"The two Houses of Congress, however, did not see fit to exercise that power nor to discharge that duty, and as a consequence this contingency in which it would have been proper for Mr. Tilden to take the official oath never presented itself. Before the time fixed by law for counting the electoral votes, Congress passed the electoral bill by which they practically abdicated in favor of a tribunal unknown to and, in my judgment, unknowable by the Constitution, and enacted that the electoral commission should in the first instance make the count, and that its count should stand unless overruled by the concurrent action of the two Houses. This electoral tribunal counted Mr. Tilden out, and counted in a man who was not elected. Congress did not overrule their count, in consequence of which the false count stood as law under the act of Congress. "The only other contingency in which it would have been obligatory, or even lawful, for Mr. Tilden to have taken the oath of office was in case of a failure in the choice of President by the electoral colleges, the House of Representatives had itself proceeded to make the election, voting by States in the manner prescribed by the Constitution and pursued in the election of John Q. Adams. "This contingency, like the first, never presented itself, and, both failing, any attempt on the part of Mr. Tilden to seize the Presidency by violence would have been not statesmanship, but simply brigandage. "Courage is too common a virtue among Americans for any one to make a boast of it, and the lack of courage too rare to explain the conduct of any body of representative men. At the same time, there is no doubt that if there was any place where a special display of heroism could have prevented the defeat of the popular choice and installed the elect of the people in the Presidential chair, that place was the floor of Congress. I suppose I say nothing which any Democratic member of that Congress will be disposed to dispute when I state that it was the fear that the Senate would lead a resistance to the rightful judgment of the House, and that President Grant would sustain this revolutionary policy with the army and navy, and with the militia of the great States in which the Republicans had possession of the State governments, that deterred the House of Representatives from the assertion of its rights, and induced its vote for and acquiescence in the electoral commission.