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and transmit to Congress a double return. It will not be difficult for them to accompany their return with plausible reasons, and perhaps with such unfounded assertions, and specious although false documents, as to give to the committee some colorable reason for rejecting the return of the electors certified by the governor, and admitting the other. Knowing the situation of the Union; how differently some States think from others on political questions; how divided Congress have been for some years on certain great and trying subjects; who that is a friend to harmony and the Constitution, and to that easy, tranquil mode of deciding these elections which has hitherto prevailed, can wish to go into a measure so calculated to produce unceasing disputes, and to throw almost every State into scenes which can never arise but from this bill." The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 16 to 12, and its title is as follows: "An act to prescribe the mode of deciding disputed elections of President and Vice-President of the United States." The vote was as follows:

YEAS-Messrs. Bingham, Chipman, Dayton, Dexter, Foster, Goodhue, Greene, Hillhouse, Latimer, Lloyd, Paine, Read, Ross, Schureman, Tracy, and Wells.

NAYS-Messrs. Anderson, Baldwin, Bloodworth, Brown, Cocke, Franklin, Langdon, Livermore, Marshall, Masou, Nicholas, and Pinckney.

The bill as it passed the Senate is in these words:

A bill prescribing the mode of deciding disputed elections of President and Vice-President of the United States, as agreed to be amended in Senate March 10, and ordered to be engrossed as amended for a third reading on the 21st of March, 1800.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That on the day before the second Wednesday in February, next following the day when a President and Vice-President shall have been voted for by the electors, it shall be the duty of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States to choose, by ballot, in each house, six members thereof. The Senate, immediately after this choice, shall nominate, by ballot, three of its members, and transmit their names to the House of Representatives, who shall, by ballot, choose one of the three, and the thirteen persons thus chosen shall form a grand committee, and shall have power to examine and finally to decide disputes relative to election of President and Vice-President of the United States, as is hereinafter limited and prescribed: Provided, always, That no person shall be capable of serving on this committee who shall be one of the five highest candidates out of whom a President of the United States may be chosen by the House of Representatives, in case no person should be found to have a majority of the whole number of the votes of the electors appointed by the different States.

Section 2 is identical with the same section of the preceding bill.

Section 3 is also identical with the same section of the preceding bill, with the exception that after the word " House,” in line three, the following words are inserted, "before it adjourns."

Section 4 is the same as section four of the foregoing bill, with the exception of the oath, which reads as follows:

"I, A. B., do swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I will impartially examine the votes given by the electors of President and Vice-President of the United States, together with the exceptions and petitions against them, and a true judgment given thereon agreeable to the Constitution and laws, and according to the evidence: so help me God."

SECTION 5. And be it further enacted, That after the grand committee shall have been appointed and sworn in the same manner herein directed, the person chosen by the House of Representatives out of the nomination by the Senate, shall act as chairman of the committee; they meet on every day (Sundays excepted) from the time of their appointment until they shall make their final report; they shall sit with closed doors, and a majority of the members may proceed to act, and if any members of the committee appointed by either house should die, or become unable to attend after his appointment, the committee, before they proceed further, shall notify both houses of such death or inability; and the house by which such member was appointed shall immediately proceed to choose another member, by ballot, to supply such vacancy, and the member thus chosen shall be sworn or affirmed by the President of the Senate; and if the chairman of the committee shall die, or become unable to attend after his appointment, the committee, before they proceed further, shall notify both houses of such death or inability; the Senate shall then nominate three of its members, out of whom the House of Representatives shall choose according to the provision of this act, who shall be sworn or affirmed by the President of the Senate, and shall thenceforth be the chairman of the said committee, and the person or persons thus appointed and sworn or affirmed shall henceforth have and exereise the powers necessary to supply such vacancy.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That the grand committee shall have power to send for persons, papers, and records, to compel the attendance of witnesses, to administer

oaths or affirmations to all persons examined before them, and to punish contempts of witnesses refusing to answer as fully and absolutely as the Supreme Court of the United States may or can do in causes depending therein; and the testimony of all witnesses examined before the committee shall be reduced to writing by the secretary of the committee, and shall be signed by the witness after his examination is closed. And if any person, sworn and examined before this committee, shall swear or affirm falsely, such person thereof convicted shall incur the pains, penalties, and disabilities inflicted by the laws of the United States upon willful and corrupt perjury. Section 7 is identical with the same section in the preceding bill.

