"'ALTO,' NEAR EDGE HILL,
"KING GEORGE, VA., _Dec. 5, '76_.
"DEAR SIR,--Although I am confident if any one in the U.
S. has the ability to cope with the rogues who are bent on cheating
the people out of the hard-earned victory they have achieved, in
the Presidential contest, it is yourself; yet, at the risk of being
thought highly presumptuous, I venture on a few suggestions I have
not observed thrown out by any one.
"That the Constitution does not provide for the extraordinary
condition of things in which we are placed by the Congress, nor that
any of its annotators furnish an apt construction, is certain; and
for the same reason, I suppose, as that given by Bishop Warburton,
why no allusion was made in the Pentateuch to a future state. The
patriots of the Revolution, like the Patriarchs after the creation,
no doubt thought the proposition so self-evident and the provisions
so ample for pious and honest men that they did not dream of the
world's being peopled by such a race of sinners and corruptionists.
"If precedent is to be weighed in counting the votes, let the
spirit of the first example be wholly and rigidly observed. There
is doubt, in the first election of Gl. Washington, the president
of the Senate did perform that ministerial duty. But the order of
the Senate, prepared by a committee, and signed by John Langdon, the
prest. 'elected for that purpose,' expressly says 'the underwritten,
appointed president of the Senate for the sole purpose of receiving,
opening, and counting the votes of electors, did, in the presence
of the Senate and House of Representatives,' etc., leaving it to
be inferred (and no other conclusion will hold water) that in
doing this his functions ceased. Subsequently, as you know, there
were some variations from this practice, but all going to the mere
ministerial agency of that officer.
"The bald attempt of McDonald, present chief clerk of the Senate,
to cite a different practice, in the case of Harrison, when James
W. Watson was president of the Senate, by construing his action in
his (McDonald's) own language, as to imply judicial authority, does
great violence to the truth of history and the greatest injustice
to that astute and cautious statesman, who struggled all his life
against the exercise of doubtful powers and was never known to
practise one. This little incident on the part of McDonald is only
a part of the well-laid scheme to revolutionize the government
by seizure in the count of either of the returning boards in the
subjugated States, should be conscience-stricken and obey the
mandates of the Decalogue, rather than the tyrant's order, and cast
the electoral vote for you, to whom all justly belong.
"Going through the pageant of a public inauguration is by no
means called for, as you are well aware; and I would suggest
that instead of allowing Sunday to intervene, that Grant's term
expires at 12 o'c. at night on the 3d of March, when his power as
Commander-in-Chief will cease, and when Sherman will not dare use
the army for their hellish purposes. I make this suggestion for the
reason that there is a tradition in the family of Mr. Jefferson, to
whom I am nearly allied by marriage, handed down by himself, that
being informed commissions were to be made out by Mr. Adams for
judges and other officers after midnight, he (Jefferson) entered
the office of Secretary of State precisely at 12 o'c. on the 3d
of Mar. and demanded it of the Secretary, John Marshall, I think,
who, after some remonstrance, yielded and delivered the keys to
Mr. Jefferson. Allusion is made to those midnight appointments in
his correspondence, but no mention is made of those particular
circumstances. I had them from Col. L. G. Randolph, his grandson,
confidential friend, executor and sole custodian of his papers until
sold to Congress.
"Some persons apprehend that if the election devolves upon the House
(which I cannot conceive possible on any reasonable grounds) we
shall lose the Vice-President, whose choice will have to be decided
by the Senate; but this cannot be, as the contingency will not arise
for such a resort. For the Constitution expressly provides that 'the
person having the greatest number of electors shall be President,
if such number be the whole number of electors _appointed_.' Now,
how can they be appointed unless lawfully done, and who is to judge
of such legality? Certainly the House, or it may be both Houses.
So if the electoral vote of a State be rejected by either, because
of fraud, it is a nullity--no vote at all--and therefore not
_appointed_, and cannot be estimated in the count, leaving you with
84, an undisputed majority of the electors actually _appointed_.
For, mark! The Constitution does not require a majority of the whole
Electoral College, but of those _appointed_.
"If there should be any discussion about the authority of the 'great
seal of a State,' you are aware that it has been nowhere so fully
ventilated as in the famous New Jersey contest for Congressional
seats, when, if my memory serves me, the Govr's. certificate was
only respected when there was no suspicion of fraud.
"I am, with great respect & haste,
"Your humble servt.,
"CHARLES MASON."