The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-07-21

make new nominations. lAffts
VETO OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE BILL.
The President this afternoon sent the follow
ing message to the Senate of the Unite'
States: ...s
have given to the joint resolution entitled
"a resolution excluding from the electoral col
lege the votes of States lately in rebellion
which shall not have been recognized" as care
full an examination as have been able to be
stow upon the subject during the few day!
that have interviewed since the measure wa!
submitted for my approval. Feeling constrain
ed to withhold my consent herewith return
the resolution to the Senate, in which House i
originated, with few brief statements whicl
have induced my action.
This Joint resolution is based upon the as
sumption that some of the States whose in
habitants were lately in rebellion are not nov
entitled to representation in Congress and tt
participate in the election of President ant
Vice President of the United States. hav,
heretofore had occasion to give in detail my
reasons for dissenting from this view. 1t i.
not necessary at this time to repeat them. Ii
is sufficient to state that | continue strong in
my conviction that the acts of secession by
which number OF the States sought to dis
solve their connection with the other States
and to subvert the Union being unauthorized
by the Constitution and in direct violation
thereof, were from the beginning absolutely
mil and void.
1t follows necessarily that when the rebellion
terminated the several States which attempted
to secede continued to be States in The Union,
and all that was required to enable them to
resume their relations to the Union was that
they should adopt measures necessary to their
practical restoration as States. Such measures
were adopted and the legitimate cause that
those States having CONFIRMED to all the re-
quirements of the Constitution resumed their
former relations, because entitled to the ex-
ercise of all rights guaranteed to them by its
provisions. The joint resolution under con-
slderatlon, however, see ms to assume that by
the insurrectionary 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. 9salt ~
If this position be correct it follows that they
were taken out of the Union by virtue of theiI
acts of secession, and hence, that the war wag-
ed upon them was illegal and unconstitution-
al We would thus be placed in this incon-
sistent attitude that while the war was COM
menced and carried on upon the distinct
ground that the Southern States, being COM
ponent parts of the Union, were in rebellion
against the lawful authority of the
United States, that upon its termination
we resort to policy of reconstruction, which
assumes that it was not in fact rebellion, but
that the war was waged for the conquest of
territories assumed to be outside of the Con-
stitutional Union. The mode and manner of
receiving and counting the votes tor President
and Vice President of the United States re
IN platD ana simple Terms prescribed Dy tile
Constitution. That instrument imperatvely
requires that the President of the Senate shall,
in the presence of the Senate and House of
Representatives, open all the certificates, and
the votes shall then be counted. Congress has,
therefore, no power under the Constitutio IN to
receive the electoral votes or reject them. The
whole power is exhausted, when in the pres
ence of the two houses the votes are counted
and the result declared. In this respect the
power and duty of the President of the Senate
are under the Constitution purely ministerial.
When, therefore, the Joint resolution declares
that no electoral votes shall be received or
counted from States that since the 4th of
March, 1861, have not adopted Constitution
of State go Fernment under which a State
government shall have been organized, a pow
er is assumed which is now here delegated to
Congress, unless upon the assumption that the
State governments organized prior to the Attn
of March, 1867, were illegal and void.
The joint resolution by implication at least,
comedies that these States were States by vir-
tue OF their organization prior to the 4th of
March, 1867, but denies to them the right to
vote in the election of President aud Vice
President of the United States. 1t follows
either that this assumption of power is wholly
unauthorized by the Constitution, or that the
States so excluded from voting were out of the
Union by reason of the rebellion, and have
never been legitimately restored. Being fully
satisfied that they were never out of the Union
and that their relations thereto have been
legally and constitutionally restored, am
forced to the conclusion that the Joint
resolution which deprives them of the right to
have their votes for President and Vice Presi-
dent received 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. Ii is worthy of remark
that il the States whose inhabitants were re-
Gently in rebellion were legally and constitu-
tionally organized and restored to their rights
prior to the 4th of March, 1867, as am sat-
listed they were the only legitimate authority
under which the election for President and
Vice President can be held therein must be
derived from the government instituted before
that power. 1t clearly follows that as the
State Governments organized in those States
under the acts of Congress for that purpose
and under military control are illegitimate
and of no validity whatever, and in that view
the votes cast in those States for President and
Vice President in pursuance of the acts pass
ed since the 4th of March, 1867, and in obed-
fence to the so-called reconstruction acts of
Congress cannot be legally received and
counted while the only votes in those States
that can be legally cast and counted will be
those cast in pursuance of the laws in force
in the several States prior to the legislation
by Congress upon the subject of reconstruc-
ton. r9-a s.-aua. RI ..r .s.i l..,.a--l,.
cannot refrain from directing your special
attention to the declaration contained in the
Joint resolution, that none of the States whose
inhabitants were lately in rebellion shall be
entitled to representation in the electoral col
lege, &c. If it is meant by this dec aratlon
that 10 State is to be allowed to vote for Pres
ident and Vice President all of whose inhabi-
tants were engaged in the late rebellion, it is
apparent that no one of the States will be ex-
cluded from voting, since it is well known that
in every Southern State there were many in
habitants who not only did not participate in
the rebellion but who actually took part in its
suppression or retrained from giving it any aid
or countenances Before concluding that the
true meaning of the joint resolution that nc
State, portion OF whose inhabitants were en-
gagged in the rebellion, shall be permitted to
participate in the Presidential election excep
upon the terms and conditions therein pre-
scribed; assuming this to be the true construc
ton of the resolution, the inquiry becomes
pertinent may those Northern States, a por-
ton of whose inhabitants were actually in the
rebellion, be prevented at the discretion OF
Congress from having their electoral vote
counted. .sf-- ~ l-l4
1t is well known that portion of the inhab
itants of New York and a portion of the in
habitants of Virginia were alike engaged il
the rebellion, yet it is equally well known thai
Virgil Tia as well as New York was at all time
during the war recognized by the federal gov.
eminent as State in the Union so clearly
that upon the termination of hostiities it was
noteven deemed necessary for her restoration
that provisional governor should be appoint
ed. Yet, according to this Joint resolution, the
people of Virginia, unless they comply with
the terms it prescribes, are denied the right o.
voting for President and Vice President, while
the people of New York a portiou of the in
habltants of which State were also in rebellion
are permitted to have their electoral vote
counted without undergoing the process of re-
construction prescribed to Virginia. New York
is no more State than Virginia. The one is
as much entitled to be represented in the cleo
toral college as the other. If Congress has the
power to deprive Virginia of this right, it car
exercise the same authority with respect t.
New York or any other of the States. Thu!
the result of the Presidential election may bs
controlled and determined by Congress, and
the people be deprived of their rights under
the Constitution to choose a President and
Vice President of the United States.
1t Congress were to provide by law that the
votes OF none Of the States should be received
and counted if cast for a candidate who differ
ed in political sentiment with majority OF
the two houses, snch legislation would at once
be condemned by the country as an uncon-
stitutional and revolutionary usurpation Of
power. 1t would, however be exceedingly
difficult to find in the Constitution any an
thOrity for the passage nf the joint resolution
under consideration, than for an enactment
looking directly to the rejection of all vote,
not in accordance with the political preference,
OF majority of Congress. No power exist
in the Constitution authorizing the joint reso
luton or proposed law, the ouly difference
being that one would be more papably un
constitutional and revolutionary than tn
other; both would rest upon the radical errO
that Congress has the power to prescrib
terms and conditions to the right of the peopl
of the States to cast their votes for Presiden
and Vice President
For the reasons thus indicated, am con
strained to return the joint resolution to tn
Senate for such further action thereon as Con
Signed, ANnREw .ToHNsoN