New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1877-02-24

uncontrolled execution, that is attributed
TO the election of members Of Congress.
Why did not the wise trainers of the con-
stitution indicate that Congress has this
power if they believed in it, and how could
they anticipate that the whole spirit and
purpose of excluding Federal authority
within the choice and execution and oerti-
tication Of the choice of electors should be
perverted into the m0nstrOus claim that an
uncontrolled political authority rests in the
two houses of Congress to slit, discard, dis
count and destroy the election and mako
such men electors as they choose. or annuI
the vote of the State when it will answer
their purpose3 If any further calculation
of my general views is needed must re-
specially ask attention to the reported ar
gument of Mr.. Matthews and myself in the
Florida case.
Inow come to the matter of the proof of
it. How about these Federal Disqualified
tiOnsi We talked about that in the FlOri-
da case. 1t SO happened that the principles
alleged Professionally did not raiss the case,
but our propositions are unchanged. These
electors have been elected, have acted, and
they have been certified. 1t has been as
serted that man who may be ineligible
can not be elected. You might rs well say
that the forbidden fruit could not be eaten
because it was forbidden. The attention of
the commission is called in passing to some
decisions of the Supreme Court of Penn
sylvania in regard to the power of a minor
L
eaneiee, etc.
Now, suppose that Levisee and Brewster
were each of them ineligible They are
elected. They are in execution of the office,
and the State is not to be prohibited in an
execution that is satisfactory to itself by
extranesus evidence, addueed at the mo-
ment of counting the votes, that the man
was ineligible. Congress must give that
consequence by some legislation and some
mode of determining it, or it can not arise.
/ RrIf haRQ MAJ in hVFN ha ali
| to fill q vacancy.
Well, the Oregon brief. oontrived not
only a double but treble debt to pay,
comes up again to prove that when an in
eligible person is elected there has been no
election. That is the reason of that supp0-
sition. There has been no election, and be-
yOnd that it is argued if only one out of
eight fails to be elected, then there has
failed to be an election; and then, to make
all this applicable to the existing state of
law in Louisiana, You are asked TO believe,
you are asked to hold, against all the au-
thorities, that an elected, ineligible person
is not electedj and that if he has not been
elected, there 10 not vacancy in the col
lege. When one State has said, "Our
method of filling any vacancy that shall
happen for any oause, any defect of full
numbers, shall be filed by the State Of
Louisiana in this way; that these that shall
have been chosen shall fill it."
Our learned friends hold that there be-
1
the Office not having been vacated; that if
} it has not been flied it is not vacant, that
is the proposition. Now an office is either
vacant or full. There are no forms in law
, between those two propositions, between
> vacant or full. 1t is not full with an en-
bryo that may grow.
} come now to the question Of States
. disqualifoatiOns The constitution of the
4 State of Louisiana has q provision which
!, says that no person shall hold or exercise
8 at the same time more than one office Of
| trust or profit except that of Justice of the
: peace or notary public. Governor Kellogg
was Governor; Governor Kellogg was
l. elector. Some of these electors held minor
offices, it is said. Proof of the fact is Of
d fered in regard to the others, in order that
the State disqualification may now be in
J. quired into and verified in the counting Of
j. the vote here. There are sufficient answers
n to this. Let us look at another clause of
/" this constitution, which provides some
@ other disqualifieatiOns = article ninety
10 nine: "The following persons shall be
+. prohibited from voting or holding any office.
F. ALI persons who shall be convicted of rea-
n son, perjury, forgery, or other crimes pun
70 ishable in the penitentiary," etc., with q
|. numerous list of disqualifieations TOR hold
IF ing any Office in the State. Suppose an inn
b, putation were made against an elector In
ID the certified lists forwarded by the Elect
le oral College and authenticated by the Gov
le ernor of any of these disqualihcatiOns,
IL could you inquire into theml Certainly not.
+ 1t is judicial inquiry. But this office, say
D. State Office. Well, it is not State office
I'd Il Is a representative electOr. When he
a. comes into office he holds an office undel
b. the constitution of the United States. TheI
i'd he acquired the office by the action of tht
ne State. The function, the right to vote, hI
lg is a representative elector. Now this CLAUSE
n of the constitution does not hold that any
III officer under that State shall hold Fedora
or office. l ask attention to the cases of thu
ke Fifth Louisiana Annual, l55, and the Sixth
", | Louisiana Annual US, and the Twenty-dttl
he Louisiana Annual, 1873.
of Commissioner Thurman-DO you mean Il
he be understood, Mr.. Evarts, as admittin
N, that a presidential electOr is an officer Q
at all.
of Mr.. Evarts-No; do not think he is al
Ter officer. He certainly is not State office
lat / think he is an electOr or voter, havin
I'D qualifications. and his Office is of the sam
ma kind as the office of the citizen who is ele'
ssl tor, sO.called, within the constitution, an
of whose qualifications are primary; but ii
of | moment the representative credentials ar
rn- closed and accorded to him, he is then q
the eleetOr and nothing else. He is not q Sta
nat officer. There is no provision by any legi
on lAtlon of Congress that can give this acti'
Ose of the two houses either in their joint a
m sembly or in this commission with rigl
ing accorded to it) the jurisdiction over q
W, question of fact involved in abuses or "
til. lations of the State Constitution; and the
act provisions of the State constitution do n
of touch the constitution of the United Stat
ion | which, while it was careful to exclu
itch Federal intervention of Ctheeholders, W
ION, | not guilty OF the fault OF saying that
heir State should aocredit as its eleetor
ute hOnOred citizen that filed in the affeetio
the of the people and in the authority of
,an- State place of trust. If anything, it v
not, desired that these electors should be ST.
S72, notables, men that had the adhesion
their felloW-citizens; and to say that
if must take the residuum of public charac
let and of public interest and of public repu
ntes after all the State offices are Tiled, n
and constable to Governor, or else we can
heae have an electOr, is imputing folly to
title trainers of our constitution that they
,tiaI not open to, and which can not be for
raw. upon them by State legislation. Cover
re-, IngersOll, of Connections, heads the 81
a of toral choice. Every one honors him as
tbat representative of his State. BE is Gov
n of nor. He certifies to himself. He dischar
ndi- Governors duty to certify to whomsoe
the the people choose. But he does not M
himself an electOr He certities upon
afer. corded evidence, as John Adams decla
that he was President of the United Sta
by the count of the votes
Heo Mr.. Evarts then spoke of the contus
3 I. TO and degradation of the suffrage in Lou
,n as ana. He said he did not want to be Il
VI that fraud was worse than violence; 10
ses the brOOding of great fear over wi
oan population which made them put into
voEsl framework of their constitution that
Csole privilege of free suffrage shall be supOol