The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-07-22
From, the President.

amended. On Saturday he sent to Con-
gress message recommending the abo'
lition of the Electoral College and the
eletion of President and Vice President
by the direct vote of the people; also
the designation Of the officer who shall
fill the Executive Office, in case of va
cancy through the death, resignation or
removal of the President and Vice Pres.
ident; also the election of United States
Senators by direct popular vote; also
limitation Of the terms of tn Federal
judiciary to period Of years.
All these objects the President de-
sires Congress to provide for by Consti-
tutional amendments. Without dis
cussing the merits of his proposals, it
will be sufficient to say that they are
entirely impracticable at this time, and
Congress has no notion of complying
with his recommendations.
The President on Monday vetoed the
joint resolution to exclude from the
Electoral College the vote of such
Southern States as shall not be deemed
certain to vote for GRANT, or, in Radi-
cal phrase, those States lately in rebel
lion, which shall not before the election
have been recognized by Congress as
thoroughly reconstructed. The follow
inc extracts contain the substance of
the veto message:
The Joint resolution under considera-
ton seems to assume that by the insur
rec ionary acts of oftheirrespective iHhaDi
tants, those States forfeited their rights
as such, and can never again exercise
them except upon readmission into the
Union on the terms prescribed by Con-
gress. Ii this position be becorrect, 1t lol'
lows that they were taken out Of this
Union 10y virtue of their acts OF seces-
sion, and hence that the war waged on
thrm was illegal and unconstitutional.
We would be thus placed in this in
consistent attitude, that while the war
was commenced and carried on on the
ground that the Southern States, being
component parts of the Union, were in
rebellion against the lawful authority
of the United States, upon its termina-
ton we resort to L policy of rcconstruc-
ton which assumes that it was not i'll
fact a rebellion, but the war was wag-
ed for the conquest of territories assum-
ed to be outside of the constitutional
Union.
The mode and manner of receiving
aud 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 imperatively requires
that the President of the Senate shall,
in the presence of the Senate aud House
of Representatives, open all the certifi-
cafes and the votes shall then be count
ed. Congress has, therefore, no power
under the Constitution to receive the
electoral votes OF reject them. The
whole power is exhausted when, in the
presence of the two houses, the votes
are counted and the result declared.
IL tks respect the power and duty of
the President of the Senate M der the
Constitution are purely ministerial.
When, therefore, the joint resolution
declared that no electoral votes shall
be received or counted from States that
since the ith of March, 1867, have not
adopted i constitution of State Govern
ment under which State Governments
shall have been organized, power Is
assumed which is nowhere delegated to
Congress, unless upon the assumption
that the State Governments organized
prior to March, 1867, are Illegal and
void. The joint resolution, by implica-
ton at least, comedies that these States
were States by virtue of their organi-
zation prior TO the 4th of March, 1867
but denies to them the right to vote i'll
the election of President aud Vice Pres
ident of the United States. 1t follows
either that this assumption OF power Is
wholly unauthorized by the Constitu-
tien or that the States excluded from vot-
ing were out of the Union by reason of
the rebellion, and have never been legiti-
mately restored. Being fully satisfied
that they were never out of the Union,
and their relations thereto have never
been legally and constitutionally re-
stored, | am forced to the conclusion
that the Joint resolution which deprivcs
them of the right to have their votes
for President and Vice President receiv-
ed and counted is in conflict with the
Constitution, and Congress has no more
power to reject their votes than those of
the States which have bees uniformly
loyal to the Federal Union. g
IfCongress were to provide by law
that the votes of none of the States
should be received aud counted. if cast
for candidate who differed in political
sentiment with u majority of the two
Houses, such legislation would be at
once condemned by the country as uA-
constitutional and n revolutionary usur-
patton of power. 1t would, however,
be exceedingly dfficalt to find in the
Constitution any more authority for the
Joint resolution under consideration
than for an enactment looking directly
to the rejection of all votes not in &C.
cordance with the political preference
of q majority of Congress. No
pewer exists in the Constitu.
ton authorizing the joint resolution or
the proposed law, the only difference
being that one would be more palpably
unconstitutional and revolutionary than
the other; one would rest upon the radi-
cal error that Congress has power to
prescribe terms and conditions to the
right of the people of the States to cast
their votes for President and Vice Pres
ident.
For the reasons thus indicated, / am
constrained to return the Joint resolu-
tion to the Senate for such further &C
ton thereon as Congress may deem ne
cessary.
[Signed,l ANDREW JOHNSON.
WAsHlNGToN, ID. c., July 20, 1865.
From the Cincinnati Commercial
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