Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1868-07-23
4 Message from the President TO the
senate.
W.suISGToN Jnly %

The President this afternoon sent the
following message to the Senate:
To the Senate of the United States:
Il have given to the joint resolution en-
titled :" a resolution excluding from the
electoral college the voteo- of the States
lately in rebellion which shall not have
been reorganized," as careful an examina-
ton as have been able to bestow upon
the subject during the few days that have
interviewed since the measure was submit
ted for my approval. Feeling constrained
TO withhold my consent herewith return
the resolution to the Senate, in which
House it originated, with brief state
ment of the reasons which have induced
my action. This resolution based upou
the assumption that some of the States
whose inhabitants were lately in rebel
lion, are not now entitled to representa-
ton in Congress, and to participate in the
election of "a President and Vice President
of the United States. / have heretofore
had occasion to give in detail my reasons
dissenting from this view. 1t is not nee
essary at this time to repeat. 1t is suf-
ficient to State that continue strong in
my conviction that the acts of secession
/ by which number Of the States sought
4 to dissolve their connection with the 9th
err States and subvert the Union, be-
ing authorized by the constitution and in
direct violation thereof, were from the be-
ginning absolutely null and void. 1t fol
lows necessarily that when the rebellion
terminated the separate States which had
attempted to seeede continued to be States
of the Union, and all that was required tc
resume their relation to the Union was
that they should adopt the measures nee.
essary to their practical restoration to
the Uuiou as States such measures
were adopted and the legitimate
result was that those States, having con
formed to all the requirements to the Con
stituion, resumed their former relations
and became entitled to the exercise of all
the rights guaranteed them by its provi
sions. The Joint resolution under consid
Grafton, however, seems to assume that by
the insurrectionary acts of their inhabi
tlnts, those States forfeited their rights n
such and can never again exercise then
except upon re-admission into the Unior
on the terms prescribed by Congress i
this position be correct, it follows thai
| they were taken out of the Union by
virtue of their acts of secession, and hence
that the war ,waged upon them was illega
ond unconstitutional, we would thus BE-
placed in this inconsistant attitude that
while the war was commenced and carried
on upon the distinct ground that thu
Southern States, being component parts o
the Union, were in rebellion against tn,
lawful authority of the United States
upon its termination we resort to a polio,
of reconstruction which assumes that il
was not in fact rebellion, but that tn,
war was waged for the conquest Of terri
tories assumed to be outside of the Consti
tutional Union. The mode and manner
of receiving and counting the electoral
votes for President and Vice President OF
the United States, are in plain and simple
terms prescribed by the Constitution
That instrument imparatively requires
that tho President of the Senate shall, il
the presence Of tho Senate and House o.
Representatives, open all the certificates
and the votes shall be counted. Congress
has, therefore, no power under the Con
stitution to receive the electoral votes Of
to reject them. The whole power is ex
hausted when in the presence of the TIVE
houses the votes are counted and the re
suit declared. In fhis respect, the powe
and duty of the President of the Senat
are under the Constitution purely minis
terial. When, therefore, the join
resolution declares that no electora
votes shall DO received or counted