, 1876-12-22

Cee01uE AS 1oIut coufeuLAou Ii hAo"u "
! the law OF Constitution.
The President of the Senate will, on tht
18th of February, proceed, after notice tt
the House of Representatives, to open the
certificates in the hall of the Senate. HI
will preside, not as the officer OF any joint
He will open the thirty-eight certificate:
(taking no notice of the extra and supple
mentary certificates from several States)
These will be read, and laid before: those
present. In the absence Of any law provid.
ing otherwise. he will perform the work ot
addition and announce the votes for HAYES
and the votes for T1LpES, and the business
will be at an end. If it is found that HAYES
has received 165 of the votes, there is no
power upon earth to prevent his inaugura-
ton; the citizens who voted against him will
by the million not only acquiesce in his
taking the Presidential chair, but help to
clear the road to the White House, if any
persons undertake to obstruct it.
Should, however, the President of the
Senate comply with the extreme technicai-
ty of merely opening the certificates, what
then? No motion can be made.
except by member of the Sem
ate, and the motion can only be
acted upon by the Senate, which body has
no more jurisdiction over the matter than
the House. Under the technical construc-
ton of the Constitution, that the President
Of the Senate's authority ends with merely
opening the certificates, there will be a
complete deadlock. There being, under
such rule, no person authorized to count the
votes, and 10 previous agreement between
the Houses in the form Of law directing
who shall count the votes. the votes must re-
main uncounted. The two House cannot
legislate in joint session; they can only
meet in joint session pursuant to some law.
The members, therefore, can do nothing but
look at each other, adjourn for dinner%and
thus continue day after day till noon of the
4th Of March, without having the vote
counted. Then the present House of
Representatives will cease to exist, and the
Lew House cannot meet by law till the De-
cember following. At no point Of their
abortive proceedings can the House get sepa-
rate control of the question and proceed to
elect President pursuant to one Of the pro-
visions, because, as the votes are not counted,
it cannot be shown or inferred that no can-
dldate has received majority OF all the
Electoral votes. The House can only
act in case neither of the candi-
dates obtained a majority Of the Electors.
The 4th Of March having arrived, and the
votes not having been counted by the Prcsi-
dent of the Senate, on account Of the DEM
ocratic technical objections and ''strict
and the term of the House
having ended and its members become mere
private citizens, the two Offices Of President
and President will be vacant, in which
casa the President of the Senate will become
Acting President until President and Vice
President be elected in November, 1877, to
take Office the 18th of March following.
This will be the outcome Of the business,
should the technical construction that the
President. of the Senate cannot count the
votes be followed. No votes being counted,
no one can be declared elected, nnd, until
The votes shall be counted, the House of
cannot assume that there
has been q failure to elect.
by general consent, such as has beer, given
1t al times from 1889 to the present day,
tellers have been appointed, who have taken
he figures from the certificates of the
Electors, opened by tho President Of the
Senate, footed them up, and reported. II
his rule should be adopted now, the tellers
IAN only foot up the figures in the certif~
.ates handed them by the President of the
Senate, which figures will be HAYES 1856,
r11DES ls4. Consequently there may be no
uch Democratic consent given, and no |
ellers from the House will be appointed by
hat body, and therefore the vote may not
,e counted
Those who debate this subject at Washing
on seem to ignore the fact that, unless the
NO Houses shall agree upon some law or
11le governing the proceedings on the day
ixed for counting the vote, there can be but
me course to adopt, and that is for the
President of the Senate to open the certif-
ates, tabnlate and count the votes, an
lounce the result, and thus close tie whole
proceeding; any other proceeding will be
Illegal and revolutionary