received by the President of the Senate, those votes, and those only, shall be counted which shall have been regularly given by the electors who are shown by the determination mentioned in Section 2 of this act, to have been appointed, if the determination in said section provided for shall have been made, or by such successors, or substitutes, in case of a vacancy in the board of electors so ascertained, as have been appointed to fill such vacancy in the mode provided by the laws of the State; but in case there shall arise a question which of two or more of such State authorities determining what electors have been appointed, as mentioned in Section 2 of this act, is the lawful tribunal of such State, the votes regularly given of those electors, and those only, of such State shall be counted whose title as electors the two Houses, acting separately, shall concurrently decide is supported by the decision of such State so authorized by its laws; and in such case of more than one return or paper purporting to be a return from a State, if there shall have been no such determination of the question in the State aforesaid, then those votes, and those only shall be counted which the two houses shall concurrently decide were cast by lawful electors appointed in accordance with the laws of the State, unless the two houses, acting separately, shall concurrently decide such votes not to be the lawful votes of the legally appointed electors of such State. But if the two houses shall disagree in respect of the counting of such votes, then and in that case, the votes of the electors whose appointment shall have been certified by the Executive of the State, under the seal thereof, shall be counted. When the two houses have voted, they shall immediately again meet, and the presiding officer shall then announce the decision of the questions submitted. No votes or papers from any other State shall be acted upon until the objections previously made to the votes or papers from any State shall have been finally disposed of. SECTION 5. That while the two houses shall be in meeting as provided in this act, the President of the Senate shall have power to preserve order: and no debate shall be allowed and no question shall be put by the presiding officer, except to either house on a motion to withdraw. SECTION 6. That when the two houses separate to decide upon an objection that may have been made to the counting of any electoral vote or votes from any State, or other question arising in the matter, each Senator and Representative may speak to such objec tion or question five minutes, and not more than once; but after such debate shall have lasted two hours, it shall be the duty of the presiding officer of each house to put the main question without further debate. SECTION 7. Such joint meeting shall not be dissolved until the count of electoral votes shall be completed and the result declared; and no recess shall be taken unless a question shall have arisen in regard to counting any such votes, or otherwise under this act, in which case it shall be competent for either house, acting separately, in the manner herein before provided, to direct a recess of such house not beyond the next calendar day, Sunday excepted, at the hour of ten o'clock in the forenoon. But if the counting of the electoral votes and the declaration of the result shall not have been completed before the fifth calendar day next after such first meeting of the two houses, no further or other recess shall be taken by either house. During the same period of four years which witnessed the passage of these two important acts, propositions to amend the Constitution relative to the Executive Department were introduced in unusual number and variety. Some of the old suggestions were received, such as the lengthening of the term, forbidding reëlection, and changing the mode of election so that voters would cast their votes directly and without the intervention of electors. Other schemes, some of them highly fanciful, were added to the list. But not one of them all, old or new, had even the success implied in a favorable report by a committee; and no proposition of amendment excited the smallest interest on the part of the general public. XXVIII. THE SECOND HARRISON. WHEN a political party acquires control of the executive department of the government after passing twenty-four years in the cold shade of the Opposition, a redistribution of offices is naturally the matter that first engages its attention. Mr. Cleveland, entering upon the duties of President, found himself in a peculiar position. He owed his election as much to a body of dissident Republicans as to the Democratic party. His "mugwump" supporters were for the most part thorough believers in the principles of civil service reform, and had supported him in the belief that he agreed with them on that issue. They were totally opposed to a "clean sweep" of the appointive officers of the government. On the other hand, the main body of his supporters regarded the offices as the fruits of victory, and would not be satisfied so long as Republicans were drawing salaries from the Treasury. Mr. Cleveland so shaped his course as not wholly to disappoint either wing of his supporters. That he did not wholly satisfy either wing is involved in this statement. Removals from office for political reasons were numerous ; and at the end of the four years' term a very large proportion of the incumbents were Democrats. But in one case Mr. Cleveland reappointed a Republican to an important office; the removals were not made with too unseemly haste; and in many instances Republicans were suffered to serve out the full term of four years for which they had been appointed. There was not much friction between the President and the Senate, although the Re publicans controlled that branch of Congress during Mr. Cleveland's term of office. The Senate usually acquiesced in the removals, and confirmed the President's appointments; and before his term had half expired, it had concurred with the Democratic House of Representatives in repealing the Tenure of Office Act, which had been devised to limit President Johnson's power of removal from office, and which had, in a modified form, been retained on the statute book ever since. Although the Senate interposed no great obstacles in the way of the President's distribution of the offices according to his pleasure, it set up an effectual barrier to the enactment of legislation of a political character. There was no serious attempt to draw up the two great parties in line of battle during the continuance of the Forty-ninth Congress. The party wrangling took place for the most part over the executive acts of the President, the Democrats upholding and the Republicans denouncing the disposition he made of the offices, and his use of the veto power, which he exercised with unexampled freedom. Inasmuch as a large number of the bills returned to Congress without the approval of the President were private pension bills, the effort was made, not without a measure of success, to represent Mr. Cleveland as but a half-hearted sympathizer with the soldiers; and the accusation that the interests of the former defenders of the flag were regarded by him in a too calculating spirit was used against him in the ensuing canvass. But all other political questions were thrust completely out of sight by the unusual and startling act of the President at the beginning of the Fiftieth Congress. The question of the tariff had been brought forward during the Forty-ninth Congress in the so-called "Morrison bill," Mr. Morrison of Illinois was the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, but the division in the - ranks of the Democratic party on this issue had been deep enough to prevent the passage of the bill even by the House of Representatives, in which the Democrats had a clear majority of forty members. At the beginning of the first session of the Fiftieth Congress, in December, 1887, the President, in disregard of unbroken precedent, omitted altogether from his annual message a review of government operations and a statement of international relations during the year past, and devoted the whole document to a plea for a revision of the tariff. The party lines were formed at once. The Republicans detected in Mr. Cleveland's message an attack upon the principle of a protective tariff, and closed up their ranks to defend the system of which they had been the champions for a quarter of a century. Mr. Blaine, who was making a long sojourn in Europe, in an "interview" with an American newspaper correspondent examined Mr. Cleveland's argument in detail, and set forth the Republican side of the discussion in a way which made his "Paris message," as it was called, the "keynote" of the Republican defence of the protective tariff. The Democrats recognized in the President's message a summons to move forward to the attack. They responded to the call. The leaders resolved to be no longer tolerant of differences. Those who would not fight the battle of the Democracy must be coerced, or treated as enemies and driven out of the camp. The measure which the Democratic members of the Ways and Means Committee prepared under the leadership of Mr. Mills, the chairman, after long deliberation and consultation, was made a quasi test of party loyalty. Support of its main features, and support of the bill itself after the work of amendment was completed, was required of all Democrats in the House of Representatives. Those who refused to give it their votes forfeited the favors which it was in the power |