Reunion and Reaction by C. Vann Woodward

Author:C. Vann Woodward [Woodward, C. Vann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1991-03-28T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER VII

The Crisis Renewed

AFTER nearly a month of labor two bipartisan committees, one of the Senate and one of the House, brought forth jointly an Electoral Commission bill on January 18. The plan it contained was ingeniously contrived to avoid the appearance of giving so much as a hair’s weight of advantage to one party or the other. It was entirely noncommittal on all the fine points of constitutional law involved in the dispute. The crucial question of the powers of the new tribunal to go behind the election returns made by officials of the disputed states was neatly sidestepped by assigning the commission “the same powers, if any, now possessed for that purpose by the two houses acting separately or together.” If it were asked whether the Commission was forbidden to go behind the state returns — and that was the key to the whole dispute — the answer was, only if Congress is so forbidden.1

All-important to the acceptability of the Commission was its carefully balanced composition. It was to consist of fifteen members, five from each house of Congress and five from the Supreme Court. Three of the Senators selected by the Upper House were to be Republicans and two Democrats, while the Lower House was to choose three Democrats and two Republicans. Only four of the Supreme Court justices were designated by the bill: two Democrats, Justices Nathan Clifford and Stephen J. Field, and two Republicans, Noah H. Swayne and William Strong. Among fourteen members of the Commission named, therefore, there were seven Democrats and seven Republicans. Though the choice of the fifth justice was left to the four justices named, it was universally assumed that the place would be filled by Judge David Davis, the only avowed Independent in the Supreme Court. The decision of the Commission on the election returns of the four disputed states was to be final unless an objection should be sustained by the separate vote of both houses, an altogether unlikely possibility.

The vote on the Electoral Commission bill clearly revealed in each house a strong Democratic support and a weak and divided Republican sentiment for the measure. In the Senate 26 Democrats voted for the bill and only I against, and in the House Democrats voted 160 for and only 17 opposed to the bill. The Republican senators, on the other hand, were divided, 21 supporting and 16 opposing the measure; while in the House the party voted more than two to one against the bill, or 31 to 69. In both houses together the Democrats cast 186 votes for and only 18 against the bill, while the Republicans cast only 52 for and 85 against.2 There was considerable justice, therefore, in regarding the adoption of the bill a “Democratic victory.”

The reluctance of Republicans to support the Commission plan was understandable. Since the regular returns from the disputed Southern states, by whatever means secured, were all in favor of Hayes, the Republicans had a prima-facie case that placed the burden of proof upon the Democrats.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.