Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-07-22
WEDNESDAY,. July aa. isos.
Largest CireuIatIOn in CIty and state.
THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE BILL
VetS OF the PresidenI-An InesRtrO.
E u yerfIbIe Argument. ........


resolution excluding from the Electoral
College the votes Of States lately in rebel
lion which shall not have been recognized
az careful an examination az / have been
able TO bestow on the subject during the
few days that have iniervened since the
measure was submitted for my approval.
Feeling constrained to withhold my consent,
| ] herewith return the resolution to the
Senate, in which house it originated, with
a brief statement Of the reasons which have
induced my action. .t "
This joint resolution is based 'upon the
assumption that some Of the States, whose
inhabitants were lately in rebellion, are not
now entitled to representation in Congress,
and 10 participate in the election of Pee
sideht and Vice President Of the United
States. / 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
! continue strong in my conviction that the
acts Of secession, by which a number of the
| States sought to dissolve their connection
with other States and TO subvsrt the Union,
being unauthorized by the Constitution and
in direct violation thereof, were from the
beginning absolutely null and UOid.
It follows necessarily that when the re-
| bellion terminated the several States
which had attempted to secede, continued
/ to be States Of the Union, and all that was
! required 10 enable them to resume their
| relations to the Union WAS that they should
adopt the measures necessary to their prac-
| teal restoration as States. Such measures
were adopted, and the legitimate result
was, those States having conformed to all
| the requirements Of the Constitution, re-
sumed their former relations and became
| entitled to the exercise Of all the rights
guaranteed TO them by its provisions.
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 exercise them
again except upon re-admission into the
Union on the terms prescribed by Con.
gress. If this position be correct, it follows
that they were taken out of the Union by
virtue of their acts of secession, and hence
that the war waged on them was illegal
and unconstitutional.
We would be thus placed in this incon-
sistent attitude, that while we commenced
and carried on the war on the ground that
the Southern States, being component parts
Of the Union, we're in rebellion against the
lawful authority of the United States, upon
its termination, we resort to policy of re-
construction which assumes that il was not
in fact rebellion, but the war was waged
for the conquest Of territories assumed to
be outside Of the constitutional 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 inn
peraively requires that the President of the
Senate shall, in the presence Of the Senate
and House Of Representatives, open all the
certificates, aud the votes shall then be
counted. Congress has, therefore, no power
under the Constitution TO receive the cleo
toral votes or reject them. The whole
power ia exhausted when in the presence
of the two houses the votes are counted and
he result declared.
In this respect the power and duty of
the President of the Senate under the Con
stitution are purely ministerial. When,
therefore, the joint resolution declares that
no electoral votes shall be received or
counted from States that since the Ath of
March, 1867, have not adopted a State Con-
stitution, under which a State government
! shall have been organized, a power is as
sumed which is nowhere delegated TO Con-
gress, 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 virture Of their organization prior TO
the 4th Of March, 1867, but denies TO them
the right to vote in the election of Presi-
dent and Vice President Of the United
States
II follows, either that this assumption of
power is VIII oily 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 legiti-
mately restored. Being fully satisfied that
they were never ont of the Union, but that
their relations thereto have been legally
and constitutionally restored, ] am forced
10 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 Consultation, and that Congress
has no more power TO reject their votes
than those of the States which have been
uniiormally loyal 10 the Federal Union.
1t is worthy Of remark that, IL the States
whose inhabitants were recently in rebel
lion were legally and constitutionally or.
ganized and restored 10 their rights prior
to the 4th Of March, 1867, as am satisfied
they were, the only legitimate authority
under which an election for President and
Vice President can be held there, must be
| derived from the governments instituted
before that period. 1t clearly follows that
all tie State governments organized in
those States, and under the acts of Con-
gress for that purpose, and under the mill
/ tary, are illegitimate and Of no validity
whatever. and in that view the votes cast
in these States for PresideR and Vice
President, in pursuance Of the acts passed
since the 4th of March, 1867, and in ODE
dience 10 tse sO-cailed reconstruction acts
Of Congress cannot be legally received and
| counted, while the only votes in these States
that can be legally cast and counted, viii
be those cast in pursuance TO the laws in
force in the several States prior to the ad-
rainistration Of Congress on the subject Of
reconstruction.
l cannot refrain from directing your
special attention 20 the declaration con
tanned in the Joint resolution, that none
Of the States whose inhabitants were lately
in rebellion shall he entitled 20 represen-
tatiOn in the Electoral College, etc. II it
| is meant that no State is to be allowed to
vote Tor President and Vice President, all
Of Whose inhabitants we're engaged in the
late rebellion, II is apparent that no one Of
the States will be excluded from voting,
since IL ia well known that in every South
ern State there were many persons who
| did not participate in the rebellion, but
who actually took part in its suppression
or refrained from giving il any oounte-
! nance.
|, therefore, conclude that the true mean
ing Of the resolution is that no State, q
portion Of whose inhabitants were engaged
in the rebellion, shall be permitted TO par
ticipate in the Presidential election, except
on terms and conditions therein prescribed.
Assuming this to be the true construction
Of the resolution, the inquiry becomes per-
tinent, may those Northern States, por-
ton Of whose inhabitants were actually in
rebellion, be prevented at the discretion Of