62 CONSTITUTIONAL SOLUTION. 



there are no other direct or immediate representatives of the people 

 in this government." 



The dangerous anomaly that the President of the Senate who 

 may be so merely pro tempore, has the imperial power of making or 

 unmaking a President or Vice-President of the United States, did not 

 prevail m the working of our National Government at the beginning, 

 nor has it ever since. An investigation into the practice of the 

 Congress will disclose that that exalted assembly has in every 

 instance exercised the right of distinct and exclusive jurisdiction 

 and action upon the count of the votes of the Electoral Colleges 

 upon each recurring period of four years-always by joint resolution, 

 each branch retaining its own organization separately, and making 

 their authority more apparent as the electoral votes were presumed 

 to approach an equality for the several candidates. 



In proof of this statement and construction let us recall from the 

 records of the Congress their proceedings on counting the Electoral 

 votes for President and Vice-President, February 13th, 1805, from 

 3 Benton's Debates, pp. 167-8, when the eminent statesman, Aaron 

 Burr, presided over the Senate, in the following words : 



"About 12 o'clock the Senators took their seats, and immediatly 

 afterward the Speaker and members of the House of Representatives 

 entered. The Speaker and Clerk occupying seats on the floor on the 

 right side of the President of the Senate, and the members of the 

 House being seated in front. Mr. Samuel Smith, teller on the 

 part of the Senate, and Joseph Clay and Mr. Roger Griswold, tellers 

 on the part of the House, took seats at a table in front of the Chair 

 in the area between the Senate and the House. The Secretary of the 

 Senate read the resolutions of the two houses previously agreed to. 

 The President (Mr. Burr) stated that pursuant to law, there had been 

 transmitted to him several packets, which from the indorsements 

 upon them, appeared to be the votes of the electors of a President 

 and of a Vice-President; that the returns forwarded him by the mail 

 as well as the duplicates sent by the special messengers had beeii 

 received by him in due time. You will now proceed, gentlemen, said 

 he, to count the votes as the Constitution and laws direct, adding that 

 perceiving no cause for preference in the order of opening the returns, 

 he would pursue a geographical arrangement, beginning with the 

 Northern States. 



