Year: 1877

before the Senate telegram from the
Chicago Board of Trade, approving the
bill reported on Thursday in regard to
counting the Electoral vote. Laid on
the table,


MORTON AGAINST THE ARBITRATION BILL,


The consideration was resumed of the
bill to count the Electoral vote, and Mr..
Morton took the floor. He said the bill
was the product of the Mississippi plan.
The shadow of intimidation had entered
the Senate Chamber. He believed Ruth
erford B. Hayes had been elected Presi-
dent as under the forms of law and ac-
Cording to law, and should be counted in
as eighteen other Presidents had been,
and inaugurated and there would be no
revolution. There had been many loose
opinions expressed because of firm con-
victions without examination on the
question. | have done so myself and |
have bad habit of saying what | think
at the time, but endeavor to atone for IL
by readily correcting it when / find l
was mistaken. am no admirer of po-
litical reticence; of political owls who
keep silent and look wise until they are
out Of the woods, and then give pro-
longed hOot,


l had supposed that all agreed, in the
absence of legislation, the President of
the Senate must count the vote, The
twenty Presidents of the Senate did
count the vote 72 years. Tellers were
mere facilities for making calculations
and keeping the account. They counted
out what the President of the Senate
hands them down to count, and handing
them down the certificates to count was
a declaration of the vote. 1t continued
from 1889 to 1861. The resolution APP
pointing tellers provided that they were
to make a list of votes as they were de-
clared. Counting of the votes was GER
emony to which the two houses were
witnesses. The constitution provides
that "the President of the Senate shall,
in the presence of the tW o houses, open
all certificates, and the votes shall then
be counted" and if no one (no candidate)
has a majority of all the electors appoint
ed, the House shall Immediately proceed
to elect. The process contemplated was
very simple one; simply to open certit-
Gates and count votes, but contemplated
no time or place to try the questions of
eligibility, either of candidates or cleo
tors. Whether electors were eligible was
a matter left with the States under the
iniunctions of the constitution. The
handing down of the certificate by the
President of the Senate was declaration
of the vote contained in it. Very few
Repr bheans respect this bill. 1t will be
taken by Republicans, if taken at all, as
a dose of castor oil. Senator Edmunds
burned his ships behind the bill when
he denied the power of the President of
the Senate 10 count votes in the absence
of legislation. He thus seemed to make
it necessity to accept this bill,


1t has been announced by member OF
Congress that 100000 men were to be
here on the 14th of February; 10000 to
come from Kentucky alone. hope our
Kentucky Senators will make arrange
ments to entertain them handsomely
We hear notes of preparation every
where Senators are afraid of violence;
of some desperate revolutionary act. We
| are told we dare not count this vote as 1t
was done for the first seventy-two years
of our existence. feel that | am in the
presence of a political situation | cannot
describe. The dangers to which we are
subject do not spring from violence but
from weakness on our part. Biologists
tell us there was period in the earths
crust when there skulless vertebrates;
now we have got to the period when
there are vertebrateless skulls. The
power to count the vote resides in the
President of the Senate or in the two
houses If it resides in the two houses
it cannot be delegated to commission
or to court. The mere matter Of count
ing tie votes is clerical, and may be per-
formed by teller. If any question ari-
ses that requires judgment or discretion,
it cannot be delegated to a commission.
The decision of the Conference Commit
tee is binding only upon being ratified
by both houses, but the fifteen decisions
of this commission are binding unless re-
yersed by the action of both houses. 1t
is in every respect court invested with
high judicial powers to decide questions
of law as we'll as fact, with right of ap-
peal, not to another court, but to the two
houses of Congress.


The power to count the electoral vote
is either political or a judicial power
If it is a political power it must be deci-
ded by the political department of the
Government, and cannot be delegated to
a court fit is a judicial power it must
be exercised by a court and not by the
political department of the Government,
and an appeal must be had to another
court and not to the two houses of Con-
gress. .u .u ... a,.,.


The bill is compromise in which the
Republican party has yielded the vital
point, and will take place alongside
with the compromise of 1850 and 1920
1t is claimed that that commission is left
free to decide whether they can go be-
hind the finding of State authorities or
not. Not so. 1t expressly requires the
the Commission to go behind them by
recurring them is find out who in fact
was elected.


Would any lawyer of any party have
been found six months ago who would
have said that either house could 90 be-
hind the returns from States, and inquire
who got the most votesP And perhaps
you can hardly find Democratic lawyer
who will now deny that proposition
Such are the mutations ofpublic opinion.


In the bill of last year there was no
authority to go behind the returns, or to
consider other papers than the certifi-
Gates from the States. In the bill of 1900
it was expressly provided that they
should not go behind the returns to count
the votes for Elector.


If we concede, for the sake of argu-
ment, that the two houses have the right
to count the votes, there is still ques
ton lying behind and independent Of it,
and that is as to what papers the Presi-
dent of the Senate is required to open in
the presence of the two houses and hand
to the tellers. The electors in several
States are to seal up their votes and lists
made up by the Governor, and enclose
them to the President of the Senate, en-
dorsing the names of electors upon the