Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-07-22
Statesn,l,.Ma, !,
THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE BILL.
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The Presfdent's Veto Message. =

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The Presfdent's Veto Message.
lsusilrsa igiss WASHINGTON, July 20, sls6S.r a
The President this afternoon sent the
following message to the Senate:
To the Senate of the United States: i
Ihavegi the Joint resolution, entitled a
lresolution excluding from the Electoral
Count the votes of the States lately in re-
bellion,, which shall not have been recog77
inized by Congress, as careful an examina-
ltion as / have been. able toibestow on the
same during the few days that have inter-
lvened since the measure was submitted for
my approval. Feeling constrained to with
hold my consents herewith return the
resolution to the Senate, in which it origi-
mated, with brief statement of the rea-
sons which have induced my. action.
THEORY ON WHICH THE RESOLUTION IS
| BASED.
Thisvjointsresolution is basedzupen the
assumption thatsome States, whose inhab-
iitants were lately in rebellion, are not now
entitled to representation in Congress, or
to participate in election of President and
Vice President of the UHited States. i have,
heretofore, had occasion to give in detail
my reasons for dissenting from this view.
1t is not necessary, at this time, to repeat
them. 1t is sufficient to state that con-
tinue strong in my conviction that the acts
of secession, by which number of the
States sought to dissolve their connection
with other States and to subvert the Union,
being unauthorized by the Constitution and
in direct violation thereof, were, from the
beginning, absolutely null and void. 1t
follows necessarily that when rebellion ter
minated, the separate States which had at
tempted to Secede continued to be States in
the Union, and all that was required to en-
able them to resume their relations to the
Union was that they should adopt the
measures necessary to their practical res
toration as States. Such measures were
adopted, and the legal result was, those
States, having conformed to all the require
ments of the Constitution, resumed their
former relations, and became entitled to the
exercise of all the rights guaranteed to
them by its provisions. 50 .sss
RECOGNIZES THE LEGALITY OF SECESSION.
The joint resolution under consideration,
however, seems to assume that by the in
surrectionary acts of their respective in
habitants those States forfeited their rights
as such, and can never again exercise them,
except upon readmission into The Union on
the terms prescribed by Congress.
CONSEQUENCES AND INCONSISTENCIES OF THE
POSITION.
If this position becorrect, il follows that
they were taken out of the Union by vir-
tue of their acts of secession; and hence
that the war waged on them was illegal
and unconstitutional. We would be thus
placed in this inconsistent attitude-that
while the war was commenced and carried
on upon the distinct ground that the South
ern States, being component parts of this
Union, were in rebellion against the lawful
authority of the United States, upon its
termination we resort to policy of recon-
structiOn which assumes that it was not in
fact.a rebellion, but that the war was waged
for the conquest of the Territories assumed
to be outside of the constitutional Union.
CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS AS TO THE
ELECTORAL COLLEGE.
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 i'm
peratively requires that the President of
the Senate shall, in the presence of the
Senate and Honse of Representatives open
all the certificates, and the votes shall then
be counted. --
CONGRESS NO POWER TO RECEIVE OR REJECT
VOTES.
Congress has, therefore, no power under
the Constitution to receive electoral votes
or reject them. The whole power is ex-
hausted When,. In the presence OF the Gwo
Houses, the votes are counted, and the re-
suit declared. In this respect the power
and duty of the President of the Senate,
under the Constitution, are purely minis
terial- When, therefore, the joint resolu-
tions declared "that no electoral votes
should be received or counted from the
States that, since the 4th of March, 1867,
have not adopted constitution of State
governments, under which State govern
ment shall have been organized" power is
assumed which is nowhere delegated to
Congress, unless upon the assumption that
the State governments organized prior to
the 4th of March, 1867, were illegal and
void. The joint resolution, by Implication
at least, comedies that these States were
States by virtue of their organization prior
to the 4th of March, 1867, but denies to
them the right to vote in the election OF
President and Vice President of the United
States. -tI 4-r
STATES ARE EITHER IN OR OUT OF THE UNION.
1t follows either that this assumption OF
power is wholly authorized by the Consti-
tuition, or that the States excluded from
voting were out of the Union by reason OF
the rebellion, and have never been legally
restored. Being fully satisfied that they
were never out of the Union, and their re-
lations thereto have been legally and con-
stitutionally restored, am forced to the
conclusion that the joint resolution which
deprives them of the right to have their
votes for President and Vice President re-
celVed and counted is in conflict with the
Constitution, and that Congress has no
more power to reject their votes than those
of the States which have been uniformly
loyal to the Federal Union, and must all
vote alike under the Constitution.
1t is worthy of remark that if the States
whose inhabitants were recently in rebel
lion, were legally and constitutionally or.
ganized and restored to their rights prior
TO the 4th of March, 1867, as am satisfied
they were. the only legitimate authority
under which the election for President and
Vice President can be held therein, must
be derived from the Governments institu-
ted before that period. 1t clearly follows
that all the State Governments organized
in these States, and acts of Congress for
that purpose, and under military control
are illegitimate, and of no validity what
ever, and in that view the votes cast in
those States for President and Vice Presi-
dent in pursuance of the acts passed since
the fourth of March, 1867, and in obedi-
ence to the so-called reconstruction acts,
of Congress, can not be legally received
and counted, while the only votes in those
States that can be legally cast and count
ed, will be those cast in pursuance OF laws
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