The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1877-01-10
RESOLUTIONS.
Of the State Convention at Springfield
Illinois, January 8. 1877.

OF the State Convention at Springfield, |
Illinois, January 8. 1877.
ResoEUed By the Citizens of Illinois. In Coauen- |
ton Assembled on the Sth Day of January, 1877.
That q count of the votes for president and vice
president by the president of the senate without
the concurrence and direction lof both houses of
congress, would be contrary to usage, revolution
airy In character, and-dangerous to the rights OF
ResoI9ed. That, in the absence of any statute,
rule or order regulating the counting of the cleo
toral vote, the two houses of congress have the
right, under the constitution, 10 count the votes
of electors, TO decide all questions arising there
on, and declare the result and that vote should
be received and counted for president and vice
president without the concurrence of both houses
of congress; and in the performance of this duty
each house is vested with the authority TO inquire
into the qualifications of Eeleetors and the man
ner of their appointment. This has been the
construction of the provision of the constitution
respecting the subjecras shown by fan unbroken
usage from the first election of president to the
present time; and by the adoption by both houses
of congress unanimously Iof the krule known
| the 'tweEty-second joint rule" in February, 1868,
under which the electoral votes were counted by
congress IN 1865 in 1869 and in 1873, which rule
was acquiesced in and maintained, so long as both
| houses of corgrese were controlled by the same
! political party,
Re8oIUed That it Is the duty of the senate and
house of representatives to resort to all paria-
mentary means TO secure a fair and honest count
of the electoral VOTE and that the people will hold
senators and representatives responsible for the
| consequences which may follow a failure of the
|
| RssoIvsd, That kwhie we have no doubt that
Samuel }: Tflden and 1,hemas A. Hendricks are
fairly entitled to majority Of the electoral votes
| for president and vice president, we at the same
time believe il to be our duty, and willing to
submit the question, as to who have been fairly
and Constitutionaly elected to the decision of the
| senate and house of representatives, to whom it
| constitu:ionally belongs; and we demend of them,
as, we believe, do vast majority Of the people OF
all parties, that they come to some agreement for
| an honest and fair count of the electoral vote,
pedging ourselves TO abide by the result whatever
it may be.
Resotged, That it is well settled principle goi
law that when an official duty is to be performed
upon the happening of a certain contingency and
no mode has been provided for deciding when the
event has occurred, those who required to per
form the duty are the sole judges to when the
contingency arises; and in accordance with this
principle declare that IT properly deYOlves
upon each house of congress to decide for itseli
when the contingency shall arise that requires it,
: separate action, under the constitution, tht
election of president by the house of representa-
tives and a vice president by the senate,
ReSOt0ed, That in case the two houses, after ex
haustlng all parll mentRry means, unable Il
agree upon such count of the votes cast for presi
dent ana vice president will secure to an!
electors appointed, it will then become the dut,
OF the house of representatives,, Immediately. t
choose president and OF the senate vice presi
. dent, as provided by the constitution; and If tn
hCuse of representatives sha choose president
or the senate vice president, according to sucl
provision of the constitution, then such constitu
tional action must be sustained, and all forcib
opposition thereto be proceeded against as treason
ReSolUed, That the concerted assertion by tn,
leading Republican newspapers, on the mornin!
after the election, that South Carolina Florida an
Louisiana had gone for Hayes" before any de
finite information could possibly have been re
ceived froR those states, followed by the orders
the army OF the United States to see that board
= of canYassers are unmo Tested in the Performance
of their duties" issued b,fOre the canyassin
, boards had assembled, and without any reaso
: to suppose that such boards would be molested il
an honest discharge of duty, together with tn
knowledge that the result OF the presidential cleo
ton, as declared by the people at the polls eou!
be changed by falsely counting the votes OF Sout
I Carolina, Florida and Louisiana for Hayes. an
that the returning board of Louisiana, compOse
OF the persons now had arbitrarily ,unfair
and illegally changed the result Of former cleo
ton, could only have been intended assur
ance to the canvassng officers in those states il
r advance that they would be sustained in any can
, Yass they might make, however Ubiquitous, and es
: | pecially to the canvassng officers of Louisiana
1 that they would be sustained in repeating the al
| bitrary and illegal action bv which they had con
| tinued themselves and their party in power tw
years before that the subsequent action of the can
t vasslng officers in two OF the states mentioned il
open disregard OF the highest judicial tribunals il
their respective states, and the action of the Louis
= laha RETURNING board py when majority OF elgh
Is thousand votes for Samuel j. Tiiden was fraudu
= lently and Illegally changed into majority {
nearly four thousand for Rutherford B. Hayes
e in connection with Judge Bonds usurpatlon /
overriding the state courts, the action of the arm
II in setting up illegal legislature in South Care
lima, the concentration of troops and munitions
war at convenient points elsewhere, and threats
the partisan press that members of the house
representa- tives will be arrested and imprisoned
the house exercises its constitutional prerogatv,
in regard to the count of the electoral votes e'
tablish the existence of a conspiracy by force ali
1t fraud to proclaim and inaugurate president an
re vice president of the United States contrary to th
- constituuonally expressed will of the America
people.
ReS0tUed That it is the duty of the house {
representatives, the grand inquest of the Hatol
to inquire into said conspiracy, and il officers
u the government have been engaged IN the conspi
tod N1fS fsrri
u of the plot, by the Illegal use Of the army,
n otherwise, TO take immediate action to defeat til
conspiracy, and to bring the conspirators ito tri
Y, | at the bar of the senate,
&c Resolved, That the president of this conventic
III send copy of these resolutions the president
10 the senate and the speaker of the house Of repr
sentatiyes of the United States with a request tn
Y each lay the same before the bodies over whiC
they respectively preside.