The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-01-04
4 Guarded Statement 0f tile Pro
gramme for Declaring the Vote.
WASHINGTON, December 25.


No public officer has been more per-
sistently and more fruitessly interviewed
than Senator Ferry, President pro tem..
of the Senate. The last reported conver.
sation with him was published in Bal
timore paper this morning, and Senator
Ferry, affer reading it, has taken occ,,.
sion to deny its statements seriatim. aud
pronounces it all made up.s In conversa.
lion with a friend this morning, Senator
Ferry, defined his position upon some dis.
puted points, and, while not constituting
an interview, the conversation may be
accepted as giving his views-i:.It will be
remembered that in receipting for the
sealed envelopes brought TO him; Senator
Ferry has adopted new form, designa:
ting them as envelopes claiming ns.l to con.
tain the Electoral vote.
In receipting for the packages rec eived
by mail, he has taken q similar course,
describing the envelope aud its marks in
his receipt. ALI these envelopes purport-
ing to contain electoral votes he proposed
to take to the place of meeting for the
two Houses, and there to open them
without exception, treating all; so far as
their opening by the President of tile
Senate in the presence of the two Houses
is concerned, in precisely the same man
ner. This ends q tolerably constant
rumor that only certain envelopes would
be opened by the President of the Sen
ate, and insures that, instead of 369 votes
coming before the two Houses for verif-
cation, 391 will be handed to the tellers,
of which. 2O6 will be counted for Tilden
and Hendricks and 1877, for Hayes and
Wheeler. What his action will be in.
the matter Mr. Ferry declines to say till
the committee of conference have reached
decision or disagreed irrevocably.
Mr.. Ferry's language upon the subject
is sufficiently significant to deserve quo.
tation as an informal expression OF his
views: 81 hope the two committees will.
come to some plan. IF the two Houses
agree, nobody will,havei any objection to
make. That will settle the matter. 1t
is not question that I want to. decide.
1t is: not an enviable position for any
man to take! He is certain, however he
decides it, to be hated by hall, the repu6-
lie. But if the two Houses fail to agree
1 shall appear at their place of meeting
with all the envelopes and do my duty
under the constitution. Il Shall have NO
hesitation whatever in doing my whole
duty. I shall shirk no responsibility"
What Mr.. Ferry considers his additional
duty under the Constitution in the.verif
cation of the votes and their count he did
not this morning say. He has not yet
said,~ and, except to his immediatepUfiti.
cal friends, q clear: headed, reticent iPoti,,
tician-on the eve Of a;re-election to-: tile
Senate is not likely ttfsaystAl February
IA; but that he considers that he. has a
duty to perform beyond the mere open
ing, in case the Houses fail to adopt some
plan before their. joint meeting, no listen
er to bis conversation This morning,
whose use as a conversation with friend
he permitted, could have. any doubt,
judging from his phrase and from the
evident and earnest desire that the two
Houses should deliver him of the respnn-
sibility of deciding the question before
they met IN joint session. Mr.. Ferry
said also that the Senate.committee is not
made up to favor reference to the Su-
preme Court. He was anxious simply
to get strong committee of lawyers
from the judiciary committee and the
committee on privileges and elections.
He claims the credit of having insisted
upon the even division of the commit.
tee.--Special Dispatvh to the Netc York
| WorlH '.''