A certificate of a board of returning officers has nothing to liken it to a judicial record of contentions between parties. The proceeding is _ex parte_; or, if there be parties, the other States of the Union are not represented, however much their rights may be affected; the evidence is in part at least by one-sided affidavits; the judges may be interested and partial. What such a board has about it to inspire confidence or command respect, it is hard to perceive. If there be any presumption in its favor, or in favor of the justice of its judgments, the presumption is as far from indisputable as a disputable presumption can ever be. To recapitulate, we may formulate the question in this manner: _Whom has the State appointed to vote in its behalf for President?_ The manner of appointment is the vote of the people, for the Legislature has so directed. Who, then, are appointed by the people? To state the question is nearly equivalent to stating what evidence is admissible; for the question is not, who received the certificate, but who received the votes; and any evidence showing what votes were cast and for whom is pertinent and must therefore be admissible, unless excluded by positive law. The law by which this question is to be decided is not State, but Federal. If it were otherwise, the State officers might evade the Constitution altogether, for this ordains that the appointment shall be by the State, and in such manner as its Legislature directs; but if the State certificate is conclusive of the fact, the State authorities may altogether refuse obedience to the constitution and laws, and save themselves from the consequences by certifying that they have obeyed them. And they may in like manner defraud us of our rights, making resistance impossible, by certifying that they have not defrauded. Indeed, they might make shorter work of it, and _omit the election altogether, writing the certificate in its stead_.