The preliminary arrangements in regard to the elec toral count were made according to precedent. The two Houses met in the Representatives' Hall, and the certificates were duly opened. When all had been opened except the returns from Indiana, Mr. Taylor of New York a member of the House of Representatives, and Speaker of the body some years later, when the Missouri compromise was passed arose, and, addressing the Speaker, expressed his regret at being compelled to interrupt the proceedings, and to object to the vote from Indiana. He was proceeding to state his objections, when the Speaker (Mr. Clay) stopped him and said that the two Houses had met for the single specified purpose of performing the constitutional duty which they were then discharging; and that, while so acting in joint meeting, they could consider no proposition nor perform any business not prescribed by the Constitution.

At this point Mr. Varnum of Massachusetts, concurring in what the Speaker had said, suggested the propriety of the Senate retiring, that the House of Representatives might deliberate upon the question raised by one of its members. The President of the Senate put the question to the senators, and it was agreed to, and the Senate withdrew. Mr. Taylor immediately took the floor, and urged that, as Indiana was not a State in the Union at the time the election took place, its votes were no more entitled to be counted than if they had come from Missouri or any other Territory. He maintained that the question should be considered and decided now, when the result would not be affected by it, and suggested that a joint resolution be passed, declaring that the votes were illegal and ought not to be counted. A resolution was moved declaring the votes legal, and on this a long debate took place. The suggestion was made that the resolution

should not be a joint one, as, by establishing a precedent, it might some time thereafter, when the House and Senate should be opposed to each other, "deprive this House of one of its powers, by permitting the Senate to participate in this question." The discussion turned wholly upon the point whether or not Indiana was a State in the Union after it adopted its Constitution, and before it was admitted by a formal act of Congress. The power of Congress to reject the votes, if Indiana were not a State for purposes of the election, was questioned by no one. Finally, by an almost unanimous vote, the whole matter was indefinitely postponed, and the House sent a message to the Senate that it was prepared to resume the

count.

Meanwhile a somewhat similar debate was taking place in the Senate, but, before a decision was reached, the message of the House was received. Thereupon the resolution which had been under discussion, declaring the votes of Indiana legal, was withdrawn by its mover, Mr. Barbour of Virginia, and the Senate returned to the Representatives' Hall. After the two Houses had assembled, the Speaker informed them that the House of Representatives "had not seen it necessary to come to any resolution or to take any order on the subject which had produced the separation of the two Houses." Thereupon the count was completed, the result declared, and the proceedings were terminated.

X.

THE "ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS."

At no time in the history of the country has party feeling been so nearly absent as it was during Mr. Monroe's administration. The time has passed into history as the "era of good feelings." The Federalist party was almost extinct, even in New England and Delaware, and there was hardly a public man in office in any of the States who cared longer to urge the doctrines which had once divided him from the Republican party, or, as it now began to be called, the Democratic party. The election of 1820 was not even a contest. In the early part of the year there was a secret movement to supersede Mr. Monroe; but it did not promise well at any time, and defeated itself without any effort on the part of Mr. Monroe or his friends. A caucus was called during the session of 1820; but only a few members attended it, and a resolution that it was not expedient to make any recommendation was adopted without opposition. The result of this election is well known. Mr. Monroe was elected by a vote which would have been absolutely unanimous had not one elector of New Hampshire, deeming it due to the memory of Washington that no President after him should share in the honor of a unanimous election, given his vote for John Quincy Adams. The result in detail was as follows:

* One elector in each of the States of Pennsylvania, Mississippi, and Tennessee died after appointment, and before the meetings of the electors.

Five new States participated in this election, namely: Mississippi, admitted Dec. 10, 1817; Illinois, admitted

Dec. 3, 1818; Alabama, admitted Dec. 14, 1819; Maine, separated from Massachusetts and admitted as a State March 15, 1820; and Missouri, which had adopted a Constitution in July, 1820, but which was not formally admitted by act of Congress until Aug. 10, 1821. The question, therefore, which had arisen in 1817 in reference to the right of Indiana to vote for President was raised again in a still more perplexing form than before; for, whereas Indiana had become a State at the time the votes were counted, conditions had been attached to the admission of Missouri which had not yet been met at the time of the count, and it was not certain that the legislature would accede to the demand of Congress. The inconvenience of a discussion upon this question, and the doubts of members as to the result of an attempt to decide it either in joint meeting or by the two Houses separately, led to the invention of a method of avoiding the point altogether. The joint committee of Congress which was, in accordance with custom, appointed to ascertain and report a mode of examining the votes, reported, in addition to the usual resolution, the following:

Resolved, That if any objection be made to the votes of Missouri, and the counting, or omitting to count, which shall not essentially change the result of the election, in that case they shall be reported by the President of the Senate in the following manner: Were the votes of Missouri to be counted, the result would be, for A. B. for President of the United States, votes; if not counted, for A. B. for President of the United States, votes. But in either event A. B. is elected President of the United States. And in the same manner for Vice-President.

A long debate took place on this proposition in the Senate. The views advanced were various. But the Senate was persuaded to adopt the resolution upon the assurance of Mr. Barbour, who reported it, that it was