The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-06-20
THE PRESIDENTIAL TITLE.

Report of the House Judiciary Committee.
The report which Mr.. Hartridge sub
mitted to the lower house of Congress.
in behalf of the majority of the Ju-
dietary Committee, declaring that the
Presidents title is unassailable-an
which was adopted by vote Of 234 to
14-is as follows:
The Committee on the Judiciary, to whom
was referred House bill No. =, and the reso-
buttons of the Legislature of the State of Mary
land, directing judicial proceedings to give eff
feet to the electoral vote of that State in the
last election of President and Vice President
of the United States, report back said bill and
resolutions, with a recommendation that the
bill do not pass. Your committee are of the
opinion that Congress has no power under the
constitution to confer Upon the Supreme Court
Of the United States the original jurisdic-
ton sought for it by this bill. The
only clause of the constitution which
able Congress to provide the legal
machinery for the litigation proposed is that
which gives the Supreme Court original juris-
diction in leases" or controversies" between
State and the citizens of another State. The
| committee are of opinion that this expression
"cases" and controversies" was not intended,
| by the the trainers of the constitution, to en-
brace an original proceeding by State in the
| Supreme Court of the United States to GUST
any incumbent from political Office filled by
| the declaration and decision of the two houses
| of Congress, clothed with the constitutional
power to count the electoral votes, and decided
| as a final tribunal upon the election of Presi-
dent and Vice President.
The Forty-fourth Congress selected a COM
mission to count the votes for President and
Vice President, reserving to itself the right to
| 81,
scribed in the act creating such commission.
By the joint action of the two houses it ratified
| the count made by the commission, and thus
made it the expression of its own Judgment.
All the departments Of the Federal Govern
ment, all the State governments in their rela-
tons to Federal authority. foreign nations,
the people Of the United States, all the
material interests and industries of the country
have acquiesced in, and acted in accordance
with, the pronounced finding of the Congress
| In the opinion of this committee the present
Congress has no power to undo the work of its
predecessor in counting the electoral vote, OF
to confer upon any judicial tribunal the right
to pass upon, and perhaps set aside the action
of that predecessor in reference to purely
political question, the decision of which is con-
fded by the constitution in Congress-.
| But, apart from these fundamental obiec-
| tions to the bill under consideration there are
| lmpracticable. Your committee can find no
warrant of authority to summon the Chief JUS
| tees of the Supreme Courts of the several
States to sit at Washington as jury to try any
case, however grave and weighty may be its
| nature. The right to summon must carry with
| it the power to enforce obedience to the man
date, and the committee can see no means by
| which the judicial officers of State can be
compelled to assume the functions of jurors in
| the supreme Court of the United States.
| There are other objections to the practical
working Of the bill Under consideration, to
which we do not think it necessary to refer.
| 1t may he true that the State of Maryland
has been, in the late election fer President and
| Vice President, deprived of her just and full
right in declaring who were legally chosen, by
cas- OF frauds perpetrated by Returning
| B cards in some of the States. It may also be
true that these fraudulent acts we're counte-
| nanced or encouraged or participated in by
some who now enjoy high Offices as the fruit of
such frauds. 1t is due to the present genera
ton of the people Of this country and their
| pOsterity, and to the principles on which our
! Government is founded, that all evidence tend
ing to establish the fact OF such fraudulent
practices should be calmly, carefully and vigor-
ously examined. But your committee are of
opinion that the consequence of such examina-
ton, if it discloses guilt upon the part of any
| al u4SA pOoltlOuS uOU NO OIL OA1OLI
to set aside the judgment of former Congress
as to the election of a President and Vice
President, but should be confined to the pun
ishment by legal and constitutional means OF
the offenders, and to the preservation and per-
petuation of the evidences of their guilt, SO
| that the American people may be protected
from a recurrence of the crime.
Three Republican members of the
committee, Mr.. Frye. Mr.. Conger, and
Mr.. Lapham, add the following:
We agree to the foregoing report, so far as ii
states reasons for the resolution adopted by
the committee, but dissent from the conclud-
ing portion, as not pertinent to the inquiry be-
fore us, and as giving an implied sanction to
the propriety of the pending investigation,
ordered by the majority of the House of Rep
resentatives, to which we were and are opposed.
Van0p rhiIfSS Roads