The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1877-02-08
The Sovereign Power Of the State.
| jeremiah S. Blacks Argument

Jeremiah D. DlaCK Argument.
There has been much talk here about
getting behind the action of the State,
do believe firmly in the sovereign power
of the State to appoint any person cleo
tor that she pleases, if she does it in the
manner prescribed by the legislature
and after she has made the appointment
in that manner no man has right to 90
behind her act and say that it was an ap-
pontment not fit to be made. A man
whether he be an officer of the State or
an officer of the general government, who
undertakes to set aside such an appoint
ment is guilty of a usurpation and his act
is utterly void Therefore, if the Cover
nor Of the State of Florida, after this ap-
pointment of electors was made by the
people, undertook to certify that they
were not elected and put somebody else
in the place which belonged to them, his
act was utterly void and false and fraudu-
lent. We are not going behind the ac-
ton of the State we are going behind the
fraudulent act of an officer of the State
whose act had no validity in it what
ever.
This is question of evidence. Who
are the electors ? Two sets of persons
come here, each of them pretending to be
the agents of the State of Florida for the
purpose of performing that important
function of the State, the election of a
President and Vice President of the
United States. 1t is the business of the
two houses to count the votes. Now re-
member the argument that Mr.. Merrick
made upon the Constitution; let it sink
into your hearts, and do not forget it, be-
cause it is the Gods truth. The word
!'votes" it is that controls the meaning of
it. "The VoteS shall then be counted"
the V0teS mind you; not the frauds, nor
the forgeries. But they on the other side
tell us that, if the President of the Senate
lays before the two houses when the votes
are to be counted false paper, paper
which was absolutely counterfeited, that
is an end of it; you cannot produce any
extrinsic evidence for the purpose of
showing that it was forgery or any evi-
dence to show that it is not genuine. The
doctrine goes that far if tits to be adopted
at all. Garry that proposition to its log
ical consequences, and where does ittake
you? That you must simply receive
whatever anybody chooses to fabricate
and lay before Congress through the
President of the Senate, and that neither
the President of the Senate; nor either OF
the two houses; nor both of them together
can do anything but just take what is
given to them without inquiring into its
genuineness at all. l affirm, everybody
afirms, and hope to God that nobody
here, even on the other side, will attempt
to deny that the Congress of the United
States has the verifying power, the power
that enables it to inquire whether this is
forgery or not; and, if you have the
right to inquire whether it is counterfeit,
you have right to inquire whether it is
or is not invalidated by the base fraud in
which this thing was concocted, The
work of the counterfeiter is as well enti-
tied to be received for truth as this spawn
of criminal conspiracy, got up to cheat
the State and the Union, overturning and
oyerthrowing the great principle that
lies at the foundation of all our secur-
tiles