loss that the country daily sustains from the existing state of uncertainty. It directly and powerfully tends to unsettle and paralyze business, to weaken public and private credit, and to create apprehensions in the minds of the people that disturb the peaceful tenor of their ways and mar their happiness. It does far more: it tends to bring republican institutions into discredit, and to create doubts of the success of our form of government, and of the perpetuity of the Republic. All considerations of interest, of patriotism, and of justice unite in demanding of the law-making power a measure that will bring peace and prosperity to the country, and show that our republican institutions are equal to any emergency. And in this connection we cannot refrain from the expression of our satisfaction that your committees, composed of equal numbers of opposing parties, have fortunately been able to do what has been attempted in vain heretofore, almost unanimously agree upon a plan considered by them all to be just, wise, and efficient. We accordingly recommend the proposed act to the patriotic and just judgment of Congress.

beginning with the letter A; and said tellers, having then read the same in the presence and hearing of the two houses, shall make a list of the votes as they shall appear from the said certificates; and the votes having been ascertained and counted as in this act provided, the result of the same shall be delivered to the President of the Senate, who shall thereupon announce the state of the vote, and the names of the persons, if any, elected, which announcement shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons elected President and Vice President of the United States, and, together with a list of the votes, be entered on the Journals of the two houses. Upon such reading of any such certificates or paper when there shall be only one return from a State, the President of the Senate shall call for objections, if any. Every objection shall be made in writing, and shall state clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground thereof, and shall be signed by at least one Senator and one Member of the House of Representatives before the same shall be received. When all objections so made to any vote or paper from a State shall have been received and read, the Senate shall thereupon withdraw, and such objections shall be submitted to the Senate for its decision; and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall, in like manner, submit such objections to the House of Representatives Senate Committee. for its decision; and no electoral vote or

GEO. F. EDMUNDS,

FRED'K T. FRELINGHUYSEN,
ROSCOE CONKLING,
A. G. THURMAN,

T. F. BAYARD,

M. W. RANSOM,

H. B. PAYNE,

EPPA HUNTON,

ABRAM S. HEWITT,

WILLIAM M. SPRINGER,
GEO. W. MCCRARY,
GEO. F. HOAR,
GEORGE WILLARD,

House Committee.

THE BILL TO PROVIDE FOR AND REGU

LATE THE COUNTING OF THE VOTES.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Senate and House of Representatives shall meet in the hall of the House of Representatives at the hour of one o'clock P. M. on the first Thursday in February, A. D. 1877; and the President of the Senate shall be their presiding officer. Two tellers shall be previously appointed on the part of the Senate and two on the part of the House of Representatives, to whom shall be handed, as they are opened by the President of the Senate, all the certificates and papers purporting to be certificates of the electoral votes, which certificates and papers shall be opened, presented, and acted upon in the alphabetical order of the States,

votes from any State from which but one return has been received shall be rejected except by the affirmative vote of the two houses. When the two houses have voted, they shall immediately again meet, and the presiding officer shall then announce the decision of the question submitted.

SEC. 2. That if more than one return or paper purporting to be a return from a State shall have been received by the President of the Senate, purporting to be the certificates of electoral votes given at the last preceding election for President and Vice President in such State, (unless they shall be duplicates of the same return,) all such returns and papers shall be opened by him in the presence of the two houses when met as aforesaid and read by the tellers, and all such returns and papers shall thereupon be submitted to the judgment and decision, as to which is the true and lawful electoral vote of such State, of a commission constituted as follows, namely:

During the session of each house on the Tuesday next preceding the first Thursday in February, 1877, each house shall, by viva voce vote, appoint five of its members, who, with the five Associate Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, to be

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minutes, and not oftener than once; but after such debate shall have lasted two hours. it shall be the duty of each house to put the main question without further; debate.

member of the committee who did not agree to this bill. I have thought it proper that I should make a brief statement of the grounds on which I did not concur with my colleagues; but I am not well this SEC. 5. That at such joint meeting of morning and am unable to speak as I the two houses seats shall be provided as, should desire. Still, as the bill is about to follows: For the President of the Senate, come to a vote apparently, I will very the Speaker's chair; for the Speaker, im- | briefly state the reasons why I could not mediately upon his left; the Senators in give my assent to its being reported. the body of the hall upon the right of the presiding officer; for the Representatives, in the body of the hall not provided for the Senators; for the tellers, Secretary of the Senate, and Clerk of the House of Representatives, at the Clerk's desk; for¦ the other officers of the two houses, in front of the Clerk's desk and upon each | side of the Speaker's platform. Such joint ineetings shall not be dissolved until the count of electoral votes shall be completed and the result declared; and no recess shall be taken unless a question shall have arisen in regard to counting any such votes, or otherwise under this act; in which case it shall be competent for either house, acting separately, in the manner hereinbefore provided, to direct a recess of such house not beyond the next day, Sunday excepted, at the hour of ten o'clock in the forenoon. And while any question is being considered by said commission, either house may proceed with its legislative or other business.

SEC. 6. That nothing in this act shall be held to impair or affect any right now existing under the Constitution and laws to question, by proceeding in the judicial Courts of the United States, the right or title of the person who shall be declared elected, or who shall claim to be President or Vice President of the United States, if any such right exists.

