The New York herald., 1876-12-29
VINO Is to Count the Electoral Vote /,


bates, DC. We have looked through most of
these documents and present below few
facts bearing upon the question, which seem
to show that the two houses have never sur
rendered their right to examine" the cleo
toral vote, and that the President of the
Senate has never exercised or claimed the
power to determine the validity of States
vote. We may add that in no case has the
vote of a State been counted where either
house objected.
| /. In 1889 the Senate had no regular
President, and chose President pro tenn.
"for the sole purpose of opening the GER
tifcates and counting the votes" WASH
ington was known to have been chosen
unanimously, and the count was a mere
formality. In 1898, when Washington was
again unanimously chosen, the House
ordered committee to join similar
one from the Senate, ito ascertain and re-
port a method Of examining the votes for
| President and Vice President !" thus plainly
asserting the right of the two house to Eek
anime" the electoral vote and precisely
this same phraseology was used, at every
| quadrennial period thereafter, up to and
including the year 1865, when o joint COM
mittee, also charged to ascertain and re-
port method of examining the votes for
President and Vice President" framed the
famous twenty-second joint rule. which
was adopted in both houses without objec-
ton or debate.
III. In 1893, the record states that the Vice
President 'opened, read and delivered to
the tellers appointed for the purpose the
certificates Of the electors" and the tellers
'having examined and ascertained the
votes, presented list of them to the Vice
houses = SO that the Vice President did not
assume to declare or determine the vote
himself.
III. In 1897, the report says, ''the certifi-
Gates were by the Vice President opened and
delivered to the tellers appointed for the
purpose. who, having examined and ascer-
tanned the number Of votes, presented list
thereof to the Vice President. which was
read" &c. Again no evidence that the Vice
President thought he had any duty to per-
form except to open the certificates and
hand them to the tellers to Examine" on the
part of the two houses.
w. In 1901 the joint committee ITO re-
port n method of examining the votes" &C.,
failed to agree, and thereupon it might have
been supposed that the Senate would order
the Vice President to open, determine and
declare the vote; but it did nothing Of the
kind. 1t resolved that it would ask the
presence of the House at n day and hour
would ask it to appoint tellers to act with
Senate teller, and SO on, and the journal
reads:-''The two houses of Congress ac-
cordingly assembled in the Senate chamber,
and the certificates were by the Vice Presi-
dent opened and delivered to the tellers,
who, having examined and ascertained the
number Of votes, presented list thereof to
the Vice President, which was read," &c. :
v. In 1906, on the assembling of the .sgo
houses, the Vice President. "-e7saiug to tha
language Of the ic-ra3, slAtal 'il,s ruTan-
ant to ,sv. there j. baaa trsnsal "a "a
hiu ssve paea sta aich rsr tho -
aornr nacm. apPea1 .c.s the
toc 81 . presideai, =
rs ssst he re.urpa 4 KS, 'Nsy
:. a. voit as the 3oalcs,.a n sent by
40ese1earp - been received by
dne ..ne. You will now proceed,
aslsmen, said he, to count the votes
IS 'e constitution and laws direct.
- Jice President then proceeded to
break the seals of the respective returns,
handing each return and its accompanying
duplicate, as the seals of each were broken,
to the telers through the Secretary, Mr..
s. Smith reading aloud the returns and the
attestations of the appointment of the elec-
tors, and Mr.. J. Clay and Mr.. r. Griswold
comparing them with the duplicate return
lying before them" The journal then pro-
ceeds:-"After the returns had been oil ex-
amined, without any objection having been
Smith, on behalf of the tellers, commune
Gated to the Vice President the foregoing re-
suit, which was read from the chair
vi. Before this, in January, 1900, Mr..
Ross, in the Senate, moved s.that q commit
tee be appointed to consider whether any,
and what, provisions ought to be made by
law for deciding disputed elections of Presi-
dent and Vice President of the United
States and for determining the legality
or illegality of the votes given for those
officers in the different States" The
resolution of Mr. Ross was sent to COM
mittee, which reported bill which was
debated at great length during the session
in both houses, variously amended, and
finally failed because the House would not
agree to some of the Senate amendments.
But in all the debates, so far as they have
been preserved, no one except Mr.. Pinckney
and one or two others expressed doubt
that Congress, under the constitution, had
full control over the matter, to legislate as it
might choose.