Year: 1872

Ieges-The Two Houses and the Ad-


ministration.


The third and closing session of our Forty
second Congress begins at Washington to-day
at noon, and will close at noon on the 4th of
March next, when the constitutional term of
this Congress will be ended. As the two
Houses are organized, and as o quorum will
doubtless be present in each with their call to
order, we expect the reading of the Presidents
annual Message before them among this days
proceedings, and that the contents of tho Mes
sage will be generally known throughout the
country during the afternoon and evening
We have already given an outline from we'll
informed source of the leading subjects dis
cussed and recommendations embodied in this
Message, from which it appears that the
foreign and domestic policy of the administra-
ton will continue to be that of peace, and that
no startling transformation scenes will just
yet be attempted at home or abroad Nor do
we expect much in the way of Legislative
priation bills and other routine measures in
the brief interval to General Grants second
Inauguration.


From the immense engagements Of our
boundaries the increase of population, and. of
our national resources, taxations and expendi-
lures, and from the vastly increased sectional
and local interests, ordinary and extraordi-
nary to be considered, there is matter enough
in the regular appropriation bills for month
or two of active work. It is probable, there
fore, that definite action upon oil such meas
ures as civil service reform, a universal am
nesty and civil rights bills, and changes in
our financial system and new departures in
our foreign relations will be deferred to the
new Congress, the first meeting of which, by
revival Of the law repealed last session, may
be on the 4th Of March, but which otherwise
will not take place for year to come, or till
the first Monday in December next. 1t is
supposed, however, that in order to have the
two houses organized and in readiness for any
contingency that may occur in the interval to
next December, the late law requiring the new
Congress to meet on the 4th of March will be
revived


Meantime the paramount and most con-
spcuous fact in our present political condition
of affairs is the fact that the President is mas
ter of the field. He has received popular
endorsement in his election for another
term, which gives him all the advantages that
could be desired for shaping and directing the
action of Congress upon oil the leading ques-
tions Of the day. Moreover, the death Of the
opposition candidate for the Presidential sue
cession, Mr.. Greeley, in the interval between
the election of November and the meeting Of
the electoral colleges of the several States,
which will be on Wednesday next, makes
vacancy which leaves these colleges free to
fall back upon General Grant, and thus to
make him their choice as by the unanimous
vote of the nation. The constitution pro-
vides, in reference to the election of the Pres-
, dent, first, that each State shall appoint q
number Of electors equal to its representation
in both branches Of Congress. These electors,
as between Grant and Greeley were chosen in
the several States in our late Presidential elec-
ton. Next it is provided in the constitution
that sthe electors shall meet in their respec-
: tive States (and by law the day is fixed for
Wednesday next) and vote by ballot for Presi-
dent and Vice President" and that they shall
send the results to the President of the Senate;
that he, in the presence of the two houses,
shall open the certificates, when the votes shall
be counted, and that the person having the
greatest number of votes for President, if a
majority Of all the electors, shall be the Presi-
dent, &c.


Now, as the electors by the constitution are
left perfectly free to vote for whom they please
for President, and as there is no provision for
a case like this of Mr.. Greeley's decease, the
question recurs for whom are those electors to
vote who have been chosen in the name of Mr..
Greeley representing the electoral vote Of the
States Of Maryland, Georgia. Tennessee, Ken
lucky, Missouri and Texas? With proper
regard for the will Of the people, they should
(Mr. Greeley being dead) vote for the next
highest candidate in the popular vote of each
of these States, and General Grant is this
man. They cannot vote for dead man, they
cannot properly vote blank. they cannot
change the result by voting for some new man,
and they may very materially modify the
policy OF the President in many things in
electing him for his second term by the unani-
nous vote of the Electoral Colleges, as repre-
senting, with the death of Mr.. Greeley, the
unanimous voice of the people. This will,
indeed, give us the revival Of President Mon
roe's 'era of good feeling" in which all par
ties were merged in the party of the admins
tration. Or, in other words, with the re-
election of General Grant by the unanimous
vote of the Electoral Colleges, the people will
become all republicans and all democrats, as
in the time of Monroe they were call fed
eralists and all republicans. Party lines will
be obliterated, and Sumner, Trumbull and
Banks, with Hendricks, Cox and Brooks, will
be as free to support the measures Of the