betical order of the States, beginning with the letter A; and said tellers having then read the same in the presence and hearing of the two houses, shall make a list of the votes as they shall appear from the said certificates; and the votes having been ascertained and counted as in this act provided, the result of the same shall be delivered to the President of the Senate, who shall thereupon announce the state of the vote, and the names of the persons, if any, elected, which announcement shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons elected President and Vice-President of the United States, and, together with a list of the votes, be entered on the journals of the two houses. Upon such reading of any such certificate or paper when there shall be only one return from a State, the President of the Senate shall call for objections, if any. Every objection shall be made in writing, and shall state clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground thereof, and shall be signed by at least one Senator and one member of the House of Representatives before the same shall be received. When all objections so made to any vote or paper from a State shall have been received and read, the Senate shall thereupon withdraw, and such objections shall be submitted to the Senate for its decision; and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall, in like manner, submit such objections to the House of Representatives for its decision; and no electoral vote or votes from any State from which but one return has been received shall be rejected except by the affirmative vote of the two Houses. When the two Houses have voted, they shall immediately again meet, and the presiding officer shall then announce the decision of the question submitted.

SEC. 2. That if more than one return, or paper purporting to be a return from a State, shall have been received by the President of the Senate, purporting to be the certificates of electoral votes given at the last preceding election for President and VicePresident in such State, (unless they shall be duplicates of the same return,) all such returns and papers shall be opened by him in the presence of the two Houses when met as aforesaid, and read by the tellers, and all such returns and papers shall thereupon be submitted to the judgment and decision as to which is the true and lawful electoral vote of such State, of a commission constituted as follows, namely: During the session of each House on

the Tuesday next preceding the first Thursday in February [1877] . . ., each House shall, by viva voce vote, appoint five of its members, who with the five associate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, to be ascertained as hereinafter provided, shall constitute a commission for the decision of all questions upon or in respect of such double returns named in this section. On the Tuesday next preceding the first Thursday in February

[1877]. . ., or as soon thereafter as may be, the associate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States now assigned to the first, third, eighth, and ninth circuits shall select, in such manner as a majority of them shall deem fit, another of the associate justices of said court, which five persons shall be members of said commission; and the person longest in commission of said five justices shall be the president of said commission. All the certificates and papers purporting to be certificates of the electoral votes of each State shall be opened, in the alphabetical order of the States, as provided in section one of this act; and when there shall be more than one such certificate or paper, as the certificates and papers from such State shall so be opened, (excepting duplicates of the same return,) they shall be read by the tellers, and thereupon the President of the Senate shall call for objections, if any. Every objection shall be made in writing, and shall state clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground thereof, and shall be signed by at least one Senator and one member of the House of Representatives before the same shall be received. When all such objections so made to any certificate, vote, or paper from a State shall have been received and read, all such certificates, votes, and papers so objected to, and all papers accompanying the same, together with such objections, shall be forthwith submitted to said commission, which shall proceed to consider the same, with the same powers, if any, now possessed for that purpose by the two Houses acting separately or together, and, by a majority of votes, decide whether any and what votes from such State are the votes provided for by the Constitution of the United States, and how many and what persons were duly appointed electors in such State, and may therein take into view such petitions, depositions, and other papers, if any, as shall, by the Constitution and now existing law, be competent and pertinent in such consideration; which decision shall be

made in writing, stating briefly the ground thereof, and signed by the members of said commission agreeing therein; whereupon the two houses shall again meet, and such decision shall be read and entered in the journal of each House, and the counting of the votes shall proceed in conformity therewith, unless, upon objection made thereto in writing by at least five Senators and five members of the House of Representatives, the two Houses shall separately concur in ordering otherwise, in which case such concurrent order shall govern. No votes or papers from any other State shall be acted upon until the objections previously made to the votes or papers from any State shall have been finally disposed of.

SEC. 6. That nothing in this act shall be held to impair or affect any right now existing under the Constitution and laws to question, by proceeding in the judicial courts of the United States, the right or title of the person who shall be declared elected, or who shall claim to be President or Vice-President of the United States, if any such right exists.

