The Wilmingtonian., 1885-12-05
The Vice presidency.

General Logan is ssngly endorsed by the
majority of his party throughout the count
ry and by Republican senators as president
pro TEN. of the senate.
General Logan's canddature for that
Office is unconstitutional simply ON the fact
that he is not yet sworn in as a United
States Senator and therefore is ineligible for
the office of President of the senate. The
revised statutes provide that ''the oath of
office shall be administered by the President
of the senate to each senator who shall here
after be elected previous to his taking his
seat" There is no president of the senate,
the Office having been vacated by Vice
President Hendricks death, therefore if
General Logan and his friends wish to act
constitutionally they must wait until the
senate has elected a president, which choice
will necessarily be m's.o rrom oue among its
own body of which General Logan is not
only legally be by the President of the SEN
ate. But as the New York Herald says =
'Of course the majority of the senate can,
in partisan spirit and by party vote, do
what it pleases in the matter. 1t can defy the
law and exercise pow er that is Withheld
from it by act of Congress. But each sena-
for ffph m oil
with his sworn obligation to support the
constitution and laws of the United Sta:es. {"
Should General Logan be elected president
of the senate he will exercise the functions
OF the vice president of the United States In
other words he will exercise the powers of
an office which at national election John
A. Logan was distinctly told by the majori-
ty vote of the people of the United States he
should not exercise. And not alone John A.
Logan individually but also in his represen-
tative status as the champion of the Repub-
lican party, that parry also was told by the
popular vote that the people did not wish a
Republican to be invested with the honors
and functions of the vice presidency of the
United States.
Now by whatever trick of intentional
obi quity to plain and honest conception
of the Revised Statutes Mr., Logan may be
gerrymandered into the senate chair his
party can never get DYER the fact that the
people plainly and distinctly said that Dem
ocrat shall hold the vice-presidency of the
Uuted States for thu administration term OF
1ss4s.
That congress itss has held some recog-
milton of this idea agd considered that fidel-
ity to what has been indicated by the popu-
lar vote the paramount ruling in questions
in this matter is d9stinotly shown in the
. r. Z 40 slRsir ls-+ B5s s1ay " sT= gezstvr A
Hoar's bill introd led last session, which
was passed by the 9snate, favorably reported
in the House, and .only missed becoming
part of the statutes lof the land through the
accident of technicaIities- bill provided
that the presidential succession should be
vested in the cabinet, in the Secretary OF
State first and so oh to the other secretaries,
they being as it was conceded at the time
the officials naturally next in consonance of
nolitical ideas withIthe President of the Uni
ted States, by implication therefore condem-
ming the choice of filling those positions by
candidates whose political bias was exactly
at oariance with th, popular vote and the
stated wish of the people.