Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1877-01-16
THE ELEOr8RAL VOTE.
The Proposition Before the SeH-
ate Committee.


ate Committee.
NEW YORK, Jan. ia Washing
ton special says that the proposition
of the Senate Electoral Committee,
which was under consideration at a
joint meeting of the Senate and House
Committee yesterday, provides that
the Senate shall, on the day for the
counting of the votes, meet with the
the House i'm the Hall Of the latter
body. The Vice President shall open
all the certificates, and the tellers
shall, rs usual, read, record and sum
up the votes. But there are to be
counted i'm the first place, only returns
to which no objection is made. Where
there is one return only from StGte,
and that is objected to, the two Houses
will determine whether it shall be
counted but the concurrence of both
Houses will he required to reject any
vote, Where two returns are made
from one State, the dispute is to be
referred to n commission or tribunal
composed of nine members of the
House and Senate, and the four JUS
tees Of the Supreme Court longest in
service. The nine members of the
House and Senate are to be selected by
the appointment of five Senators and
five Representatives and then drop
ping one of the ten by drawing of
lots. The Justices who would become
members OF the Commission by the
terms of the proposition would be
Nathan Clifford, Of Maine, Noah II.
Swayne, of Ohio, Samuel f. Miller,
of Iowa, aud David Davis, of Illinois,
This Commission is to be authorized
to determine all questions of dispute.
Their decision is to he final, The dis
puted votes having been counted in
! the presence of the House and Senate,
| i'm accordance with the decision of the
! Commission, and the whole number
of Electoral votes having been sum
med up by tellers, the President of
! the Senate will announce the result in
| the usual form, which will determine
| who is to be President of the United
| States.
Justice Clifford is Democrat 4; Jus
.ices Swayne and Miller are Republi-
cans Justice Davis was also appoint
ed by President Lincoln. He has
! been known for sew eral years as a
! Liberal Republican. The bill has not
! the unanimous approval of the Senate
Committee If reports may be believ-
! ed, Senators Morton and Frelinghuy-
sen give very reserved and reluctant
consent to the proposition. 1t has be-
come clear, however, that no arrange
ment could be made between the two
! Houses which would determine in adj
vance of the count who would be
elected. There is no middle ground
of compromise on which the two
Houses can come together. There can
he no agreement in fact unless the de-
termination of questions in dispute is
submitted to some fair and able tribn.
nal outside of Congress, whose action
can not be foretold, The Senate pro.
position Is based on a bill passed by
the Senate in the year 1900 when all
disputes concerning Presidential cleo.
tiOns were yet mere distractions That
bill authorized the appointment of six
members of the Senate and six from
the House to act with the Chief JUS
tice of the Supreme Court, or in case
of his absence, the Justice of longest
service who might be in Washington
This was to constitute a grand COM
mittee to hear and settle all disputes
That bill was lost by disagreement be.
tween the two Houses.
The House Committee are said tC
look upon this proposition with some
favor, though the prospects for final
agreement cannot now be estimated