The Hawaiian gazette., 1877-02-21

shall forthwith be submitted to q commission
composed OF five senators, five representatives,
and FIVE associate justices ofthe Supreme Court,
four of whom are designated in the agreement,
and the fifth is to be chosen by these four from
the remaining associate justices Of the Court,
The judgment of this commission as to which
is the true return and as to whas votes are to
be counted is to be accepted as final unless
overruled by the concurrent votes of both
houses of Congress. The commission is au-
thorized to consider the question submitted to
it with the same powers, yany, now posses
sed by the two housed acting separately or
together"
These two provisions constitute the substance
of the plan. All the other features are mere
ly matters of supplementary detail. The plan
practically, though not so in form, delegates
the whole power of final decision to this COM
mission, without any proper limitation as to
tie matters of which it shall take cognizance
Its decision is to stand, unless over-rued by
both houses of Congress, acting separately.
That is to say, the power to count the votes
CldllHeu " Dc utloHul6u ny tuO COuShlbhilon "
the two houses of Congress is by them delega-
ted to third body, under such circumstances
and with such provisions that they will really
have no power to do anything but accept the
decision of the commission. 1t is absolutely
sure beforehand that they will not agree in re
jecting the decision. This is certainly one way
of putting Congress into q strait jacket in the
exercise of powers claimed to be delegated to
it by the Constitution. We do not see any
warrant in that instrument for the creation of
such a commission or the delegation of power
assumed to be possessed by Congress itself.
If the commission were merely to report an
opinion on the subject, the case would be diff
ferent. This, however, is not the fact, since
its opinion is to stand as the law of the case,
unless both houses reject it. Neither house,
not knowing what the decision is to be, would
for moment pledge itself to accept it if it
were not understood beforehand that neither
house alone can reject it without being gull
ty of bad faith. The two houses simply bind
themselves by mutual agreement, each hoping
to win and each taking the chance of losing.
The best thing that can be said for the plan
extraordinary expedient to get Congress and
the country out of tight and possibly dan-
gerous place, rendered necessary not by any
essential difficulty in the problem to be solved,
but by the conflict of opinion between the two
Houses of Congress and among the people as
to the result of the last Presidential election.
This is the whole and only argument fer the
measure. 1t is, in itself considered, a strong
We feel its force, and presume
that with the majority of the people it will be
sufficient. But for what seems to be the neces-
sity of the situation, neither house of Congress
and neither political party would for a moment
accept the measure. The acceptance is simply
u choice of evils, and if the evil chosen were
to similar complications in the future, and
THUG make an occasion to repeat the remedy,
we should be of opinion that the greater evil
had been chosen, in the event that Congress
adopts the plan. 1t is possible to pay too
high price for present good. The warning
is most significant one; and earnestly it is
to be hoped that, before another Presidential
election, the Constitution will be so altered as
to supersede the necessity of resorting to any
extra constitutional plans in order to ascer-
tain who has been elected to the Presidency
or to secure an orderly and peaceful accept
ance of the result by the people.-Neg YorA
Independent