Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1876-12-02

aud counted. 1t has been assume
that the House of Representative wi
refuse to attend to perform that dut,
The interviewers might have save
their time. The House will most Ger
tainly attend and the president of th
Senate will then open the returns.
just here let me refer to the pro
1 position that the president of the Sen
ate might himself, against whateve
objection-by sheer force of muscl
and voice, | suppose-receive, aseer
tain and count the votes and proclaim
the result. But it should be remember
ed that no amount ofvoice nor audac
ity can confer constitutional right
The Constitution gives the presiden
of the Senate no authority to coun
the votes-meaning by counting,
the right of ascertainipg and receiving
the votes. For, to court the votes j
to decide what are votes It is onl.
the electors of the States who have
right to vote. All that the Constitu
ton says is that the president Of thu
Senate shall, in the presence of thu
Senate and House of Representatives
open all the certificates, and the vote.
shall then be counted" Counted bJ
whom the Constitution does not say.
THE VICE PREsIBENT AND THE ELMO
ToRAL COUNT.
If to be counted by the Vice Presi.
dent was meant, | think no one famil-
lar. with the precise and terse style oi
the Constitution could doubt that the
clause would have read: The presi-
dent of the Senate shall. IN the pres
ence of the Senate aud House of Re-
presentatives, open all the certificates
and count the votes" The change in
the form of the language shows that it
was not he who was to count.
And what could be more unreasona-
bic than that the Vice President, who,
by our system, is deprived of all real
power, and is only an expectancy pro-
vided for the contingency of Presi-
dental vacancy or incapacity, who
more frequently than any other officer
Of the government has been himself a
candidate for the Presidency, should
alone possess the unqualled power of
determining who is elected to be ex-
ecutive of this great nation2
Eight times already has the Vice
President been one of the candidates
for the Presidency voted for by the
electors, and to be counted In or out
as votes were receive8or rejected.
Would " the House" asked Mr..
Clay, on the objection to the vote of
Missouri in 1921, "alleE the Vice
President singly and alone thus virtu-
ally to decide the question Of the le-
gality of the vote p And no one
then pretended that it would. The
Constitution, Mr.. Clay further said.
. requires the two houses to assemble
and perform the highest duty that
could devolve on public body, to as
certain who has been elected by the
people to administer the national COR
Germs. In case of votes coming for
ward which could not be counted the
Constitution was silent, but, fortunate
", the end in that case carried with it
the means. The two houses were
called upon to enumerate the votes for
President and Vice President. OF
course they are called upon to decide
what are votes" (Annals Cong, p l.
1907.
But whatever may be thought of
this, as an original question, it may
we'll be claimed that the practice of
the Government has settled the inter-
pretation of this. clause of the Consti-
tuition.
Never since the Government was
has any Vice President as
sumed to count an electoral vote, ex-
cept as the houses permitted and new
er once, in all the tWenty-three cleo
lions decided, has a Vice President
failed to Withhold or to prevent returns,
Or to reject or announce votes, as the
houses directed.
THE ESTABLISHED PRECEDENT.
As at the time of the first election
here was no Vice President, and a
person had necessarily to be appointed
10 count the votes, that occasion may
be precedent. But in 1893 the House
.aised joint committee to ascertain
md report "the mode of examining
he votes" and. in accordance with
heir report, named tellers, one for
The Senate and one for the House, and
when the houses were assembled the
Vice President broke the seals of the
,eturns, handed them to the tellers,
who, having examined and ascertain
ID the votes, prepared and presented a
ist to the Vice President showing the
state of the vote, which list was read
10 the two houses, whereupon the Vice
President decided the result accord
ngly."
And this may be said to have been
substantially the method ever since
On some occasions the re-
cords are fuller and more significant
han others. For instance, in 1897, |
he Vice President, John Adams, said: |
By the report which has been made |
% me by the tellers appointed by the
wo houses to examine the votes, there |
ire seventy-one votes for John Ad- |
inns" &C., stating the result, and then |
he proceeded, I'm obedience to the
Constitution and law of the United |
states and to the command of both
houses of Congress, expressed in their
passed in the present ses-
ion, | declare John Adams elected"
In 1917, when, in the case of Indi-
ma, the objection was first made to at
empt to decide the question, but the
rouse at once withdrew to consider it. |
In 1921 the houses directed how the |
rotes of Missouri should be announ-
ed, and they were announced accord
ngly.
In 1857, on a suggestion that the
whole of the certificates need not be
cad, the Vice President said that un-
Ter the rule of the houses appointing
ellers, he considered that the count
ng of the vote devolved upon the tel
ers, and the decision of what should
,e read rested with them.
In 1866 the Vice President refused
o open the returns he had received
rom Louisiana and Tennessee, be-
ause so directed by the houses.
In 1872 be opened the returns and
accepted without remark the decisions
# the House, by which the votes from |
}eorgia, Arkansas and Louisiana we're
elected, and the votes of Mississippi
md Texas counted against objection.
And any one who will read the de-
)ate in the Senate on February 6, 1865,
IN the adoption of the joint rule in re-
,ard to counting the electoral vote will
lee how generally the idea that the |
Vice President had, even in the alb. |
ence of legislation by Congress- (as
Judge Kent thoughtl, any power over
he COUNT, was repudlated by senators
'f.both parties.
BOTH HOUSES MUST CONCUR.
But, if the counting of the votes be
" the Constitution vested in the two |