"Forgive me if my letter makes the one-hundredth-and-one of the day; it requires no answer. One word more before I stop. On reflection, I am certain my Uncle Randall alluded to the fact that I was the favorite niece of Mrs. Edward Livingston, my grandaunt, who died not many years since, at a very advanced age. I was very stupid not to think of this solution to the problem at once.
"Very truly yours,
"Louise Livingston Hunt."
THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION AND MR. TILDEN
The following statement, in the handwriting of George W. Smith, Mr. Tilden's private secretary, was from Mr. Tilden's dictation:
"Mr. Tilden's views of the policy which the Democratic party in Congress ought to pursue in respect to the counting of the electoral votes cast for President and Vice-President in 1876 were perfectly defined and freely expressed to all who consulted him long before the meeting of Congress in December of that year. It was to stand firmly and inflexibly on the unbroken series of precedents formed by the twenty-two Presidential counts from 1793 to 1872.
"While the committees of investigation in respect to Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina, appointed by the House of Representatives, were engaged in their duties, Mr. Tilden caused a collection of all those precedents to be made and printed. At his request the Hon. John Bigelow prepared an analytical and expository introduction which was prefixed to this volume, and they were printed together by the Messrs. Appleton in the latter part of December, 1876. Mr. Marble assisted in preparing an appendix to the introduction, containing citations of authorities on the various points. This introduction was also issued separately and used in large numbers by the Democratic National Committee. It presents a clear, strong, and well-fortified statement of the position which Mr. Tilden thought the Democratic party ought to assume.
"On the 22d December two committees of the House of Representatives were appointed: the first on the powers and privileges of the House of Representatives in respect to counting electoral votes; the second to confer with a committee of the Senate on the same subject. The Congressional Record of that date contains the following entry:
"'Committee to ascertain and report what are the privileges, powers, and duties of the House of Representatives in counting the votes for President and Vice-President of the United States: Mr. Knott, of Kentucky; Mr. Sparks, of Illinois; Mr. ——, of Virginia; Mr. ——, of Pennsylvania; Mr. Burchard, of Illinois; Mr. Seelye, of Massachusetts; and Mr. Monroe, of Ohio.
"'Committee to meet with the Senate committee as to the counting of the electoral votes for President and Vice-President: Mr. Payne, of Ohio; Mr. Hunton, of Virginia; Mr. Hewitt, of New York; Mr. Springer, of Illinois; Mr. McCrary, of Iowa; Mr. Hoar, of Massachusetts; and Mr. Willard, of Michigan.'
"During the Christmas holidays, and for some days after the 1st of January, leading members of the House of Representatives were in New York and had interviews with Mr. Tilden. He was frank, open, and earnest in his conversations with them, and with many others, in advocating the making of an issue first in the House of Representatives and then in the Senate. He was for asserting, by formal resolution, the exclusive right of the two Houses acting concurrently to count the electoral vote and determine what should be counted as electoral votes, and for denying, also by formal resolution, the pretension then set up by the Republicans, that the president of the Senate had any lawful or constitutional right to assume that function. He was for urging that issue in debate in both Houses and before the country. He thought that if the attempt should be really made to usurp for the president of the Senate a power to make the count and thus practically control the Presidential election, the scheme would break down in process of execution, and that, in any event, it was in the interest of popular elective government not to yield to the menace of usurpation, all which actual usurpation could take for itself if completely successful.