It is understood that upon the disposition of disputes touching the
electoral votes cast at the late election by one or more of the States
depends the question whether one or the other of the candidates for
the Presidency is to be the lawful Chief Magistrate. The importance of
having clearly ascertained, by a procedure regulated by law, which of
the two citizens has been elected, and of having the right to this high
office recognized and cheerfully agreed in by all the people of the
Republic, can not be overestimated, and leads me to express to Congress
and to the nation my great satisfaction at the adoption of a measure
that affords an orderly means of decision of a gravely exciting
question.
While the history of our country in its earlier periods shows that
the President of the Senate has counted the votes and declared their
standing, our whole history shows that in no instance of doubt or
dispute has he exercised the power of deciding, and that the two Houses
of Congress have disposed of all such doubts and disputes, although in
no instance hitherto have they been such that their decision could
essentially have affected the result.
For the first time the Government of the United States is now brought to
meet the question as one vital to the result, and this under conditions
not the best calculated to produce an agreement or to induce calm
feeling in the several branches of the Government or among the people
of the country.
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