The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-01-24
THE JOINT COMMITTEE.
The Senate md House Committees appoint.
ed 10 (onsidcr the Presidential Question.

The Scnatc md House Committees Appoint-
! ed 10 Consider the Presidential Question.
Fourteen men now have the important
question before them of reporting plan
for the settlement of the Presidential
problem, seven Republicans, Senators
Edm,lnls, Morton, Freiinghuysen and
; Logan, and congressman McCrary, Hoar
and Willard, and seven Democrats, Sena-
| tors Thurman, Bayard and Ransom, and
Congressman Payne, Humton, Hewitt
and Springer. They lave from now
until the fourteenth of February to de-
! liberate and agree upon measure, for it
is not until then that the vote is count
ed, and it is probable that the two
houses will accept any "method OF ex-
amining the votes on which the com
mittee may agree On the whole, the
committee is thought to have been well
selected. Members of both sides are
sound lawyers, capable of sitting and
naturally respecting precedents, and who
are likely to be guided to conclusion
by what they shall find, on careful in
vestigation of the manner in which this
question has been treated and regarded
in Congress from the beginning, to be the
proper way of counting the votes.
Senator Morton has probably exam
ined the matter more carefully than any
other member of the present joint COM
mittee. He has been for several years
desirous Of constitutional amendment
changing the method of electing the
President, and in the debates on his
amendment and on the bill which, at the
last session, passed the Senate to take
the place of the twenty-second Joint rule,
! he took q very prominent part. That
bill, under his leadership, received the
support OF almost every Republican in
the Senate and of some Democrats. In
the course of the debate, which lasted
many days, Mr.. Morton laid down two
important points as beyond controversy.
AS to the powers of the Vice-President
he said
81 do not accept the suggestion that
the Vice President of the United States
has anything more to do in the business
of counting the votes for President and
Vice-Presidcnt than that specific duty
which is prescribed for and enjoined
upon him by the Constitution. That
duty is, in the presence of the Senate
and House of Representatives, to open
the certificates. There being no other
duty assigned to him I infer, NATURALLY,
that he is to do nothing more"
In regard to the decision where two
sets of electoral returns come up from
State he thus explained the effect OF
section in his own bill:
"The effect of this section is to deter
mino which set of electoral returns is to
be counted, and if the two houses do not
agree neither set is to be counted; and
again, the vote goes out. The State has
no vote because, unless there IS some
tribunal to settle which vote shall be
counted, you cannot count both, and,
therefore, you cannot count either. You
must have some tribunal to settle that
difficulty; and what tribunal is safer
than the two houses of Congress ?"
Of Senator Edmund's opinions less is
known. He and Mr.. Frelinghrysen
have favored n submission Of disputed
questions to the supreme court, but this
could not be done without Constitu-
tional amendment for which no one is
now inclined.
Senators Thurman, Frelinghuysen and
Logan voted for Mr.. Mortons bill last
session and are thus committed to Mr..
Morton's views as above expressed.
Senators Bayarl, Edmunds and Ransom
voted against it, but they are known to
have been of lAte re-examining the sub
ject and may see cause to come to diff
fcrent conclusion.
Of the representatives OH the joint
committee AIr. McCrary has probably
given the most careful attention to the
question. He is the author of g standard
treatise on the law of elections, and is
sound and painstaking lawyer. Mr..
Willard, also a Republican, is men,
Der of the silver commission. Mr.. Geo.
F. Hoar is a learned lawyer, OF the
Democrats on the committee Mr.. Payne
is banker, Mr. Hewitt a manufacturer,
Mcssrs. IIunton and Springer LAWYERS.
It is not yet known whether the two
committees will work together at first.
They will at any rate frequently confer,
and they have Senator Morton's old bill
to work on. They will probably not be
content without complete investigation
of all the precedents since the founda-
ton of the government upon the elector-
al count, and al examination of what
has been held upon the powers of the
Vice-President and the two houses IN
the somewhat numerous debates in
which this question has come up.-Ucr-
AID.