The PRESIDENT administered the oath required by law to Mr. CONDIT, a Senator from the State of New Jersey.
Mr. WORTHINGTON presented the petition of a number of the inhabitants of the Indiana Territory, praying to be set off into a separate district, for reasons therein stated.
_Ordered_, That it be referred to Mr. BRADLEY and others, the committee to whom were referred on the 7th instant, petitions on the same subject, to consider and report thereon to the Senate.
The Senate resumed the consideration of the report of the committee to whom was referred the motion for an amendment to the constitution in the mode of electing the President and the Vice President of the United States; whereupon, the President _pro tem._ (Mr. BROWN) submitted to the consideration of the Senate the following question of order:
“When an amendment to be proposed to the constitution is under consideration, shall the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present be requisite to decide any question for amendments, or extending to the merits, being short of the final question?”
[A debate took place on this proposition, tedious, intricate, and desultory, which it was very difficult to follow, and often to comprehend.]
The proposition offered by the President was then called up for decision, whether two-thirds were necessary--ayes 13, noes 18.
Mr. BUTLER desired to know from the President if the question now decided did not require a majority of two-thirds?
The PRESIDENT said, according to the rule of the House, the question required only a principal majority to decide.
Mr. DAYTON’s motion for striking out what related to the Vice President was called for, and the question taken on striking out--ayes 12, noes 19.
The report of the committee at large being then under consideration,
Mr. NICHOLAS moved to strike out all following the seventh line of the report, to the end, for the purpose of inserting the following:
“In all future elections of President and Vice President, the Electors shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and, in distinct ballots, the person voted for as Vice President, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves. The person voted for as President, having a majority of the votes of all the Electors appointed, shall be the President; and if no person have such majority, then from the three highest on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose the President in the manner directed by the constitution. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice President, shall be the Vice President; and in case of an equal number of votes for two or more persons for Vice President, they being the highest on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice President from those having such equal number, in the manner directed by the constitution; but no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President, shall be eligible to that of Vice President of the United States.”