But, in general, wherever I go I find that intelligent men
of both parties are satisfied with the righteousness of the
decision, and admit that a different judgment would have wrought
the destruction of the Republic.
When the decision of the Electoral Commission was accepted
every Democratic vote in the two Houses was against it, and
every Republican vote, save two, given in its favor. Of these
two, one shortly afterward left the Republican party and became
a bitter and angry Democrat. The other, a most admirable
and excellent college president, told me that he thought the
Commission were technically right. But he thought it better
for the effect on the country that the Democratic contention
should be sustained. As if in a question of Constitutional
proceeding, or rather a question of Constitutional power,
a determination could be technically right, and wrong upon
the merits. If Congress, technically, that is according to
the mandate of the Constitution, had no power to decide the
result of the elections in the States, but that power was
committed to State tribunals, how was it possible that any
member of either House of Congress, who had sworn to support
the Constitution, could usurp that power without being forsworn?
Beside, it must be conceded by everybody to be utterly impossible
that the power of investigating disputed questions, as to
the choice of presidential electors by the States, should
be exercised by Congress.
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