The substantial ground on which the argument in the protest rested, was that a Legislature means at least a majority of what constitutes the Legislature as convened at the moment of election.

This had been, as they set forth at length, the undoubted law and the unbroken usage of New Jersey, and an election falling short of this primary requirement was necessarily invalid.

"The Constitution of the United States direct," said this memorial, "that a senator must be chosen by the Legislature, and a minority does not constitute the Legislature." They illustrated the wrongfulness of the position by the _reductio ad absurdum._ "The consequences which are possible," argued the protestants, "from admitting the right to elect by a plurality vote, furnish a conclusive argument against it.

If two members vote for one person and every other member, by himself, for different individuals, the person having two votes would have a plurality.

Can it be that in such a case he would be senator?
This indeed is an extreme case, but such cases test the propriety of legal doctrine, and many equally unjust but less extreme may easily be offered." Mr.Stockton took his seat on the first day of the ensuing session (December 4, 1865) and was regularly sworn in.