Both the Republicans and the Democrats were represented by most able counsel before the Electoral Commission. William M. Evarts, Stanley Matthews, E. W. Stoughton, and Samuel Shellabarger were pitted against a formidable array both as to ability and numbers on the other side, Judge J. S. Black, Matthew H. Carpenter, Charles O'Conor, J. A. Campbell, Lyman Trumbull, Ashbel Green, Montgomery Blair, George Hoadly, William C. Whitney, R. T. Merrick and A. P. Morse. {292} [Sidenote: The Republican position.] The Republicans took their stand at the outset upon the principle that Congress could not go behind the returns of the "State" Canvassing Board or officer, in counting the electoral vote from any "State." They contended that in the election of the President and Vice-President, the Constitution had separated the procedure into two distinct parts, and had assigned the first part to the control of the several "States" exclusively, and the second part to the control of Congress exclusively; that up to the completion of the election of the electors the exclusive control of the "States" respectively extended, but that all control after that point had been reached was in Congress, and that Congress had no power whatever, under the Constitution, to revise, interfere with, or examine into, that part assigned by the Constitution to the "States" respectively, and, on the other hand, that Congress was bound to disregard any act of the "States," or of any of the officers or agents of the "States," in that part assigned exclusively by the Constitution to its own control. There is no question that this was all sound constitutional law and that the Democrats would have to abandon entirely their old "States'" rights doctrine and go over to the most extreme nationalism in order to combat it. [Sidenote: The Democratic position.]