Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-12-09

| Soagress nau tno power to do nothing, excep
aud what was that?Z'A legislative power
u was legislature organ;zec
70 make the lawr, not acourt organized to pro
nornce on the operation of laws. His obiec
clou to the present resolution ives that Con
g1ess had no power to act judiciously upon it
TO reject or to receive the vote of any State
IL was VIOLENT assumption that there resided
In Congress, under the constitution. which
omitted to say that Congress should have pow
er TO count the votes, any latent power in q CON
vention which exceeded even the inherent leg
islative power of Congress. He did not contend
that the Vice President, in the discharge oi
his ministerial function of opening all the Ger
tihcates had any power to act judiciously. Hs
limited the power of the Vice President by the
| written words of the constitution itself, Just
as ne limited the powers or Congress. Every
argument in favor of the right of Congress tc
| count the votes was equally strong in favor OF
the right of the Vice President.
Mr.. Hunton said that if he understood the
proposition of the gentleman from New jersey
| be held that neither the two houses of Congress-
nor the Vice President had any power over the
| subject of electoral vote. except merely to
| enumerate and declare the result. He wished
| TO ask the gentleman to state how he would
meet difficulty of this sort. Suppose that q
| COMMITTEES, of the House should report that the
electoral certificate OF any State was a forged
4
| power to pass or the question of forgery?
Mr.. Robson declared IL to be his opinion
that the Vice President neither by reason of
any authority inherent in his Office nor given
BY the constitution had right to pronounce
judicially on question of the validity or in
validity of any vote. He also declared that
| the two Ihouses of Congress in convention as
sembled had no right to decide at all, whether
judicially or otherwise. He was willing to
consider and discuss the question whether or
not there did not reside in Congress the
power to provide by law beforehand, by legis-
lative enactment, the tribunal which should
settle such questions. But the gentle.
power. a legislature makes laws for future
operations. Courts and judicial authorities
construe them after they are made. If such
contingency could arise, as the gentleman
from Virginia suggeted, it was his duty to care
fully consider, to permanently determine and
to hg upon the tribunal which should meet
the contingency, which was the periIous edge of
doubt on which the destiny of the country
rested.
MIR. Hutton said it was apparent that the two
houses in time of the count of electoral votes in
February, may be without Joint rule. If the
subject of the contingency he had alluded to
should arise, was the forged certificate to be
counted or was 1t to be re1ected2 Should the
counting power blindly count the forged cer-
tifcate and impose upor the country a fresi-
dent which would not be elected without that
certificate? The point he wished to make was
whether the power to count did not carry with
it the power to determine which was TO be
counted. Suppose the gentleman from New
Jersey was sent to count flock of sheep and
some goats got mixed with it, wouldn't he
count the gosts2
Mr.. Robeson shook his head.
Mr.. Hunton said that the gentleman could
not undertake If he were president of the Senate
to count forged certificate any more than he
Gould count the goats. and that therefore he
must act judicially to q certain extent.
Mr.. Cox, Of New York thought he could state
cate of the State of New York at SOME time be.
tween the time they left Albany and the time
they were opened by the president of the
Senate should be- secretly opened, and the
names of Hancock and English should be in
serted. Would the president of the Senate or
fraud? And would it be necessary to count
the State for Hancock and English2 And
what body or person, il any, must determine
the question of forgery?
Mr.. Robesen, in reply to Mr.. Hunton. denied
that Congress had the power to count votes If
that power resided in either the Vice President
or in the two Houses it resided in the Vice
President, because he was required to open the
certificates. BE did not say that the Vice
President had that power. but he did say that
the constitution and laws of the United States
had provided what should be the authentica-
ton of the certificates. If they were in COM
pliance with the authorization prescribed by
law then it was the duty of the Vice President
to open them. If they were not then they
were goats, not sheep. But if they were
clothed with the wool of State power they were
sheep and not goats. When administered duty
was imposed on any officer he must
act ministerially. to be decided iudicially af-
terwards if it was subject to judicial proceed
ings, and by that tribunal which Congress,
acting in its legislative power, under it's right
to put in motion all the functions of the con.
stitution, had right to provide beforehand.
In the absence of any such tribunal, when
there was failure on the part of Congress to
prescribe that tribunal, the ministerial right
and power must stand as whole exercise of
power. He appealed for the strength of his
proposition to no less an authority than
Chancellor Kent.
MIR. McLane reminded Robson that he had
not really answered Hunton's questions ind be
(McLane) restated them with variations.
Mr.. Robson repeated his denial that Con-
gress had any Judicial power whatever, be-
cause the constitution expressly provided that
all judicial power should reside in the supreme
court and inferior tribunals. to be fixed by
law. In the face of that constitutional pro-
vision who, he asked, would dare to say that
convention, which was clothed with no power
except to be present when ministerial officer
performed bis functions, could exercise Judi
dial powers on the most vital question in the
life of the government.
Mr.. McLsne contended that as the constitu-
tion authorized the two no uses to participate
in the counting of the electoral vote and as
such counting involved the the exercise of iu-
dicial power, therefore the two houses did
possess judicial power.
Mr.. Robeson said he had endeavored in his
poor wsy to nsSer fully and fairly every
question put to him, not because he believed
that he had the strength to stand alone against
the united force Of those who attacked his DO.
sition but because he remembered that s'thrice
is he armed who hath his quarrel lust" He
then went on to answer the question put by
Cox as to a case of falsifcation of the oertifi-
cate on its way from Albany to Washington.
His answer was that such case had been pro-
vided against by every means which the pre-
judgment and precaution of men could take by
the requirement of triplicate lists to be sent
by different means, each of which lists correct
ed the other and informed the ministerial
judmegnt of the Vice President.
Mr.. Atherton-''Suppoee that all the lia.s
were tampered with"
Mr.. Robeson-"Suppose that the skies
should fall, then we would catch larks.''
Mr. Davis, of North Carolina, presented the
case of the Louisiana certificates of 1876, to
which the names of three electors were forged,
and asked what was to be done if after the
operinu of the certificate one or mora of tba