Mexico weekly ledger., 1877-02-08

ident of the Senate said 1.-THE Joint Conven-
ton of the two Houses of Congress for counting
the votes for President and Vice President will
now come to order" Perfect silence followed, |
and the President of the Senate continued: sin
obedience to the Constitution, the Senate
and House of Representatives have met to be
present at the opening of the certificates and
COUNTING and declaring of results of the Electoral
votes for the offices of President and Vice Presi- |
dent OF the United States ,ha eh 1 d9rrI the term of Jour
In compliance with the law, the President of the
Senate will now proceed, in the presence of the
two houses. to open all certificates of the several
States, and in alphabetical order, beginning
with the State of Alabama" Then the strong
box, in which the certificates were, was carried
II the oS Senate anat and and placed on the desk be.
fore the President of the Senate. who
opened it, and taking from it the certificate from
the State of Alabama, handed it to the tellers,
who were sitting just below him at
the Clerks desk, anu Senator Allison, one of the
tellers, read the document in ~extenso, the result
of it being that Samuel j. Tilden, of New York,
and Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, had re-
ceived the ten Electoral votes of Alabama. The
Vice-President said that the certificate received
from Alabama having been read. the duplicate
certificate received by mai1tlwould be read.
Objection was made, however, to reading the
duplicates in %extenso, and it was therefore or
dered that the duplicates be compared with the
originals by one of the tellers as the other read
the original. This having been disposed of the
presiding officer said, are tn there any :. ob5ec-
bama?" After a pause: The Chair hears none.
The votes of the State oil Alabama will be
counted. One of the teilers will an
nounce the vote, SO there may be no mistake"
The result was announced by Mr.. Cook. The
same. ceremonial was observed IN reference to
the next State. The result was announced that
six votes of Arkansas were given for Tllden and
Hendricks. The next State was California, six
votes for Hayes and Wheeler. Then followed
Colorado. with three votes for Hayes and
Wheeler; Connecticut, with six votes
for Tilden and Hendricks, and Delaware, with
three votes for Iilden and Hendricks. The
90 l;oo 80 aF Tho no1auara aaNtj fo fog hoinr nor-
Guided, the presiding officer asked lnadvertent-
" if there was any objection to counting the
votes of the State Of Florida, but he immediately
corrected himself and submitted Delaware,
amid suppressed but general laughter. Then
Florida was reached, and MIR. Stone, teller,
proceeded to read the certificates. The reading
Of the fl st certificate showed the four votes f
Florida for Hayes and Wheeler. Then the
presiding officer handed the teller another GER
tifcate received from that State which, on being
read by Mr.. stone, showed four votes for Tilden
and Hendricks. The former certificate was au-
thenticated by the late Governor Stearns,
the latter by General Cooke. Then the
presiding officer handed down t. the tell
ers still another certificate from Florida, re-
ceived through 4 messenger on the 3lst January,
and a corresponding one received by mail on the
30th of January. This third one is an authen-
tication OF the act Of Electors who voted for Til
den and Hendricks, and is made by present
Gov. Drew. Objection to the first certificate for
Hayes and Wheeler was signed by S~e9atOrs
Jones, of Florida; Cooper and Mcdonald, of
Indiana, and by representatives Field, Tucker,
jerks and Springer. After half an hour was
spent in reading papers accompany ing the third
certificate, Senator Conkllng proposed the read
ing be regarded as completed and the result an
nounced, as under a late act OF Congress all the
papers would be referred TO a provisional tri-
buDal raised to examine such questions. There
being no objection, 1t was so ordered.
The Clerk of the House read the paper.
1t asserted that those persons (Messrs. Pierce,
Humphreys, Holden and Young assumingtoac act
as Presidential Electors, never were duly ap-
pointed by the State of Florida, or in any man
ner whatever; that the other four persons had
been elected, and had an lrreVOcable title to the
office, that the certificate of election Of the first
four persons was untruly andcorruptly procured
and made III pursuance Of 3 conspiracy between
them and Nj. L. StearnS, late Governor; that
they were usurperS, ana that their acts are lille
gal, null and void. Further objections being
called for, senator Sargent sent up to
the Clerks desk, on behalf OF himself
and senators tonover, sherman and
Teller. and of Representatives WooGburn, Dun
objections TO the votes cast by Messrs. call,
HuntCn, Bullock and IonSe, Democratic Elect
ors, on the ground that the papers are not au-
thenticated as required by the Constitution and
laws. Senator Jones, OF Florida, made objac-
ton specially to humphreys as holding an office
OF trust and profit under the United States. Mr..
kassOn made an additional objeCti II to the
third set of certificates, because they were not
authenticated by the person who held the Office
OF Governor at the time that the functions of
office We're exercised. The Presiding Officer:
- Are there further objections to counting the
vote OF Florida" After a pause: 6 If there
be none. the certificates and papers, together
with other papers accompanying the same,
as well as the objections presented, will now be
transmitted to the Electoral College Commission
for Judgment and decision. The Senate VIII now
withdraw to its chamber, so that the House may
act separately upon the objections. \ buzz of
dissent to the closing part of the sentence per-
vaded the chamber, out the presiding officer made
no change and the Senate retired.