Section 8 is the same as section eight of the preceding bill, with the exception that after the word "not," in line five, the following is substituted: "or made according to the mode prescribed by the legislature; upon all petitions and exceptions against corrupt, illegal conduct of the electors, or force, menaces, or improper means used to influence their votes, or against the truth of their returns, or the time, place, or manner of giving their votes: Provided, always, That no petition or exception shall be granted or allowed by the grand committee which shall have for its object to draw into question the number of votes on which any elector in any of the States shall have been appointed."

Sections 9, 10, and 11 are the same as similar sections of the preceding bill.

SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the executive authority of each State to cause three copies of the law, resolution, or act of the State legislatures, respectively, under which electors are chosen or appointed, to be made, certified, and delivered to the electors in such State before they give their votes, and the electors shall annex one of the said copies to such list of their votes. And it shall hereafter be the duty of the electors to express specially in their certificates the time, the place, and the manner of giving their votes.

Section 13 strikes out of the same section of the preceding bill all after the word "committee," in line six, and inserts the following: "Nor shall any petition against the qualifications of a candidate or elector, or for improper conduct in an elector, be received unless notice thereof be previously given to the person whose

qualifications are contested, or whose improper conduct is petitioned against. Section 14 strikes out of section 14 of the above bill all after the word "States," in line eleven, and adds the following: "On or before the day upon which the certificates of the electors of the President and Vice-President of the United States are to be opened."

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, March 31, 1800.

This bill was referred to the Committee of the Whole House on April 1. It was acted upon April 16. Mr. John Marshall, afterward Chief-Justice, after speaking of the importance of the subject before the committee and the necessity of some salutary mode being adopted for this object, expressed his doubts as to the propriety of two points in this first section of the bill, to wit: First, that the Senate were to name the chairman of the grand committee, and, secondly, that the opinion of this grand committee was to be final. He therefore moved to strike out of the section so much as related to those principles, and read what he wished to introduce as a substitute. Some debate was had on this motion, when Mr. Nicholas, expressing a desire to acquire all the information that was necessary to digest the new principles, moved the committee to rise; which was done accordingly. April 17, the bill was considered in Committee of the Whole. Mr. Randolph moved to amend the amendment by striking out that part which directs the grand committee to be chosen by ballot, and inserting that they shall be chosen by lot. Mr. Nicholas rose and, after noticing the amendments which had been offered and animadverting at considerable length upon the unconstitutionality of the bill, moved to strike out the first section. He was followed by Mr. Marshall in opposition and Mr. Randolph in support of the motion. On April 18, the bill coming up again, Mr. Harper moved it be postponed until Monday. Mr. Nicholas, after expressing his abhorrence of the principles contained in the bill, moved that it be postponed till the first Monday in December next. The motion was lost-48 to 52; as follows: YEAS-Willis Alston, Theodorus Bailey, Phanuel Bishop, Robert Brown, Samuel J. Cabell, Gabriel Christie, Matthew Clay, William Charles Cole Claiborne, John Condit, Thomas T. Davis, John Dawson, George Dent, Joseph Eggleston, Lucas Elmendorf, John Fowler, Albert Gallatin, Edwin Gray, Andrew Gregg, John A. Hanna, Thomas Hartley, Joseph Heister, Archibald Henderson, David Holmes, George Jackson, James Jones, Aaron Kitchell, Michael Leib, Matthew Lyon, Nathaniel Macon, Peter Muhlenberg, Anthony New, John Nicholas, Joseph H. Nicholson, John Randolph, John Smiley, John Smith, Samuel Smith, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Richard Stanford, David Stone, Thomas Sumter, Benjamin Taliaferro, John Thompson, Abram Trigg, John Trigg, Philip Van Cortlandt, Joseph B. Varnum, and Robert Williams.

