The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-01-24

legislative power can not be delegated If the
power 10 make laws caunot be delegated, how
can Congress delegate power which controls
the vote of states to packed tribunal2 An
other feature Of the bill which violated the
spirit of the Constitution was that authorizing
the appointment of a committee. of five mem
bers of each house as members OF commission,
not to take deposition and report or other COM
mttee. but to be beyond the control of the two
houses after being organized. The ConStitu-
ton provides that no member of either house
shall bold any Office created while he holds a
seat in Congress
He could not but regard such doctrine as
both monstrous and revolutionary. He had no
words better to express his sense OF its meaning
tn an those which the distinguished aud accom-
pished Senat # from Delaware (Bayard) used
the 18th of March last when he denounced this
very doctrine as IAN utter usurpatlon utterly
without warrant in the Constitution, dangerous
in the extreme and threatening t. overthrow
that spirit of popular liberty winch underles
the framework of our system lie knew thai
those who now sustained that doctrine pointed
to the I'D Joint rule as affording support to it.
but he held that the rule was foreign to the
Consultation and might be fatal to the liberties
of the country and ought TO be denounced by
every parry. He was not surprised or dlspeas-
ed at the mischief now threatening to come
down in the teeth of party Which first devised
that measure, Neither should he be surprised
or dspleased if he found the same mischief
coming down in the teeth of whatever party
proposed to profit by it. For in this world God
reigns, much and often as that fact is ignored,
and Justice and retributiOn were no mere fig
meuts of speech but supreme realities to which
nations and parties as we'll as individual men
must yield.
He implOred the House to pause and consider
well before it took step which would make
the President of the United States the creature
and tool of the House Of Representatives. 1t
became them to guards we'll state rights, that
principle of local self-eovermen: which was an
Anglo-Sazon birthright and the dearest of
American privileges. In allowing the states TO
be ham, ered either by congressional o. execu-
tive Interference the body was not siren thened
and the members were weakened. One thing
IN the late election was beyond dispute and
that was that In certain quarters both parties
had acted Jast as wrong as they could. Re-
strained by no conscience, no sense of honor or
rectitade, by nothing but the sheer impossi-
blity of doing worse. That was not true of
course of the election as whole but only of
certain localities.
He admitted the chicanery, the corruption,
the fraud and the cruelty practiced and put
forth in certain quarters to control the late
election. No honest ma1 in his senses could
deny it but wrong only grew to greater
wrong if twas sought to be lighted in wrong
way. The violations ST the law which all de-
ploreG would only be multiplied in the future
II they were treated 10 any other manner than
that prescribed by the Constitution and laws.
The question who should be President for the
next four years was mere temporary ques-
tioD, but the question how the President should
be chosen and declared was permanent one.
Such question spread its hands through the
coming time and laid its grasp on generations
yet to be. He referred to the report of the COM
| mittee on counting the electoral vote as of a
patriotism SO lofty, so pure that il it could only
| be adopted by Congress with the same unanim-
| ity with which it had been adopted by the COM
mittee, he should regard il as glory shed on
| the 0nanlnU OF the nations second
| ry which no year of the previous century could
excel He would that Congress would pass the
| bill unanimously, and tell the world that this
| great and free people which had lately shown
| itself so great by submitting to peaceful arbi.
| tration threatening international dispute, had
now shown itself greater still in the present
discussion, by yielding all disputes about rights
in the sole effort to learn and to follow its O0-
| gations If this could be done, he could think
| of nothing SO great that this people might not
| do, nothing so glorious that such people might
| not become.
Mr. Williams of Wisconsin after denouncing
| Mr.. Willis of New York for comparing Pfesi-
| dent Grant to Caesar Borgia and Gen. Ruger
to Rarniro proceeded to argue in favor of the
| counting of the electoral vote by the President
| of the Senate.
Mr.. Tucker. of Virginia made constitutional
! and legal argument in support of the resolu.
| tions. In Analysing the constitutional provis-
ions on the subjecti he said that in the opening
| stages of electoral procedure, the President of
| the Senate, the Senate and House of Repre-
| sentatves had functions to perform which were
| now the most important to be defined and
which were the subject of this great discussion.
One remark he would make and that was that
wherever else the power aud decision might be
reposed, it was clear that it bad not been
deemed safe to entrust it to the existing H.
cumbent of the Presidential office. To leave to
HIM the determination of an election in which
he might BIZ a candidate and to suppose that
it would be safe to entrust it to him, was so
foreign to the thoughts of the trainers of the
Constitution that his name had not often been
mentioned in any of the clauses concerning the
electoral votes. He proceeded to relate the
history of the constitutional provision and to
argue from 1t that the power to count and de-
care the electoral votes was not reposed in the
President of the Senate
Further consideration of the resolutions re-
ported from the committee on privileges was
postponed till tomorrow.
Mr.. Holman of Indiana made an effort to go
into the committee of the whole on the Indian
appropriation bill, but the majority against
that course was very strong ard decided.
Mr.. Cox, chairman of The committee on cleo
ton frauds In New York, submitted the report
in regard to the alleged tampering with Mr..
Hewitt's mail in the New York postofice. 1t
ompleteIv exonerates Postm aster James and
his subordinates in the postofice from all
blame in the matter andAdeclares that no such
tamperiDg has been done. 1t was printed and