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36.--counting the vote.
A message was sent to the Senate, informing them that the
House was now waiting to receive them, so that in a joint body the electoral votes of the
President and
Vice President may be opened and the result announced.
After a short interval the
Senators, preceded by their officers, were announced.
The members of the
House immediately rose, and remained standing till the
Senators took seats in a semi-circular range, in front of the clerk's desk.
Vice President Breckinridge was conducted to the right of the
Speaker, and the tellers, viz :--
Senator Trumbull and
Representatives Washburn, of
Illinois, and
Phelps, took seats at the
Clerk's desk.
When order was restored,
Vice President Breckinridge rose and said:--
“We have assembled, pursuant to the constitution, in order that the electoral votes may be counted, and the result declared, for
President and
Vice President for the term commencing on the 4th of March, 1861, and it is made my duty under the constitution, to open the certificates of election in the presence of the two Houses; and I now proceed to the performance of that duty.”
Vice President Breckinridge then opened the package containing the electoral vote of
Maine, and handed it to the tellers, when the certificate thereof was read, the
Secretary of the Senate making a note thereof.
The electoral votes of
New Hampshire,
Massachusetts,
Rhode Island,
Connecticut,
Vermont, and New York were similarly disposed of.
Senator Douglas suggested, and no objection was made, that the formal part of the certificates, and the names of the electors, be omitted from the reading.
The reading of the vote of
South Carolina was productive of good-humored excitement.
The reading of all the electoral votes having been completed, the tellers reported the result:
Whereupon the
Vice President, rising, said:
Abraham Lincoln, of
Illinois, having received a majority of the whole number of electoral votes, is duly elected
President of the
United States for the four years commencing on the 4th of March, 1861:
And that
Hannibal Hamlin, of
Maine, having received a majority of the whole number of electoral votes, is duly elected
Vice President of the
United States for the same term.--
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