Senate and House of Representatives:_

"The joint resolution entitled 'joint resolution declaring
certain States not entitled to representation in the electoral
college,' has been signed by the Executive, in deference to the
view of Congress implied in its passage and presentation to him.
In his own view, however, _the two Houses of Congress, convened
under the twelfth article of the Constitution, have complete
power to exclude from counting all electoral votes deemed by them
to be illegal_, and it is not competent for the Executive to
defeat or obstruct that power by a veto, as would be the case if
his action were at all essential in the matter. He disclaims all
right of the Executive to interfere in any way in the canvassing
or counting electoral votes, and also disclaims that by signing
said resolution he has expressed any opinion on the recitals of
the preamble, or any judgment of his own upon the subject of the
resolution."

If this resolution of the two Houses was authorized by the
Constitution, there is no ground for maintaining the power of the
President of the Senate to decide the question of receiving or
rejecting votes. For, if he has the power under the Constitution, he
cannot waive it, nor can any action of Congress take it away. The
resolution of 1865 had the sanction of each House, was signed by the
President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, and was approved
by the President. It should set the question of the power of the two
Houses forever at rest.

The joint rule, first adopted in 1865, and continued in force for ten
years, asserted the same control. It should not have been adopted if
the pretensions now set up for the President of the Senate were of
force; and he might at any time have disregarded it as worthless. But
he did not disregard it; he did not question it; he obeyed it.

The action of the present Houses, moreover, is an affirmance of their
right to eliminate the false votes from the true. Else why these
committees of each House, investigating at Washington and in the North
and South? Are all the labor and expense of these examinations
undertaken solely in order that the results may be laid before the
President of the Senate for _his_ supreme judgment in the premises? It
is safe to say that there is not a single member of either House who
would not laugh you in the face for asking seriously the question.