This bill is presented for the considera-
tion of Congress under very peculiar cir-
cumstances. The Congress of the United
States is scarcely left free for its considera-
tion. We are aware that there is great un-
easiness in the public mind throughout the
country; apprehensions are entertained of
violence, of revolutionary action on the
part of the House of Representatives, of
some course being taken that may result iu
disturbing the peace of the country. A
member of Congress has said in a speech
in this city that 100,000 men would be here
on the 14th of February to witness the
counting of the votes. That may be re-
garded as an extravagant utterance, but it
is one of very many of the kind that come
up to us from different parts of the country,
so that the business interests of the coun-
try have become alarmed, and there is a
disposition to take almost any measure
that may be proposed that will give assur-
ance of peace without very much regard
to the character of the measure.
THE BILL A PRODUCT OF THE MISSIS-
SIPPI PLAN.

when I say that this bill is a literal product of I do not think I am at all out of the way of intimidation has entered this cham'the Mississippi plan;" that the shadow ber, and that in proposing this bill, and in the consideration of it, members of the SEC. 7. The said commission shall make Senate and of the House are acting under its own rules, keep a record of its proceed-revolutionary act that will threaten the the apprehension of violence, of some great ings, and shall have power to employ such persons as may be necessary for the transaction of its own business and the execution of its powers.

safety and continuance of our institutions.
I do not myself believe in the reality of
this danger. I believe that this sort of talk
is intended for a purpose, and I very much
fear that it will accomplish that purpose.

SENATOR MORTON'S SPEECH ON The real danger that we are in results from

THE BILL.

U. S. SENATE, January 22d. The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The morning hour has expired. The unfinished business is the bill (S. No. 1153) to provide for and regulate the counting of votes for President and Vice President, and the decision of questions arising thereon, for the term commencing March 4, A. D. 1877, which is before the Senate as in Committee of the Whole.

weakness, results from timidity, results
from not daring to stand up to do our whole
duty as we understand it.

It is said by geologists that there was a period in the history of the earth's crust when there were skull-less vertebrates; and it would seem now that we have come to that period when there are vertebrateless skulls. The thing to do is to do what is right, and to do it fearlessly. For one, I am not afraid that, if this vote shall be counted as it was for the first seventy-two Mr. MORTON. Mr. President, as the years in the history of our Government,

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there will be any revolution; I believe that any one who attempts it will be utterly destroyed.

provided that the two houses should not go behind the returns so far as to count the votes for electors. I am not an advocate for State sovereignty; I never have been; but I have been a consistent advocate of State rights as I am now. The Constitution of the United States confers upon the State the power to appoint electors in such a way as the Legislatures of the States may prescribe. This is the absolute right of each State. The mode of appointment is left to the Legislature of the State. The determination as to who have been ap

I regard this bill, Mr. President, as a
compromise. It will take its place along-
side of the compromise of 1820, and the
compromise of 1850. By the compromise
of 1820, all the territory south of 36° 30′
was given over to slavery; and, when the
time came to settle the territory north of
that line, the compromise was destroyed.
By the compromise of 1850 the institution
of slavery got the immediate benefit of the
fugitive-slave law, which gave it such pres-pointed is left entirely to the State.
tige, power, and confidence as made it as-
pire to the complete conquest of the coun-
try.

HAYES ELECTED ACCORDING TO LAW
AND IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE.

I believe that Rutherford B. Hayes has been elected President of the United States; he has been elected under the forms of law and according to law, and that he is elected in the hearts of the people; and I believe that if he should be counted in, as eighteen Presidents were successively counted in from the beginning of this Government, he would be inaugurated and there would be no violence and no revolution.

Should Congress assume to determine who have been appointed so far as to go behind the action of officers of the State appointed by the laws of the State for that purpose, Congress would absorb to itself the entire power, would become a grand returning board, without limit and without restraint. The very moment we undertake to go behind the determination of the officers of the State as to the result of a State election and to count and determine the result for ourselves, that moment we establish a revolution which ultimately will be the end of Presidential elections. I am not now referring to the certificate of the Governor, which is prescribed not by State laws but prescribed by the act of Congress; but I am referring to that determination of the result of elections as prescribed by the laws of the States. The States have the right to appoint electors; the Legislature has the right to prescribe the method; and the evidence as to the appointment, as to who has been appointed, is left to the States as absolutely and as completely as the appointment itself.

There have been upon this question, a great many loose opinions given from time to time on the first impression, without examination, and perhaps most Senators have indulged in them, so that very few can entirely claim to be consistent. I have in dulged in them myself. But within the last few weeks this question has been presented as a case in hand, not simply as a matter speculative, something to come in I listened to the very able speech of the the future; and there has been a flood of Senator from Vermont [Mr. Edmunds] on light poured upon it such as had never been Saturday last with great interest. If I unbefore; many new things have been discov-derstood him correctly he assumed that ered, many things have been said, and we have the counsel of the best legal minds all over the country.

I brought forward a bill some two years ago, which was afterward reported by the Committee on Privileges and Elections, for the purpose of having a law for the counting of the electoral vote. I did not claim that that bill was perfect. It was not in view of any contingency or case. It, however, was in one respect a safe bill, and that is, leaving out of view who should count the vote, whether the President of the Senate or the two houses, it contained no word by which the two houses could be authorized to go behind the returns of a State, to go behind the decision made by the returning officers of the State appointed by the State for that purpose; and the bill of 1800, if I remember correctly, expressly

there was no provision of the Constitution that executes itself except one, and that is in regard to the recovery of fugitives from labor, fugitive slaves; that the rest of the provisions of the Constitution are not selfexecuting, but require legislation to carry them into operation. He made a distinction, I believe, which is correct, that there are two classes of powers conferred by the Constitution. Where a power is conferred directly upon any department of the Government by the Constitution, that power cannot be taken from that department; that power cannot be delegated; but where the Constitution simply imposes a duty, but does not vest any particular department with the performance of that duty, then Congress may by law determine who shall discharge that duty.

If I understood the Senator aright, he