COUNT OF ELECTORAL VOTES CAST DECEMBER 6, 1876, FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL TERM COMMENCING MARCH 4, 1877. WASHINGTON: IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Resolved by the House of Representatives, (the Senate concurring,) That there be printed 10,000 copies of the proceedings of the Electoral Commission, embracing all of the said proceedings and arguments and briefs of counsel, together with the proceedings of the joint convention regarding all States the returns from which were submitted to said commission, 7,500 copies for the use of the House of Representatives and 2,500 copies for the use of the Senate. Attest: G. M. ADAMS, Clerk. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, March 3, 1877. Resolved, That the Senate concur in the foregoing resolution of the House of Representatives. Attest: GEO. C. GORHAM, Secretary. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, Resolved, That the volume containing the proceedings of the Electoral Commission and of the two Houses in the counting of electoral votes, directed to be printed by a concurrent resolution of March 3, be prepared for publication under the direction of the Committee on Printing. Resolved, That of the number of copies of said publication allotted to the Senate by said concurrent resolution 200 copies be furnished to the justices of the Supreme Court who were members of the Electoral Commission. Attest: GEO. C. GORHAM, Secretary. ELECTORAL COUNT OF 1877. The disputes as to the votes cast in some of the States by the respective sets of persons claiming to have been chosen electors at the popular elections held therein on the 7th day of November, A. D. 1876, were of such a nature as to lead to grave fears that difficulty might ensue if there were no further provision for the case than was contained in some of the sections of the act of Congress of March 1, 1792, and the act of March 26, 1804, embodied in the Revised Statutes from section 135 to 143, which sections contained all the legislation that had been provided for any such contingency and that seemed to be entirely inadequate. When the second session of the Forty-fourth Congress convened, the subject immediately attracted attention in both Houses. On the 14th of December, 1876, the House of Representatives passed a resolution for the appointment of a committee of seven, with power to act in conjunction with any similar committee appointed by the Senate, to prepare and report without delay a measure for the removal of differences of opinion as to the proper mode of counting the electoral votes for President and Vice-President of the United States and as to the manner of determining questions which might arise as to the legality and validity of the returns of such votes made by the several States, to the end that the votes should be counted and the result declared "by a tribunal whose authority none can question and whose decision all will accept as fipal." On the 18th of December the Senate referred the message of the House of Representatives communicating its resolution, to a select committee, to be composed of seven Senators, with power "to prepare and report, without unnecessary delay, such a measure, either of a legislative or other character, as may, in their judgment, be best calculated to accomplish the lawful counting of the electoral votes and best disposition of all questions connected therewith, and the due declaration of the result," and also with power "to confer and act with the committee of the House of Representatives." The committees provided for by these resolutions were composed, on the part of the Senate, of George F. Edmunds of Vermont, Oliver P. Morton of Indiana, Frederick T. Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, Roscoe Conkling of New York, Allen G. Thurman of Ohio, Thomas F. Bayard of Delaware, and Matt. W. Ransom of North Carolina, and on the part of the House of Representatives of Henry B. Payne of Ohio, Eppa Hunton of Virginia, Abram S. Hewitt of New York, William M. Springer of Illinois, George W. McCrary of Iowa, George F. Hoar of Massachusetts, and George Willard of Michigan. On the 18th of January, 1877 these committees submitted a report to the respective Houses, signed by all their members except Senator Morton, recommending the passage of a bill, which, after discussion in both Houses, became a law on the 29th of January, in the precise words reported, as follows: AN ACT to provide for and regulate the counting of votes for President and Vice-President, and the decision of questions arising thereor, for the term commencing March fourth, anno Domini eighteen hundred and seventy-seven. 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 post meridian, on the first Thursday in February, anno Domini eighteen hundred and seventy-seven; 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, 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 certificate 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 Menìber 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 for its decision; and no electoral vote or 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, eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, each house shall, by viva voce vote, appoint five of its members, who with the five associate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, to be ascertained as hereinafter provided, shall constitute a commission for the decision of all questions upon or in respect of such double returns named in this section. On the Tuesday next preceding the first Thursday in February, anno Domini eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, or as soon thereafter as may be, the associate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States now assigned to the first, third, eighth, and ninth circuits shall select, in such manner as a majority of them shall deem fit, another of the associate justices of said court, which five persons shall be members of said commission; and the person longest in commission of said five justices shall be the president of said commission. The members of said commission shall respectively take and subscribe the following oath: “I, do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I will impartially examine and consider all questions submitted to the commission of which I am a member, and a true judgment give thereon, agreeably to the Constitution and the laws: so help me God;" which oath shall be filed with the Secretary of the Senate. When the commission shall have been thus organized, it shall not be in the power of either house to dissolve the same, or to withdraw any of its members; but if any such Senator or member shall die or become physically unable to perform the duties required by this act, the fact of such death or physical inability shall be by said commission, before it shall proceed further, communicated to the Senate or House of Representatives, as the case may be, which body shall immediately and without debate proceed by viva voce vote to fill the place so vacated, and the person so appointed shall take and subscribe the oath herein before prescribed, and become a member of said commission; and, in like manner, if any of said justices of the Supreme Court shall die or become physically incapable of performing the duties required by this act, the other of said justices, members of the said commission, shall immediately appoint another justice of said court a member of said commission, and, in |