every member of the commission has been a 

 jurist by profession during his life, and has 

 devoted his time and his study to the appre- 

 hension and comprehension of legal questions. 



" It was said by a great English judge and 

 an eminent writer and historian in the highest 

 court of that country, in a conspicuous case, 

 that 'jurisprudence is the department of hu- 

 man knowledge to which our brethren of the 

 United States of America have chiefly devoted 



