I " Writings and Life of Samuel J. Tilden,'' edited by John Bigelow.

Pub., Harper 4 Brothers, 1885.

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

duty of counting the electoral votes for President and Vice-President, it appeared that there were one hundred and eighty-four uncontested electoral votes for Samuel J. Tilden for President and for Thomas A. Hendricks for Vice-President, one hundred and sixty-five uncontested electoral votes for Rutherford B. Hayes for President and William A. Wheeler for Vice-President, and twenty votes in dispute. One hundred and eighty-five votes were necessary for a choice; consequently, one additional vote to Tilden and Hendricks would have elected them, while twenty additional votes were required for the election of the rival candidates. The whole election, therefore, depended upon one electoral vote. This gave to the mode of counting the vote an importance which it had never possessed at any of the twentyone previous elections in the history of our government.

The provisions of the Constitution relating to the mode of counting the vote were sufficiently vague to furnish a pretext for some diversity of opinion upon the subject, wherein the temptation to find one was so great. A majority of the Senate being Republicans and a majority of the House of Representatives being Democrats, that the Senate would not agree to to count any one of these twenty votes for Tilden and Hendricks was assumed; and to avoid a conflict of jurisdiction, which was thought by some to threaten the peace of the country, a special tribunal, to consist of members of Congress and of the Supreme Court, fifteen in number, was created, upon which the duty of counting the electoral vote was devolved by an act of Congress. One of the membei's of this tribunal was classified as an Independent, seven as Republicans and seven as Democrats.