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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES (ELECTORAL COMMISSION). 



Mr. Commissioner Bayard said : " The order 

 of this commission has been made to hear tes- 

 timony in the case of Mr. Humphries, who 

 was alleged to be ineligible to be appointed an 

 elector because on the day of election he held 

 an office of trust and profit under the United 

 States. I do not comprehend, as I have said 

 before, why one provision of the Constitution 

 relating to this subject should be more obliga- 

 tory upon us than another. I concur that it 

 is our right and duty to hear testimony on this 

 subject, and equally so in all other questions 

 where the true performance of the require- 

 ments of the Constitution are brought in ques- 

 tion." 



Mr. Commissioner Hunton said : " Mr. Pres- 

 ident, when I consider the past action of the 

 two Houses of Congress, the phraseology of 

 the law under which we are acting, the offers 

 of proof, and the authorities which I have ex- 

 amined, I have no doubt left on my mind that 

 it is not only our right but our duty to hear 

 the proof offered, and to decide which certifi- 

 cate contains the true and lawful electoral vote 

 of Florida. Any other course would disap- 

 point the expectations of the country, looking 

 to us to solve this vexed presidential election 

 according to the very right of the case. Any 

 other course dwarfs this high commission into 

 a tribunal to ascertain merely whether the four 

 votes of Florida have been correctly added up 

 or not, and whether the Governor's certificate 

 accompanies the votes. This duty might as 

 well have been performed by a page of either 

 House. The business of the two Houses would 

 not then have been interrupted by withdraw- 

 ing five members from each House, and wait- 

 ing for days for us to arrive at the most diffi- 

 cult decision that Florida had really cast four 

 votes, and that the electors who cast the four 

 votes had the Governor's certificate. The busi- 

 ness of the Supreme Court would not then have 

 been entirely suspended, by the withdrawal of 

 five of its associate justices to form this com- 

 mission and play the role of boys in primary 

 arithmetic. No, sir; this Electoral Commis- 

 sion was designed (as the law creating it di- 

 rects) to 'decide whether any and what votes 

 from such State are the votes provided by the 

 Constitution of the United States, and how 

 many and what persons were duly appointed 

 electors in such State.' To do this, and to dis- 

 charge our duties under the bill and satisfy our 

 consciences under the oaths we have taken, we 

 must go behind these certificates and ascertain 

 whether they represent the persons duly ap- 

 pointed electors." 



Mr. Commissioner Abbott said : " If this 

 attempt to authorize these two irresponsible 

 officers, not the State or people of Florida, to 

 appoint presidential electors for that State, is 

 by the judgment^of this commission to be 

 crowned with successive shall in effect pro- 

 claim to all the world that the whole armory 

 of the law and the Constitution contains no 

 weapon of offense or defense by which the 



high office of Chief Magistrate of the greatest 

 civilized nation on earth can be successfully 

 protected and defended against being seized 

 upon and held by means of the grossest fraud. 

 Such a judgment would proclaim to the world 

 that, to obtain and enjoy the office of Presi- 

 dent of the United States, it is not now, as in 

 the olden time, necessary to be constitutionally 

 elected by the States and the people ; but that 

 a candidate and party, as lacking in principle 

 as they are rich in money, can, by buying a few 

 weak, wicked, and irresponsible State canvass- 

 ers, gain possession of and hold that high office, 

 and that such an act will be justified and sanc- 

 tified by the two Houses of Congress. In fine, 

 such a judgment would proclaim that this Gov- 

 ernment is no longer one of the people, under 

 the Constitution and law, but that it is a gov- 

 ernment of returning boards and their creat- 

 ures." 



Mr. Commissioner Hoar said: "Upon the 

 whole matter, therefore, I am of opinion that 

 the appointment of electors and the ascertain- 

 ing who has been appointed is the sole and ex- 

 clusive prerogative of the State. The State 

 acts by such agencies as it selects. The pow- 

 ers conferred by the State upon these agencies 

 cannot be exercised by Congress. To usurp 

 them for the purpose of righting alleged wrongs, 

 would be for this commission, which has only 

 the powers of Congress, to commit the very 

 wrong which is imputed to the returning boards 

 in some of the States. When the agencies 

 which the State has selected have acted, the 

 State has acted ; no power can reverse its ac- 

 tion for mistake in law or fact, for fraud, or 

 for any cause whatever, unless it be a power 

 higher than the State on whom the Constitu- 

 tion has expressly conferred such authority. 

 But there is for this purpose no such power 

 higher than the State, and the President of the 

 Senate and Congress are but the mere servants 

 of the State's will and registers of its action, 

 with power only to open the certificates and 

 count the votes of the electors whom the State 

 authority has appointed and certified." 



Mr. Commissioner Garfield said : " The final 

 determination of the result of the election hav- 

 ing been declared by the authority empowered 

 to determine and declare it, that act becomes 

 the act of the State ; and the two Houses of 

 Congress can no more question such declara- 

 tion, than they can question the primary right 

 of appointment by the State. 



" I shall vote against receiving the evidence 

 offered. In conclusion I will add, that the 

 preservation of the right of the States under 

 the Constitution to appoint electors and de- 

 clare who have been appointed, is, in my judg- 

 ment, a matter of much greater importance 

 than the accession of any one man to the presi- 

 dency." 



Mr; Commissioner Field : " Mr. President, I 

 desire that this commission should succeed, and 

 give, by its judgment, peace to the country. 

 But such a result can only be attained by dis- 



