The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1876-12-22

| which instruments they are sworn), anu
must be otherwise appropriate to the end for
which the power of regulation was conferred
upon them. With these limitations their
regulations of the manner of appointing
Electors are to be completely respected by
all authorities of the United States, and
those regulations are primarily to be applied
and enforced by State authoriti,s executive
aud judicial.
But, apparently, with the appointment of
Electors State agency ends md Federal reg
uation begins for a College, though the
product of State action, is essential y Fed
eral institution, created for Federal pur-
poses, to which the Federal Constitution ad.
dresses direct commands. It's lawful consti-
tuition as well as its proceedings and returns
is therefore proper and necessary object OF
inquiry by Federal authority.
And here we reach question of evidence
which will be variously answered by dispu-
tauts in debate, according to the exigencies
of argument and to the positions of those
who reply One will tell us that a Govern
or's certificate of the appointment of Electors
for a State is priRa .Jdcie evidence Of their
lawful appointment and authority another,
that such certificate is conclusive evidence;
while still another, in the language Of an
accomplished gentleman and former Clerk
OF the national House of Representatives,
will inform US that, in his opinion, such GER.
tificate is ''prima .facie absolute evidence" OF
the same thingl Passing by the last mem
toned opinion as not quite comprehensive
to the common mind,we may inquire whether
the first or the second of these opinions is to
be accepted az the true one.
These certificates Of Governors of States
are not required by, or even mentioned in the
Constitution of the United States, and have
therefore only a statutory sanction. And
the act of Congress of March lst, 1892,
which provides for them, while it manifests
a claim by Congress to regulate the returns
or certificates of electoral appointments, is
very plainly directory only in several of its
provisions, including the certificate section,
and does not assign to the certificates to be is
sued under it any conclusive effect or value
Governors certificates are known to us in
other cases of State selections to Federal
posts of duty, Snd bear well defined char.
| acter. BY the act of Congress of 2jth July
| 1868 an election of Uatei States Senator
| from State, is to be certified by the Gov
| ernor OF the State. Elections OF Represent
| atives from States are certified by the same
| authority an constitute the evidence upon
which new House of Representatives is or
ganized every second year. Turning to the
| 4th section Of the 1t Article of the Const.
tuition We find that the times, places and
manner of electing Senators and Represent
atives in Congress, is to be prescribed by the
Legislature of each State, Though Congress
may make or alter such regulations); a pro-
vision very similar to that relating to the APP
poiptment of Presidential Electors. Now
these Senatorial, Representative and Electo.
raj certificates made by Governors, upon re-
turns Of elections in their States by the peo-
| pie or Legislatures, will have a uniform
character and force as evidence unless strong
reasons to the contrary appear, And yet
no point Of law is more firmly established
than the point that Governors certificates of
Senatorial and Representative elections are
prin,a tacie evidence only, and liable to be
set aside upon countervailing proof. In
some notable cases they have not been per-
mitted to take effect even in the first instance,
where other evidence, of which Representa-.
tive bodies could take notice, convicted them
of illegality or falsehood.
1t is no sufficient answer to this argument
| to say, that each House of Congress is au-
thorized by the Constitution to judge of the
elections and returns of its members. They
have that power and would, on general prn-
ciples of parliamentary law, have had it if
the Constitution had been wholly silent upon
the subject. But the power Of the two
Houses to inquire into the lawful character
of an Electoral College whether it has been
in fact appointed by the State and in the
manner lawfully directed aud is therefore
constitutioaal-bein ing conceded, a Govern
or's certificate of electoral membership be-
longs inevitably to the same class of proofs
with his certificates of membership in Con-
gress, as to the force and effect to be given it
as evidence. If the two Houses have no
such power of inquiry, it is quite immaterial
| how an electoral certificate shall be cassed
To say that they do not possess the power of
inquiry because such certificate concludes
them, is to beg the question in dispute. If,
therefore, it has been established that the
two Houses have the power and are charged
with the duty of enforcing the Constitution
in the particulars above mentioned, Gov
ernor's certificate is not the sole and conclu-
sive evidence which they can receive upon
the inquiry to be made.
| The doubt which might attach TO this rea-
soning if the Governors act in making an
electoral certificate were considered as done
under State authority-under some regulG-
ton by the State Legislature of the manner
of appointing Electors-wholly disappears
when we remember that the certificate is
made under an act Of Congress and conse-
luently within the domain and jurisdiction
of Federal power.
| That the certificate section of the act of 1892
is directory only and not imper tive, and
a Governors certificate not indispensable
to the validity of return of electoral votes,
i'shown by the decision of the two Houses of
Congress in the case Of Texas in 1873. A
certificate of an acting Secretary of State
was, in that case, held to be sufficient, aud
the electoral votes of the State were received
and counted. tGtO6e, 1928, PIP l2S9-9l
1900, 1901, 1907
At the same count Of 1873, the certificate
of the Governor of Louisiana was held not
tn conclude the two Houses. Upon other
evidence and looking behind his certificate,
tn, votes from that State were rejected.
Gto5e, 1928, PIP 1929, l292-3)
II il scarcely necessary 10 add that a fraud