Impeachment of a Cabinet Officer: Louisiana and Republican

Meanwhile the Forty-fourth Congress had assembled in second session. There was a majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives, and Samuel J. Randall of Pennsylvania was chosen Speaker. Almost the first business of the session was the adoption, in the Senate, of a resolution devolving upon the Committee on Privileges and Elections the duty of inquiring whether, in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, the right of any portion of the citizens to vote, had been denied or abridged, the extent to which and the means by which it had been accomplished, and by what authority. On the 4th of December the House adopted a resolution, providing for the investigation of the action of the returning or canvassing boards in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, and this action was speedily followed by the report of the Committee of Observation, that was sent in by the President. That report defended the action of the Louisiana returning board, in excluding votes in certain parishes (wherein intimidation had been practised), and a majority of the votes of that State were given to the Republican candidates. The House, on the 12th of December, ordered the report of the Democratic committee that witnessed the canvass in Louisiana to be printed.

In the meantime the returning board of Louisiana had declared (December 5) that the Republican electoral ticket, in that State, was chosen by a majority of over four thousand; and on the following day (December 6) the electoral vote in all the colleges was cast. In South Carolina and Oregon both Democratic and Republican electors met and voted; and in the latter State the governor, on the ground of the ineligibility of one of the Republican electors that had been chosen, assumed the election of the Democratic elector having the next highest number of votes, and gave him a certificate.

Thoughtful men foresaw much trouble at the final counting of the votes of the Electoral College by the President of the Senate, according to the provisions of the Constitution, for already the question had arisen as to his absolute power in the matter. Each party persistently claimed the prize of the Presidency, when returning boards in the doubtful States had decided that Mr. Hayes had one hundred and eighty-five electoral votes, and Mr. Tilden one hundred and eighty-four. To prevent serious difficulty, plans were offered. On the 5th of December, Senator Edmunds offered in the Senate an amendment to the Constitution, providing for the counting and declaration of the electoral vote by the Supreme Court of the United States. It was defeated. On the 14th, Proctor Knott (a Democrat), from the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, reported a resolution (as a substitute for one previously offered) that a committee of seven members, to be appointed by the Speaker, to act in conjunction with any similar committee that may be appointed by the Senate, to prepare and report such a measure, either legislative or constitutional, as may, in their judgment, be best calculated to accomplish the end proposed, namely, that the electoral votes may be counted and the result declared by a tribunal whose authority no one can question, and whose decision all will accept as final. This resolution was adopted without a division. On the 18th, the Senate voted in favor of a committee to act with that appointed by the House.