Section 2. That the Preceding Section Shall Only Be Held to Describe

and apply to such officers as shall have been appointed by the advice and consent of the Senate to the offices therein named, and such as are eligible to the office of President under the Constitution, and not under impeachment by the House of Representatives of the United States at the time the powers and duties of the office shall devolve upon them respectively.

SEC. 3. That sections 146, 147, 148, 149, and 150 of the Revised Statutes are hereby repealed.

CONTESTED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

There have been only two seriously contested elections in the history of our Presidential conflicts. They were the contest between Jefferson and Burr in 1800–1 and the contest between Hayes and Tilden in 1876–7. The Hayes-Tilden contest brought the country to the verge of revolution, and the very close battle between Garfield and Hancock four years later, and the Cleveland-Blaine struggle of 1884, that turned upon 1100 majority in a vote of nearly 6,000,000 in New York State, taught the necessity of having some definite statute providing for the determination of disputed electoral votes in the States by which such disputes would be practically eliminated from the powers of Congress. The following is the full text of the present statute, approved February 3, 1887, providing for the determination of contested electors:

Be it enacted, etc., that the electors of each State shall meet and give their votes on the second Monday in January next following their appointment, at such place in each State as the Legislature of such State shall direct.