The Hawk-eye and Iowa patriot. (Burlington, Iowa) 1839-1843, 1840-04-09


luton should look to that basis or not,
whether it should look to the whole votes
or the laacful votes only; and it had been
decided by the casting vote referred TO,
that it should look to the la,Ofatl vote only,
aud not to the whole vote given, as or.
iginally proposed by the resolution; and
while the committee cannot entirely over
look the word ..lawful,'' or strike it from
the resolution, they find no difficulty in
disregarding its plain import and mean
ing, and they report the very matter they
were instructed by the House not to re-
port, and this not from a desire to make
such a report, because FIVE members
of that committee had constantly refused
to make report based upon any such
principle,) but in strict obedience to the
House. But, in addition to this pungent
word, +" forthwith it is said the proviso
qualified the meaning OF the word claw
full" Now the construction that we give
to the proviso is, that it qualities this
word forthwith and was intended as
a qualification of that word when first
introduced. That is to say, that whilst
you are required to report, forthwith,
which five of these ten gentlemen re-
ceived the greatest number Of votes from
the whole State, nothing herein contain
ed shall be so construed as to prevent or
delay the action of the committee in ia
king testimony, or deciding said case
upon the merits Of the election. 1t APP
pears to US that there can be but one
opinion on this subject, that the proviso
was intended as, a qualification to-, the
I" forthwith report to be made; and it
is totally incomprehensible to us how the
minds. of the committee could have been
drawn into the strange error, that the
proviso was intended to qualify what, at
the time it was written, constituted no
part of the resolution.
The subsequent introduction of the
word lawful, as we conceive, not only
does, but was intended to qualify, con-
troll, and explain, the whole resolution !;
it was an explanation of itself. But the
committee, have determined that the word
/" forthwith" and the proviso, which
were intended to be explained by the
word "lawlul,' themselves explain the
explanation or, in other words, nullifes
and renders altogether nuga,ory, this
most important and all. controlling ex-
planatory amendment.
There is one view of this subject that
is truly singular, however, and that is,
that i'll the early part Of the session.
when the same facts were admitted be-
fore the House that are now reported by
the committee, there was not member
of this body prepared to give the seats
to those who received majority Of all
the votes given. including the bad with
the good. Why was the case ever re-
ferred to the committee! The House
having refused to recognise those persons
as members who have the legal COM
missions and not venturing at that time
to recognise those who had no returns,
and only claimed that they had received
a majority of legal and illegal votes, the
whole matter was referred to commit
tee for investigation, under such circum-
stances as to indicate conclusively that
those of this body who were in favor Of
going behind the commissions, contem-
plated an enquiry the most ample and
comprehensive.
To this result the undersigned are led
by review of all the circumstances which
have attended the House on this subject,
from the commencement of the session,
as well as by the fragrant injustice which
will mark the contrary course, leading,
with a haste unparalleled, to the decision
of great and important question in the
absence of the parties, and contrary to the
expectations which they had been author
lied to indulge.
In order to bring this suhjec. more full
ly before the House, the undersigned deem
it proper to state, that Immediately upon
the assembling of the committee, under
the resolution herein examined, the ma
jority, without considering the proofs adj
m.tted to be competent, tle tendency of
which was to show that unlawful votes
had been polled for non-commissioned
claimants, settled forthwith" the prin-
cipes upon which the report should be
made; and peremptorily instructed the
chairman to add the votes of Millville and
South Amboy to those counted by the
Governor and Privy Councils; thus resolv-
ing the duties of the committee into the
solution of an arithmetical problem of the
most simple character.
But there is an additional and most i'm
posing fact which we desire to present
for the consideration of the House, before
they decide this important question.
At the moment the committee had the
report under consideration, and before any
vote was taken thereon, the chairman had
IN possession sealed package of deposi-
,lons' addressed to the Speaker of the
House, to the care of the chairman, and
endorsed dispositions in the New Jersey
case forwarded by the commissioned
claimants; and which the majority of the
committee refused to send to the Speaker
10 the end that the same might be opened
and taken into consideration in the decis-
Ion OF the question then pending in COM
mlttee. On examination, we find that the
said dispositions establish and prove lille
gal votes cast for the non-commissioned
claimants, which, added to other unlaw-