which followed,
of the able and eminent men on both sides who considered the
question, arriving, however, at one admitted conclusion, that the
remedy was needed and that it did lie in the law-making power of the
government to furnish it.

Thus, Mr. President, the unbroken line of precedent, the history of
the usage of this government from 1789 at the first election of
President and Vice-President until 1873, when the last count of
electoral votes was made for the same offices, exhibits this fact,
that the control of the count of the electoral votes, the
ascertainment and declaration of the persons who were elected
President and Vice-President, has been under the co-ordinate power
of the two houses of Congress, and under no other power at any time
or in any instance. The claim is now gravely made for the first
time, in 1877, that in the event of disagreement of the two houses
the power to count the electoral votes and decide upon their
validity under the Constitution and law is vested in a single
individual, an appointee of one of the houses of Congress, the
presiding officer of the Senate. In the event of a disagreement
between the two houses, we are now told, he is to assume the power,
in his sole discretion, to count the vote, to ascertain and declare
what persons have been elected; and this, too, in the face of an act
of Congress, passed in 1792, unrepealed, always recognized, followed
in every election from the time it was passed until the present day.
Section 5 of the act of 1792 declares:--

That Congress shall be in session on the second Wednesday in
February 1793, and on the second Wednesday in February succeeding
every meeting of the electors; and the said certificates, or so many
of them as shall have been received, shall then be opened, the votes
counted, and the persons who shall fill the offices of President and
Vice-President ascertained and declared agreeably to the
Constitution.

Let it be noted that the words "President of the Senate" nowhere
occur in the section.

But we are now told that though "Congress shall be in session," that
though these two great bodies duly organized, each with its
presiding officer, accompanied by all its other officers, shall meet
to perform the duty of ascertaining and declaring the true result of
the action of the electoral colleges and what persons are entitled
to these high executive offices, in case they shall not agree in
their decisions there shall be interpo