THE coinage act of February 12, 1873 [No. 174], omitted the silver dollar from the list of pieces thereafter to be coined, but retained the trade dollar. A bill to provide for the free and unlimited coinage of silver dollars was introduced in the House December 13, 1876, by Richard P. Bland of Missouri, as a substitute for a bill "to utilize the products of gold and silver mines," introduced June 3. The bill passed the House the same day by a vote of 167 to 53, 69 not voting. In the Senate the bill was referred to the Committee on Finance, which reported it January 16, 1877, without recommendation, pending the report of the silver commission. November 5, by a vote of 164 to 34, 92 not voting, the rules were suspended to allow Bland to introduce and the House to pass a free coinage bill.' The bill was taken up

1 "The previous question being ordered and the rules suspended, a single vote would introduce the bill without a reference to a committee, and would pass it

ments.

in the Senate January 28 and debated until February 15. The Senate added sections 2 and 3 of the act, the provisos of section 1, and, on motion of William B. Allison of Iowa, the limitation on the amount of coinage, the vote on the latter amendment being 49 to 22. The final vote in the Senate was 48 to 21, 7 not voting. February 21 the House concurred in the Senate amendOn the 28th the bill was vetoed by President Hayes, but was passed over the veto, in the House by a vote of 196 to 73, 23 not voting; in the Senate by a vote of 46 to 19, 11 not voting. The coinage provision of the act was repealed by section 5 of the act of July 14, 1890 [No. 182, post]. REFERENCES. - Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XX., 25, 26. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 45th Cong., 2d Sess., and the Cong. Record. See House Misc. Doc. 27; Senate Exec. Doc. 3, 50th Cong., 2d Sess.; Sherman, Recollections, II., chaps. 31 and 32, and annual report as Secretary of the Treasury, December, 1877.

An act to authorize the coinage of the standard silver dollar, and to restore its legal-tender character.

Be it enacted

That there shall be coined, at the several mints of the United States, silver dollars of the weight of four hundred and twelve and a half grains Troy of standard silver, as provided in the act of [January 18, 1837] . . ., on which shall be the devices and superscriptions provided by said act; which coins together with all silver dollars heretofore coined by the United States, of like weight and fineness, shall be a legal tender, at their nominal value, for all debts and dues public and private, except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract. And the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and directed to purchase, from time to time, silver bullion, at the market price thereof, not less than two million dollars worth per month, nor more than four million dollars worth per month, and cause the same to be coined monthly, as fast as so purchased, into such dollars. . . . And any gain or seigniorage arising from this coinage shall be accounted for and paid into the Treasury, as provided under existing laws relative to the subsidiary coinage: Provided, That the amount of money at any one time invested in such silver bullion, exclusive of such resulting coin, shall not exceed five million dollars. . . .

SEC. 2. That immediately after the passage of this act, the President shall invite the governments of the countries composing the

without any power of amendment, without the usual reading at three separate times." (Sherman, Recollections, II., 603.)

Latin Union, so-called, and of such other European nations as he may deem advisable, to join the United States in a conference to adopt a common ratio between gold and silver, for the purpose of establishing, internationally, the use of bi-metallic money, and securing fixity of relative value between those metals; such conference to be held at such place, in Europe or in the United States, at such time within six months, as may be mutually agreed upon by the executives of the governments joining in the same, whenever the governments so invited, or any three of them, shall have signified their willingness to unite in the same.

The President shall, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint three commissioners, who shall attend such conference on behalf of the United States, and shall report the doings thereof to the President, who shall transmit the same to Congress.

SEC. 3. That any holder of the coin authorized by this act may deposit the same with the Treasurer or any assistant treasurer of the United States, in sums not less than ten dollars, and receive therefor certificates of not less than ten dollars each, corresponding with the denominations of the United States notes. The coin deposited for or representing the certificates shall be retained in the Treasury for the payment of the same on demand. Said certificates shall be receivable for customs, taxes, and all public dues, and, when so received, may be reissued.

In his annual message of December 5, 1870, President Grant urged the attention of Congress to " a reform in the civil service of the country." In accordance with this recommendation, the sundry civil appropriation act of March 3, 1871, authorized the President to prescribe regulations for admission to the civil service. A civil service commission was appointed, and for two years appropriations were made for its support. The continuance of the appropriations was urged by Grant, and again by President Hayes in his annual messages of 1879 and 1880, but without inducing congressional action. The assassination of President Garfield called public attention forcibly to the