NAYS-George Baer, Bailey Bartlett, James A. Bayard, John Bird, Jonathan Brace, John Brown, Christopher G. Champlin, William Cooper, Samuel W. Dana, Franklin Davenport, John Davenport, John Dennis, Joseph Dickson, William Edmond, Thomas Evans, Abiel Foster, Dwight Foster, Jonathan Freeman, Henry Glenn, Chauncey

Goodrich, Elizur Goodrich, William Gordon, Roger Griswold, William Barry Grove, Robert Goodloe Harper, William H. Hill, Benjamin Huger, James H. Imlay, Henry Lee, Silas Lee, Samuel Lyman, James Linn, John Marshall, Lewis R. Morris, Abraham Nott, Robert Page, Josiah Parker, Thomas Pinckney, Jonas Platt, Leven Powell, John Reed, John Rutledge, jr., Samuel Sewall, James Sheafe, William Shepard, George Thatcher, John Chew Thomas, Richard Thomas, Peleg Wadsworth, Robert Waln, Lemuel Williams, and Henry Woods.

Mr. Harper's motion then prevailed-ayes 54. On Monday, April 26, Mr. Harper moved that the Committee of the Whole should be discharged from the further consideration of the bill, for the purpose of committing it to a select committee. He thought some essential alterations were wanting, which could not be incorporated in the present bill in the House. Mr. Marshall supported the motion. Messrs. Gallatin and Nicholas opposed the motion, and hoped, first, the principle would be decided whether there should be a committee at all or not, before its commitment. The motion was carriedyeas 54. Messrs. Marshall, Sewall, Chauncey Goodrich, Harper, Nicholas, Dennis, and Bayard were appointed said committee. Friday, April 25, the bill was reported back by Mr. Marshall, as follows:

REPORT.

The committee to whom was referred a bill from the Senate, prescribing the mode of deciding disputed elections of President and Vice-President of the United States, recommended to the House to agree to the said bill, with the following amendments: Strike out from the word "assembled" in the second line of the first section to the end of the bill, and insert in lieu thereof the following: "That on the next following the day when a President and Vice-President shall have been voted for by electors, it shall be the duty of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States to choose by ballot, in each house, four members thereof. And the persons thus chosen shall form a joint committee and shall have power to examine into all disputes relative to the election of President and Vice-President of the United States, other than such as might relate to the number of votes by which the electors may have been appointed: Provided always, That no person shall be capable of serving on this committee who shall be one of the five highest candidates from among whom a President of the United States may be chosen by the House of Representatives, in case no person should be found to have a majority of the whole number of the votes of the electors appointed by the different States.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the President of the Senate shall deliver to the members of this joint committee appointed from the Senate, all the petitions, exceptions, and memorials against the votes of the electors, or the persons for whom they may have voted, together with the testimony accompanying the same, and all documents relative thereto of which he may be possessed, other than those inclosed in the packets containing the certificates of the votes of the electors; and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall deliver to the members of the joint committee appointed from that house all the documents relative to the votes for President and VicePresident of which he may be possessed.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the joint committee shall meet on every day (Sundays excepted) from the time of their appointment until they make their report. Six members, of whom there must be three from each house, may proceed to act. If nya member of the committee appointed by either house should die, or become unable to attend after his appointment, the committee, before they proceed further, shall notify both houses of such death or inability; and the house by which such member was appointed shall immediately proceed to choose another member, by ballot, to supply such vacancy.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the joint committee shall have power to send for persons and papers, to compel the attendance of witnesses, to administer oaths or affirmations to all persons examined before them, and to punish contempts of witnesses refusing to answer, as fully and absolutely as the Supreme Court of the United States may or can do in causes depending therein; and the testimony of all witnesses examined before the committee shall be reduced to writing by the clerk of the committee, and shall be signed by the witness after his examination is closed. And if any person sworn and examined before this committee shall swear or affirm falsely, such person, being thereof convicted, shall incur the pains, penalties, and disabilities inflicted by the laws of the United States upon willful and corrupt perjury.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the marshals of the several districts of the United States, and of their deputies, to serve all process directed to them and signed by the chairman of the joint committee; and for such services they shall receive the fees allowed for services of similar process issued by the Supreme Court of the United States; all witnesses attending the committee in consequence of summons or other process, shall receive the same compensation as witnesses attending the Supreme Court of the United States.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted. That the joint committee shall appoint a clerk who shall keep a journal of their proceedings, under their direction, to be reported to the Senate and House of Representatives.

