on is contained in the same section of the law that commands
Congress to be in session on that day. It is the law-making power of
the nation, the legislature, that is to perform this solemn and
important duty, and not a single person who is selected by one
branch of Congress and who is removable at their will, according to
a late decision of the Senate.

Yes, Mr. President, the power contended for by some Senators, that
the President of the Senate can, in the contingency of a
disagreement between the two houses, from the necessity of the case,
open and count the vote, leads to this: that upon every disputed
vote and upon every decision a new President of the Senate could be
elected; that one man could be selected in the present case to count
the vote of Florida; another, of South Carolina; another, of Oregon;
another, of Louisiana; and the Senate could fill those four offices
with four different men, each chosen for that purpose, and when that
purpose was over to be displaced by the same breath that set them up
for the time being.

Now, sir, if, as has been claimed, the power of counting the votes
is deposited equally in both houses, does not this admission exclude
the idea of any power to count the votes being deposited in the
presiding officer of one of those houses, who is, as I say, eligible
and removable by a bare majority of the Senate, and at will? If the
presiding officer of the Senate can thus count the vote, the Senate
can control him. Then the Senate can control the count and, the
Senate appointing their President, become the sole controllers of
the vote in case of disagreement. What then becomes of the equal
measure of power in the two houses over this subject? If the power
may be said to exist only in case of disagreement, and then _ex_
_necessitate_ _rei_, all that remains for the Senate is to disagree,
and they themselves have created the very contingency that gives
them the power, through their President to have the vote counted or
not counted, as they may desire. Why, sir, such a statement
destroys all idea of equality of power between the two houses in
regard to this subject.

When the President of the Senate has opened the certificates and
handed them over to the tellers of the two houses, in the presence
of the two houses, his functions and powers have ended. He cannot
repossess himself of those certificates or papers. He can no longer
control their custody. They are then and thereafter