easure of the Senate to
assign me as one of the minority in this Chamber to a place upon the
select committee appointed for the purpose of reporting a bill
intended to meet the exigencies of the hour in relation to the
electoral votes. There is for every man in a matter of such gravity
his own measure of responsibility, and that measure I desire to
assume. Nothing less important than the decision, into whose hands
the entire executive power of this government shall be vested in the
next four years, is embraced in the provisions of this bill. The
election for President and Vice-President has been held, but as to
the results of that election the two great political parties of the
country stand opposed in serious controversy. Each party claims
success for its candidate and insists that he and he alone shall be
declared by the two houses of Congress entitled to exercise the
executive power of this government for the next four years. The
canvass was prolonged and unprecedented in its excitement and even
bitterness. The period of advocacy of either candidate has passed,
and the time for judgment has almost come. How shall we who purpose
to make laws for others do better than to exhibit our own reverence
for law and set the example here of subordination to the spirit of
law?

It cannot be disguised that an issue has been sought, if not
actually raised, in this country, between a settlement of this great
question by sheer force and arbitrary exercise of power or by the
peaceful, orderly, permanent methods of law and reason. Ours is, as
we are wont to boast, a government of laws, and not of will; and we
must not permit it to pass away from us by changing its nature.

"O, yet a nobler task awaits thy hand,
For what can war but endless war still breed?"

By this measure now before the Senate it is proposed to have a
peaceful conquest over partisan animosity and lawless action, to
procure a settlement grounded on reason and justice, and not upon
force. Therefore, it is meant to lift this great question of
determining who has been lawfully elected President and
Vice-President of these United States out of the possibility of
popular broils and tumult, and elevate it with all dignity to the
higher atmosphere of legal and judicial decision. In such a spirit I
desire to approach the consideration of the subject and shall seek
to deal with it at least worthily, with a sense of public duty
unobstructed, I trust, by preju