The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1876-12-07
CARL scHUnz's sOHhME WONT DO

Some time ago the STATESMAN said that
after the fourth of March next the dream
of John G. Calhoun might be realized and
the country "bles" with dual executive.
The New York World adverts to the same
possibility, and says that
When the two Houses meet to examine
the votes, il a member OF either body OBJ
ject TO counting any State, we assume that
the Senate will with dignity retire, If the
hall of the House be the place of meeting,
and enable the House to deliberate, and
itself to deliberate thereon, with propriety
and decorum. If, on reassembling, both
houses agree to reject the State, does any
one suppose that the President of the Sen
ate Will persist in counting it! 1.-THE two
houses disagree, will the president of one
BODY any the more be disposed to count it3
But il the House decides to exclude, and
the Senate to include, the contested State,
il the President of the Senate nevertheless
counts it and declares Governor Hayes to be
President. and if the House, on the other
hand, decides that no candidate had ma
jority Of all The electors Appointed" and
then elects Governor Tilden to be President
and so declares and so informs him, then
we have the spectacle of two Presidents,
both claiming to be legally elected, both
taking the oath of Office before competent
magistrate, and the House upholding Til
den and the Senate recognizing only Hayes.
On neither theory can Grant be in Office
after the fourth of March to command the
army or an thing else. He con possibly, be-
fore his term expires, convene the next
Congress TO meet on the fifth of March
1877; but the two houses of that Congress
would probably differ just as the two Houses
of tho present Congress differ. Now, there
is not necessarily any not or tuUlult or re-
volution IN Washington over this condition
of two Presidents. All executive officers,
including army and navy officers, would,
to be sure, need to decide, each for him
self, which Of the two he would obey. The
Senate and House of course, would not agree
about legislation. Neither President would
venture to take, or order to be taken, any
money out of the Treasury without an APP
preparation therefor by Congress. The
existing annual appropriations would en-.
dure till The first of next July, and then
neither President would have public funds
to pay any official, civil or military.
To escape palpable and great evils Incl
dent to such u condition Of affairs, our dis
patches of yesterday told how Carl Schurz
and others would have the matter of count.
ing the votes of the electoral colleges en-
trusted to the Supreme Court of the United
States. Unhappily for the country this
body has lost caste-whether deservedlY or
not We cannot say; but the opinion obtains
that the Supreme Court of the United States
az ivuger deserves that boundless -respeci
for its honesty of purpose and stainless in
compatibility that once distinguished this
body of jurists. They were selected
that they might decide as Grant
wished when the constitutionality of the
legal tender act came before the
court, and if such he the fact and Grant
have filled the bench with vulgar partisan
creatures of his will, no American citizen
would assent to the proposition of Mr..
Schurz. Even if the court were worthy oil
confidence it is hardly possible that Rad.
ical Senate, in which Morton ieigns and
Logan bellows, will assent to this divesti-
ture of power involved in the proposition
of Mr.. Schurz. Moreover, the House,
whatever the construction now given by
Republicans to constitutional provisions,
has the fright, conceded by many prece-
dents, TO reject the votes of States, and
while the President of the Senate opens
and counts, the House may intervene and
terminate the process. The failure of the
joint session to dcsignate the President de-
wolves the duty confessedly upon the House,
and it does not become usurping or law
less body by exercising rights certainly
given by law and by many precedents. Il
House with nights it has often exercised as
to transfer its powers to court which, or
ganized to accomplish one partisan purpose,
may well be trusted by Carl Schurz, the
hired sycophant of Hayes, to accomplish
/ aunfhar