, the rights of the States are best preserved by fencing
them against force or fraud, by leaving them untrammeled in their own
action, and leaving us untrammeled in finding out what that action has
been. No rights are ever lost by letting in the light.

A certificate can be conclusive evidence of the States' action, only
when the act and the certificate are identical. If the Constitution had
provided that there should be sent from each State a certificate signed
by such persons as the Legislature might designate, declaring who should
cast the electoral votes, then the only inquiry that could have been
made at Washington would have been, whether the certificate sent up was
so signed and the persons therein mentioned had voted; but the
Constitution has provided nothing of the kind. It has provided that the
State shall appoint in the manner directed by its Legislature, and the
inquiry thereupon to be made at the Capitol is, "Whom has the State
appointed in the manner directed?"

We agree that the State has complete power, within certain limits
regarding the persons who may be appointed, to appoint its electors in
any manner its Legislature may direct, but whether the State has done so
is open to inquiry. Canvassers of votes are not the State, or the
Legislature of the State, and their certificate is nothing but evidence.
Two facts are to be shown: one that the State has acted, and the other
that the act has been in conformity to the directions of the
Legislature. There is nothing in positive law, or in the reason of
things, which, if the fact certified do not exist, requires that its
falsity should not be open to proof.

The Electoral Commission and the Senate read the Constitution as if the
words following in italics were part of it:

"Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature
thereof may direct, a number of electors equal to the whole number
of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled
in the Congress; but no Senator or Representative, or person
holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall
be appointed an elector." _And the certificate of such officers as
the Legislature of the State may designate shall be conclusive
evidence, not only that the persons certified were appointed by the
State, but that they were appointed in the manner directed by its
Legislature, any mistake, fraud, or duress, of the certifyi