Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1876-11-18

e~~S~S~eSS9
OF counting and declaring the vote"
Should there be no President of the
Senate the votes are to be in care of
the Secretary of State. The same
act made provision that in case of va
cancy of both President and Vice
President the President of the Senate
pro tempore should act as President
and if there should be no such officer
chosen by the Senate, then the Speak
er of the House should act.
In 1892 Washington was unani-
mously reelected, all the old thirteen
and the new States of Vermont,
Georgia and Kentucky voting. On
this occasion joint committee was
raised to determine upon the forms to
be observed in counting the votes,
and that practice yet continues.
This committee reported, and it was
ordered that the two houses should
meet in the Senate chamber at noon
of the day fixed by the act of Con
gress; that the Senate should pre-
viously appoint one and the House
two tellers to set down the votes as
declared; that they should deliver the
result to the President of the Senate,
who should announce the state of the
vote and declare the persons elected
to both houses then assembled
which shall be deemed o declara-
ion of the persons elected President
and Vice President" which declara-
ton, together with the list of votes,
should he entered on the journals
of the two houses. There was moth
irg worthy of note in the counting
on the second Wednesday of Febru-
ary, 1893; Washington had the en-
tire 1872 votes; Adams had II, Gin.
ton so, Jefferson 4 and Aaron Burr, 1.
In 1796 John Adams was chosen
President, having all the votes of the
New England States with New York,
New Jersey and Delaware, and ten
scattering from other States. He
had barely enough-71 out of 14O
votes, only one majority. Jefferson,
having the next highest, was the Vice
President. There was a peculiar in
cident about the announcement of
this result that is worth noticing.
The President of the Senate was
Munlenberg, the same who presided
in 1889. After declaring the result,
and proclaiming that John Adams
and Thomas Jefferson were duly
elected, &C., &c., for the term of four
years, he added -" And may the
sovereign Of the universe, the ordainer
of civil government on earth for the
preservation of liberty, justice and
peace among men enable both to dis
charge the duties of their offices con-
formally to the constitution of the
United States, with conscientious dill
igence, punctuality and persever-
ance."
The first action suggesting that
Congress ought to have anything to
say about the casting or the receiving
of the electoral votes, beyond the
purely ministerial act of counting and
declaring, was in the Senate, in JAN
uary, 1900, when a committee was
raised to report what regulations
should be made for deciding disputed
elections of Presidents and for de-
termining the legality or iliegality of
votes for President and Vice Presi-
dent in the different States. A bill
was reported in February, when
Charles Pinckney strenuously OPP
posed it, taking the ground that
neither house ought by the slightest
suspicion of an act to exercise con-
troll or even revisal over the franchise.
The bill passed, 16 to IA, but did not
go through the House, and appears
to have been dropped altogether.
THE FIRST SERIOUS DIFFICULTY-AN ELEC-
TORAL TIE.
About the close of the year 1900 it
was known that there was likely to
be tie vote for President between
Jefferson and Burr. So, about a
week before the day for opening the
returns, the usual joint committee
Brought in a rule, which was adopted,
that if no person should have con-
stitutional majority of the electoral
votes, the Speaker and the members
of the House should at once return
to their chamber and Immediately
proceed, without debate, to vote for
President, and should not adjourn
until they had made selection. The
counting, on the 18th of February,
resulted as NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. and
Burr had each seventy-three votes.
As soon as the presiding officer made
the announcement, the House re-
turned to their chamber and began to
vote by States; Jefferson got eight
States, Burr got six, and two (Ver-
mont and Maryland) were divided.
This was the result of thirty-seven
ballots, taken during session ex-
tending from noon of the 18th to
noon of the 18th of the month. In
tense solicitude was felt throughout
the country, more particularly be-
cause of the reputation of Burr, who
had suddenly sprung into prominence
as a bold and, INSCRIPTIONS leader.
The deadlock was broken on the
thirty-eighth ballot, when Jefferson
got Vermont, New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia,
North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky
and Teunessee-ten States. Burr got
New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
Rhode Island and Connecticut-four
States. Delaware and South Caro-
lima voted blank. This contest made
wildly apparent the necessity of some
law or rule requiring the electors to
state the office as we'll as the man for
whom they voted, so that the tellers