The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-02 00:00:00

vernment will be at the mercy of that class of
citizens which common sense tells a man are least
fitted to exercise power. The possession of property
is the exception, instead of being the rile; but most
enactments affect it, and very many have special
reference to it. Is the principle to be accepted,
alike in the municipal election in States and of
Federal Representatives and officers, that the man
of no property is to make laws for the man of some
property ? The experience of the Republic is the
experience of other nations on this subject. A
marked degree of corruption has crept into the
Government, and this has mainly been generated and
fostered by the extension of the suffrage to poor
and ignorant men. Setting aside then the strong
Prejudice which exists against placing the negro on
the political footing of the white man there are at
least plausible reasons why the States should re-
ject the amendment; but what will be conAdere.d the
greatest in the Union remains in the infringement
of States Rights. The tendency of recent legisla-
tion is to merge citizenship of the States into
citizenship of the United States, to absorb State
sovereignty into national, compelling the inhabitants
toregard their allegiance as to the Union, not to their
own State, and this amendment is a long step in that
direction. The Standard thus comments on it :
" All attempts to enforce an unnatural equality
between unequal races can only result in pro-
voking the stronger, and establishing an inveterate
antagonism, which cannot but be fatal to the
weaker; and the policy insisted on by the dominant
party in America, on the score of justice and pro-
tection to the negro, is proving, and will prove,
even more injurious, cruel, and disastrous to him
than it is unjust and oppressive to the white man."
In this we cannot agree, although it may contain
some truth. It is admitted in the United States
that the franchise is the best protection of weak-
ness, and it is under this impression that the late
amendments have been so strenuously and persis-
tently urged. But however anxious many may be
to secure for the negro his equal rights before the
law, and to protect him to the best of their ability,
there are very many Republicans who will vote
against this amendment. It is a grave difficulty,
for, without the voting power, the negroes cannot
help themselves, nor can the Federal Government
interfere for their protection once a State is recon-
structed. Indeed the whole question, as far as
the negro is concerned, lies in the truth or the re-
verse of what the Standard asserts, but the amend-
ment has been passed by Congress under the itn-
pression that it would subdue race hatred, and
give to the negro the only constitutional weapon
he can use in his defence.

SCENE ON COUNTING THE ELECTORAL

VOTES.

On Wednesday the Senators and Representatives
met in the ball of th latter at one o'clock to count
the votes of the Electoral College for President and
Vice-President. The rules prohibiting the privilege
of the floor had been suspended, and in consequence
the wives of the Representatives occupied their
seats, and the sofas were filled, and the place
crowded with women and children of every degree,
some of the degrees of the former not being of such
a quality as might there be looked for. The read-
ing of the joint rule of the house for the meeting of
the two bodits followed the announcement that the
House would prepare to meet with the Senate. Then
the Representatives vacated five circles of their
seats for the Senators, who, led by the Sergeant-
at-arms, entere 1 two and two, Wade, the Presi-
dent, and Gorham, the Secretary, being first, Sum-
ner and Wilson following, then Cameron and Mor-
ton, and so on to the number of GO. Mr. Wade
took the right of Colfax at the Speaker's desk ;
Sumner, Cameron, and Wilson sat together in the
front. Senator Conkling was teller for that Cham-
ber, with Wilson, of lowa, and Pruyn for the House,
whose places were immediately below the presiding
officer. Mr. Wade, who had a bundle of envelopes
before him, called the House to order, and from the •
bundle he took an envelope, broke the seal, and
handed the documents to Senator Conkling, who
read them aloud. They were from the Governor of
New Hampshire, certifying to the choice of the
electors, that they had met at the Capitol of the
State and cast their five votes for Ulysses S.
Gran., of Illinois, for President, and the same
number for Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, for Vice-
President. had all the certificates been read the
House wouldsoon have been cleared, for they were dry,
legal, tedious papers, but Mr. Wade announced that
on the motion of Mr. Sumner and Representative
NVashburne the result only of the others would be
told. Massachusetts came next, then Rhode

Island, Connecticut, and Vermont. The vote of
New York was given for Horatio Seymour and
Frank F. Blair, by Representative Pruyn, which
was followed by a suppresed titter throughout the
House. Maryland made an amusing blunder, having
omitted " Junior" after Frank Blair's name, and
on this becoming known the laughter was general.
On reaching Louisiana, Mr. Mullins asked that the
certificates accompanying the reports be read, which
was done by Mr. Pruyn, when the same mistake as
that committed by Maryland was found to be re-
peated, as well as " States" omitted from the term
United States." Mr. Mullins then objected to
Louisiana's votes being counted. The Vice-Presi-
dent showed that on such an objection the Senate
must withdraw and the question be submitted to each
body separately. Mr. Eldredge maintained that
such a rule was in violation of the Constitution.
After some conversation and much persuasion,
which was sternly resisted by Mr. Mullins, his
formal objection . was sent to the clerk's desk as
follows :—" I object to any of the votes certified
from the State of Louisiana, and I raise the ques-
tion in relation to it that no valid election of elec-
tors for President and Vice-President of the
United States Las been held in said State." The
Senators withdrew amid some confusion, and the
question was then submitted to the House whether
137 members sustained the vote of Louisiana being
counted against 63. Three-quarters of an hour
elapsed ere it was announced that the Senate had also
arrivedat the same conclusion, and then the Senators
returned, the Representatives standing while they
took their seats. After going through many States
Georgia's turn arrived, when Ben Butler, having
insisted on the reading of the certificate, made the
following objection to the vote being counted :
I object, under the joint rule, that the vote of the State
of Georgia for President and Vice-President ought not to
be counted ; and I object to the counting thereof, because
first, among other things, the vote of the electors in the
Electoral College was not given on the first Wednesday
in December as required by law, and no excuse, in justi-
fication for the omission of such legal duty is set forth
in the certificate of the action of the electors ; second, be-
cause, at the date of the election of such electors, the State
of Georgia had not been admitted to representation as a
State in Congress since the rebellion of her people, or be-
come entitled thereto ; third, that at said date said State
of Georgia had nut fulfilled in due form all the require-
ments of the Constitution and laws of the United States,
known as the Reconstruction Acts, so as to entitle said,
State of Georgia to be represented as a State of the Union •
in the Electoral vote of the several States for the choice of
President and Vice-President ; fourth, that the election
pretended to have been held in the State of Georgia on the
first Tuesday in NoveMber last past was not a free, just,
equal, and fair election, but the people were deprived of
their just rights therein by force and fraud.
Senator Drake, actuated by the laudable object to
save time and trouble, here threw in an objection
he intended to take to the vote of Nevada, which, he
thought, might be decided at the same time. " Too
late," said the presiding officer, Nevada has been
counted. Drake's mistake raised a laugh, which
swelled into a roar, when Mr. Pruyn got hold
of it instead of Butler's, and read, the ob-
jection being " that it did not appear that Ne-
vada voted by ballot." A passage of arms
then occurred with Mr. Butler, Senator Edmunds
having objected on the po'nt of order, when But-
ler rose to speak, whereon Mr. Wood called him to
order, observing that the rule forbade discussion,
which was sustained by the presiding officer, who, i
to Butler's inquiry, if he had not the right to state
the question, replied that he had stated it in writing,
to which Butler, quick as thought, observed—" But
Senator Edmunds has not." A strong opposition
was evidently brewing to Butler's objection, and
the presiding officer was irresolute. lie said :
The Chair is vety natal disposed to hold the
Senate and the !louse to their own doing to the
joint resolution which they passed, the purport of