Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-07-17
SEE. FRIDAY EVENING. JULY II. 1868.

count cannot unmake q Presidential
election. The election is different mat
ter II takes place from another power,
on another theater. IL takes place when
the electoral college OF each State gets
together aud casts its electoral vote for q
particular candidate. and seals that vote
aud sends il on to the President Of the
Senate. When that is done the election
is complete it is consummated 1t can
never be reversed ner set aside nor null
lifed
Suppose the two Houses we're not to-
gether to count the Presidential vote at
oil suppose they did not get together to
make count, but the fact was that the
electoral vote Of each State college had
been cast, and had been cast so as to
give one Of the candidates majority,
would the failure Of the two Houses 10
meet in convention TO count the electoral
vote, annul the election, set it aside, and
introduce chaos and confusion, and leave
this country without q PresideDt2 No
such nonsense. That is not the princi-
pie; that is not the meaning Of the Con-
stitution. The President is not elected
by the two Houses Of Congress in con-
venton. Where ore of the candidates
does not get msjority Of the electoral
vote the House, acting by States. makes
an election; and that is the only condi-
tion or state of case in which the House
or either branch of Congress can inter
fere in the Presidential vote at all.
The first proposition that / set out was
this: as electoral vote can only be cast
under the authority and direction Of the
Legislature of State. That Legislature
can only be created aud organized by its
constitution, its form of government.
That constitution or form Of government
can only be created by the people Of the
State; and all devices Of constitutions,
laws, rights of suffrage, electoral colleges,
in derogation of that general principle
are in fragrant conflict with the Consti-
tuition and utterly null and void. They
are not only usurpations of power, but
they are revolutionary, and dangerously
revolutionary. They subvert our free,
representative, constitutional form of
government, and bring the whole under
the indefinite and absolute power of q
usurping and aggressive Congress.
These observations lead me to adopt
the conclusion that there is not govern
ment in the Southern States set up under
the reconstruction acts that has one par.
ticle of constitutional obligation. Those
governments are all made in derogation
of the Constitution. They are all made
in derogation and in dethronement of
the political power in those States as it
had been organized and recognized by
the Constitution ofthe United States and
by the constitutions of the several States.
/ can put an opposite case, think
There was Dorr government 10 Rhode
Island at one time. Two governments
occupied the territory Of that small
State at one time, and both were strug-
Cling for existence AMI fer ultimate su-
premacy. Before the first or charter
government was deposed and set aside
legitimately, suppose the Dorr govern
ment had had authority and power
enough there to have chosen electors for
that State for the Presidency; suppose
the votes of those electors had been
counted by Congress, would the count.
ing of these spurious and unconstitu-
tional votes by Congress have made
them valid, and, under a particular d.
vision between the candidates, have con-
trolled the election and decided who
should be elected President of the United
States2 No, sir; no, sir.
Mr.. President, my honorable friend
from Indiana (Mr. Morton) yesterday
stated the issue which had NOW been
formed for the decision of the American
people, frankly and candidly, when he |
said that the question now was to be de- |
cded whether this should be the white !
mans government or the negro's govern.
ment | accept the definition of the |
issue. / meet that definition, and | meet
it in full and proud confidence that the
great mass of the American white people
will decide it against the negro and in
favor of the white man. Gentlemen, | |
have no doubt, are looking to the possi-
bility, yea, the probability of the Presi-
Dental election being decided by the ne
gro vote. 1t was for that purpose that
they made Grant, the General of the
Army, their candidate 1t is for that
purpose that they refuse to disband the
enormous standing army. II is TO use1
that army for the purpose of subjugating
the white people of the United States, if
it shall become advisable and practicable
to do so. Here we have had the Com
mittee on Finance, with its honorable
racking their brains to find
out resources for revenues to meet the
vast expenditures of the Government;
but when you say to them, Abolish the
Freedmens Bureau, diminish the army
from sixty thousand, with capacity to
be raised to one hundred aud six thou
sand, to twenty thousand, and in that
way you will be able to save fifty or sew
enty millions" you cannot get the ear or
The attention of the majority of this
Chamber to any such proposition.
Sir, if they are devoted friends 10 free
iom, the representative rights of the peo-
pie, to their liberties, to economy in the
expenditures of the Government; if they
lad an ardent desire to establish an equi-
ibrium between the expenditures and
he receipts of the treasury, here are the
)lainest modes in the world that would
ecure it to them. Why do they not
ldopt them2 They are looking to the
ieneral-in-Chief, a military dictator,
ome Of his minioHs say, greater than
or Cesar, Napoleon or Crom-
veil, and TO enable him to trample with
lis iron military heel upon the necks Of
he white men of this country, and to ele-
ate above them the four or five millions
f negroes, be aud you hold on to a stand
ng army Of sixty thousand. Not only
hat, you are proposing now to give him
he power Of distributing two thousand
rms into every Congressional district in
he Southern States. Not only that, you
ave organized your Grand Army Of
be Republic, negroes aud white rene