Neither was there any sign manifested that Congress would desist from pressing its views of its own powers in the matter. Both Houses had
No change in the views
of Congress caused by
the Presidential election.
The refusal of Congress
to count the electoral
vote from any "State"
which had passed the
secession ordinance.
Louisiana, which had fulfilled the President's conditions of reconstruction, was thus included in this list, and also Tennessee,
Reconstruction
in Tennessee.
The case of Tennessee did not from this point of view appear as strong as that of Louisiana. But it is difficult to see how the Republicans could have consistently rejected the vote of Tennessee after having nominated and elected a citizen of Tennessee as Vice-President of the United States. It is certainly implied in the Constitution of the United States that no man is eligible to the office of Vice-President unless he be at the time of his election a citizen of a "State" of the Union. The Constitution implies that the Vice-President shall have the same qualifications as the President; and it distinctly says that in giving their vote, the electors in each "State" shall vote for two persons, "of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves." If an inhabitant of Tennessee could be lawfully Vice-President of the United States, it does certainly seem implied that Tennessee was, at the time, a "State" of the Union in regular standing.
However this may have been, the President was certainly correct in saying that Congress was vested with full power over the count of the electoral vote, and that the Executive had no control over it whatsoever. It was a bit of harmless good humor that he signed the resolution as a perfunctory matter, and it was calculated to improve the temper of the somewhat irritated members of Congress.
Congress was not, however, formally notified of the fact that he had signed the measure until after the counting of the vote had been
The twenty-second
joint rule.