New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-10-29

lQ00C OF Cu0 Uu1G0O Otot00s anu tn6 IE00-
ident of the Senate shall be the presiding
officer; one teller shall be appointed ON the
part of the Senate and two ON the part of
the House of Representatives, to whom
shall be handed, as they are opened by the
President Of the Senate, the certificates of
the electoral votes; and said tellers, having
read the same in the presence and hearing
of tn Q two houses then assembled, shall
make list of the votes a. they shall sp-
having been counted, the result of the
same shall be delivered to the President of
the Senate. who shall thereupon announce
the state of the vote and tho names of the
persons, if any, elected. which announce.
ment shall be deemed sufficient declAra-
ton of the persons elected President and
Vice President Of the United States, and
together with . list Of the votes, be entered
on the Journals of the two houses. If, upon
reading of any such certificates by the tellers
any question shall arise in regard to count
ing the votes therein certified, the same
having been stated by the presiding officer,
tho Senate shall thereupon withdraw, and
said question ahsll be submitted to that
body for its decision; and the Speaker of
tho House of Representatives shall. in like
manner, submit the said question to the
Hou Of Representatives tor its decision;
and NO question shall be decided 9f6rms-
lively, and NO vote objected to shall be
counted, except by the concurrent votes of
the two houses; which being obtained. the
two houses shall Immediately reasonable,
and the presiding officer shall then
announce the decision of the question sub
mitted, and upon any such question there
other question pertinent to the object for
which the two houses are assembled may
be submitted and determined in like man.
ner. At such joint meeting of the two
houses, seats shall be provided - follows:
For the President of the Senate, the
Speakers chair for the Speaker, chair
Immediately upon his left; the Senators, in
presiding officer; for the Representatives,
in the body of the hall not occupied by the
Senators; for the tellers, Secretary of the
Senate and Clerk of the House of Represen.
tatives, at the Clerks desk; for the other
officers of the two houses in front of the
Clerks desk and upon either side of the
Speakers platform. Such joint meeting
shall not be dissolved until the electoral
votes are all counted and the result de-
clared, and no recess shall be taken unless
q question shall have arisen in regard to
counting any of such votes, in which case it
shall be competent for either house, acting
separately in the manner hereinbefOre pro-
vided, to direct . recess, not beyond the
next day at the hour of l P. NJ"
This " terrible twenty-second joint rule"
as it has been styled, was ably and ex-
wonderful diversity of opinion and judg-
ment - to the present status of the Joint
rules was developed. And this wonderful
diversity of opinion and judgment still ex-
lists without, If not within, the Senate, and
out of it will grow during the early days of
the next session of Congress acrimonious
and exciting debates.
- 60 -
stance, was blinded by the hsllucinatiOn
that the former joint rules are still oper-
alive, while the Republican Senator, Ed
munds, showed c0nclusively that no joint
rules now exist for the government of the
two houses, and the Senate has, as q mat
ter of fact, expressed BY . unanimous vote
its disposition not to readopt the twenty
second joint rule ss joint rule of the two
bodies. And only an instant before that
called attention to the fact that the prop
osition which was then under consideration
''struck down" the former twenty-sec0nd
Joint rule.
Though under the influence of the hallu-
cinatiOn previously mentioned Senator Bay
ard was quite f0rcible and very positive in
his denunciation of and opposition to the
lowing excerpts from his speech during one
of the debates:
1.-THE people of this country have in reali-
ty for the last three Presidential elections
had hanging over them power in either
branch of Congress to defeat the popular
choice by q motion made and decided with
out debate by either House of Congress.
the control of the House of Representa-
tives, 80 long, under this joint rule, they
could, by raising any question, any pretext,
upon the count of vote, upon form of q
certificate. have thwarted the popular will
and have become themselves the electoral
body of the President aud Vice President Of
the United States. 1t has not been a matter
conceived in haste and corrected at leisure.
1t has been conceived in elaboration, and
continued deliberately from that day to
this. Now that the political complexion
and character of the other house of Con.
gress has changed, it is seen that this ter.
rible power of veto upon the popular will
may be exercised by others than those
whom it was intended to be exercised BY
snow, sir, upon this subject, immensely
important as it is, desire to say that, be-
lieving such an assumption of power to
have been originally wrong, it can not
harden into right by acquiescence or by
practice, and as this rule should never have
had existence, as such powers were exer-
cised at the last count of the presidential
vote, never could have been properly exer-
cised, 30 l wish it to be destroyed and neg
atived by the action of Congress.
although know that that party with
whom am in political utilization has the
power, under this present twenty-second
joint rule, to declare, according to their
will, who shall be the next President and
Vice President of tho United States, they
have no right to exercise such power ex-
cept in the contingency appointed by the
constitutisn-thst is, the failure of any
candidate receiving majority of the cleo
toral votes cast.
"Sir, this question is one of the very
gravest importance. True, the constitution
Is unfortunately too silent. It provides
simply that the President of the Senate
shall open the certificates in the presence of
the two HOUSES, and that the votes shall
then be counted. Taking the words strictly,
there is merely . ministerial duty on tho
part of tho President Of the Senate With his
thumb and finger to tear of the seals of
tho envelopes and present tho certificates