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That before the houses shall assemble for the purpose of counting the votes, each house shall choose, by ballot, two members thereof as tellers, whose duty it shall be to receive the certificates of the electors from the President of the Senate, after they shall have been opened and read, and to note in writing the dates of the certificates, the names of the electors, the time of their election, and the time and place of their meeting, the number of votes given, and the names of the persons voted for; and also the substance of the certificates from the executive authority of each State, accompanying the certificates of the electors; and the minutes thus made by the tellers shall be read in the presence of both houses, and a copy thereof entered on the journals of each house.

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That so soon as the joint committee shall have made the examinations and taken and digested the testimony, a report of their proceedings shall be made both to the Senate and House of Representatives, and shall be inserted on the journals of each house. The said report shall contain all the petitions, exceptions, and memorials against the votes of the electors or the persons for whom they have voted, together with the testimony, and arranging with each petition, exception, memorial, and vote, the testimony relative thereto, but without giving any opinion thereon. The report shall also contain a copy of the law, resolution, or act of the State legislatures, respectively, under which the electors of the President and Vice-President of the United States, whose votes are to be counted, were chosen. So soon as this report shall have been made and entered on the journals, the Senate and House of Representatives shall meet at such place as may be agreed on for the purpose of counting the votes for President and Vice-President of the United States. The names of the several States shall then be written under the inspection of the Speaker of the House of Representatives on separate and similar pieces of paper, and folded up as nearly alike as may be and put into a ballot-box, and taken by a member of the House of Representatives, to be named by the Speaker thereof; out of which box shall be drawn the paper on which the names of the State are written, one at a time, by a member of the Senate, to be named by the President thereof, and so soon as one is drawn the packet containing the certificates from the electors of that State shall be opened by the President of the Senate, and then shall be read, also, the petitions, depositions, and other papers concerning the same, and if no exceptions are taken thereto, all the votes contained in such certificate shall be counted; but if any exception be taken, the person taking the same shall state it directly and not argumentatively, and sign his name thereto; and, if it be founded on any circumstance appearing in the report of the joint committee, and the exception be seconded by one member from the Senate and one from the House of Representatives, each of whom shall sign the said exception as having seconded the same, then each House shall immediately retire without question or debate to its own apartment, and shall take the question on the exception without debate, by ayes and noes. So soon as the question shall be taken in either house a message shall be sent to the other informing them that the house sending the message is prepared to resume the count, and when such message shall have been received by both houses they shall again assemble in the same apartment as before and the count shall be resumed. And if the two houses have concurred in rejecting the vote or votes objected to, such votes or votes shall not be counted; but unless both houses concur such vote or votes shall be counted. the objection taken as afore mentioned shall arise on the face of the papers opened by the President of the Senate in presence of both houses, and shall not have been noticed in the report of the joint committee, such objection may be referred to the joint committee to be examined and reported on by them in the same manner and on the same principles as their first report was made; but if both houses do not concur in referring the same to the committee, then such objection shall be decided on in like manner as if it had been founded on any circumstance appearing in the report of the committee. The votes of one State being thus counted, another ticket shall be drawn from the ballot-box, and the certificate and the votes of the State thus drawn shall be proceeded on as is herein before directed, and so on, one after another, until the whole of the vote shall be counted. The two houses may adjourn from day to day, passing over Sunday, until the count shall be completed. When a motion for adjournment shall be made by a member of either house, and seconded by a member from each house, the question thereon shall be taken in the two houses separately, and if they do not concur they shall proceed in the count.

If

SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That when the joint committee shall have been duly formed, according to the directions of this act, it shall not be in the power of either house to dissolve the committee or to withdraw any of its members.

SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the executive authority of each State to cause three copies of the law, resolution, or act of the State legislatures respectively under which electors are chosen or appointed to be made, certified

under the seal of the State and delivered to the electors in such State, before they give their votes, and the electors shall annex one of the said copies to each list of their votes, and it shall be the further duty of the executive authority of each State, as soon as may be, and within days after the appointment therein of electors of President and VicePresident of the United States, to cause three other copies of the said law, resolution, or act, together with a complete list of the electors appointed and the time of their election, to be made and certified as aforesaid, and to transmit them inclosed, noting on each the contents of the packets, one to the President of the Senate, one to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and one to the Secretary of State of the United States; and it shall be the duty of the Postmaster-General and postmaster at the seat of Government, to whom or to whose knowledge such packets may come, to deliver them to the officers respectively to whom they may be directed, or in case of the absence from the seat of Government of such officer, to deliver the packet to him directed to the Secretary of the Senate, the Clerk of the House of Representatives, or the chief clerk of the Department of State as the case may be; and it shall hereafter be the duty of the electors to express specially in their certificates the time, the place, and the manner of giving their votes.

SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That all petitions respecting the election of President and Vice-President of the United States shall be presented and read in the Senate of the United States, and then be transmitted to the House of Representatives, where they shall be read and afterward delivered to the joint committee, but no petition shall be received after the; nor shall any petition against the qualifications of a candidate or elector, or for improper conduct in an elector, be received, unless ten days' notice thereof in writing be previously given to the person whose qualifications are contested, or whose improper conduct is petitioned against.

SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That persons petitioning against any of the votes given by any of the electors of President and Vice-President of the United States, and persons being desirous of supporting such contested votes, may respectively apply to any judge of the courts of the United States, or to any chancellor, justice, or judge of a superior court, or county court, or court of common pleas of any State, or any mayor, or recorder, or intendant of a town or city, who shall thereupon issue his warrant of summons, directed to all such witnesses as shall be named to him by such applicant or his agent duly authorized for that purpose, and requiring the attendance of such witnesses before him, at some convenient time and place, to be expressed in the warrant, in order to be then and there examined, in the manner hereinafter provided, touching the subject-matter of the aforesaid application.

SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That every such witness as is above mentioned shall be duly served with such warrant by a copy thereof being delivered to him or her, or left to his or her usual place of abode; and that such service shall be made a convenient time before the day on which the attendance of such witness is required, which time the magistrate issuing the warrants is hereby authorized and required to fix for each witness at the time of issuing it, having respect to the circumstances of such witness, and the distance of his or her residence from the place of attendance. SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That any person, being summoned in the manner above directed, and refusing or neglecting to attend, pursuant to such summons, unless in case of sickness or other unavoidable accident, shall forfeit and pay the sum of twenty dollars, to be recovered, with costs of suit, by the party at whose instance the warrant or summons was issued, and for his use, by action of debt, in any court, or before any tribunal of the United States, or any State, having jurisdiction to the amount of such penalty.

SEC. 15. And be it further enacted, That persons desirous of taking testimony either to support a petition against any contested votes for President and Vice-President of the United States, or to support any such vote or votes, shall previously advertise the time and place for taking such testimony, together with the points intended to be established thereby, for weeks successively, in some one of the gazettes published at the seat of government of the State in which the votes to which the testimony is to relate were given, provided there be a gazette published at the seat of government, and in some one of the gazettes near the place at which the testimony is to be taken, if there be any gazette published nearer such place than the seat of government. SEC. 16. And be it further enacted, That all witnesses who shall attend in pursuance of the said summons, and all other witnesses who shall be produced at the time and place aforesaid, shall then and there be examined on oath or affirmation aforesaid, or, in case of his absence, by any other such magistrate as is authorized by this act to issue such warrant, touching all such matters and things respecting the votes about to be contested or supported as may have been suggested in the notice herein before directed to be published; the testimony given on which examination, together with the questious proposed to the witnesses respectively, the said magistrate is hereby authorized and required to cause to be reduced to writing, in his presence, and to be duly attested by the witnesses respectively, after which he shall transmit the said testimony, duly certified under his hand, covered and sealed up, to the President of the Senate, toge her with a copy of the warrant of summons and noti ication issued in that behalf and the original affidavit proving the service of such notification.

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