There is for every man in a matter of such gravity his own measure of responsibility, and that measure I desire to assume.  Nothing less important than the decision, into whose hands the entire executive power of this government shall be vested in the next four years, is embraced in the provisions of this bill.  The election for President and Vice-President has been held, but as to the results of that election the two great political parties of the country stand opposed in serious controversy.  Each party claims success for its candidate and insists that he and he alone shall be declared by the two houses of Congress entitled to exercise the executive power of this government for the next four years.  The canvass was prolonged and unprecedented in its excitement and even bitterness.  The period of advocacy of either candidate has passed, and the time for judgment has almost come.  How shall we who purpose to make laws for others do better than to exhibit our own reverence for law and set the example here of subordination to the spirit of law?

It cannot be disguised that an issue has been sought, if not actually raised, in this country, between a settlement of this great question by sheer force and arbitrary exercise of power or by the peaceful, orderly, permanent methods of law and reason.  Ours is, as we are wont to boast, a government of laws, and not of will; and we must not permit it to pass away from us by changing its nature.

 “O, yet a nobler task awaits thy hand,
  For what can war but endless war still breed?”

By this measure now before the Senate it is proposed to have a peaceful conquest over partisan animosity and lawless action, to procure a settlement grounded on reason and justice, and not upon force.  Therefore, it is meant to lift this great question of determining who has been lawfully elected President and Vice-President of these United States out of the possibility of popular broils and tumult, and elevate it with all dignity to the higher atmosphere of legal and judicial decision.  In such a spirit I desire to approach the consideration of the subject and shall seek to deal with it at least worthily, with a sense of public duty unobstructed, I trust, by prejudice or party animosity.  The truth of Lord Bacon’s aphorism that “great empire and little minds go ill together,” should warn us now against the obtrusion of narrow or technical views in adjusting such a question and at such a time in our country’s history.

Mr. President, from the very commencement of the attempt to form the government under which we live, the apportionment of power in the executive branch and the means of choosing the chief magistrate have been the subject of the greatest difficulty.  Those who founded this government and preceded us in its control had felt the hand of kingly power, and it was from the abuse of executive power that they dreaded the worst results.  Therefore it was that when the Constitution