The pilot and transcript. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1840-1841, 1840-11-30
THE PILOT.
OE TR Y.
From the Louisville Journal.
THE PRESIDENCY-No. II.
To Mr.. WEBSTER.

declaring that the person having the highest
number Of votes should be President, provided
that number was a majority of the whole num-
Der OF electors; if more than one had such ma
lority and an equal number of votes, then the
House OF Representatives, voting by States, to
choose one of them; or if no one had majority,
then from the five highest on the list to choose
the President.
A summary of the inducements which led to
the adoption of this plan, and of the anticipa-
tons based upon it, as developed by the dis
cussions IN and out Of the Convention, may be
found in the sixty-eighth number of the FEEDER
alist, as given by General Hamilton.
First. 1t was desirable says he, ''that the
sense of the people should operate in the choice
of the person to whom so important trustwss
to be confded.''
The importance ofthis motive is sufficiently
obvious But the absolute necessity of yield
ing it a paramount influence, to the exclusion
of many others equally important, is neither
perceived, nor is it insisted upon by him. II
could have constituted but small portion of
the lnducement to create the electoral colleges;
for the same end could have been better attained
by the simpler process of direct election by
the people themselves. The whole scope Of
the scheme, and of the other arguments used
by him in its favor, rather tends TO show that
whether the choice was conferred on persons
or desired that the wishes of the people shoHld
Immediately and directly control the choice.
The clear intention was that the Intervention
OF electors should abstract the choice from the
more Immediate influence of popular senti-
ment. SO far from intending to make it a d.
rect popular election, the only proposition to
that effect was promptly negatived by vote Of
nine to one. Mr.. Wilson, talented member
and staunch Democrat, who introduced the
proposition, declared he was almost afraid to do
so, "belng apprehensive it might appear Chin
erlcal." The same gentleman, whilst the reso-
luton stood in favor of an election by Congress,
moved reconsideration, for the purpose of
submitting plan of selecting fifteen members
OF Congress by lot, and devolviug the election
upon them. His motion was seconded by Mr..
Carroll, of Maryland, and Gouverneur Morris
said of it. that he preferred leaving it to chance,
rather than trust it to cabal. Whilst, then,
among the ends proposed to be attained, the
plan is admitted to have effectuated that of
making ''the sense of the people operate, yet
| that is the only one, and no merit can be infer
red thereirom 10 the plan generally, because
this end is not peculiar to that plan, and be-
cause it hes been eflectuated in degree so far
beyond what was intended, that it not only
runs counter TO the theory of the whole plan,
but has disappointed all the other results anti
| cipated from it.
| Second. sit was desirable that,the immedi-
ale election should be made by men most ca
pable of Analysing the qualities adapted to the
! station, and acting under circumstances favor |
able to deliberation and to judicious combin- |
| alton of all the reasons and inducements that |
were proper to govern their choice. A small |
number of persons, selected from the general |
mass, will be most likely to possess the in |
formation and discernment requisite to so com |
pcated an investigation
Here we have the true theory of the whole |
plan. The electors were to be a body of men, |
selected for their virtue and intelligence, who,
untrammelled and uncommitted BY pledges or !
| instruct 1ns, were to have surrendered to them |
the whole power of choosing the President |
The people were to make voluntary surrender |
of their own prediction into hands of the cleo
tors, trusting everything TO their unbiased in |
! teligence. Popular sentiment was to have no |
farther effect or influence in the choice than |
that OF occurring the proper degree of purity |
and intelligence in the individual members Of |
the electoral colleges. The electors once cho- (
sen, everything was to be left to their discre- |
ton; except that, that to prevent its degenera-
| ting into pre-ananged contest between any
| two men, not even the electors themselves |
were allowed to express their preference for
any one man, but each elector was required to
vote for twomen as President
Third. at was peculiarly desirable to afford
as little opportunity as possible for tumult and
disorder This evil was not the least of those
to be dreaded in the election of magistrate
who was TO have so important an agency in the
administration of the Government. But the
precautions That haze been happily concerted in
the system under consideration, promise efecfti-
al security against this mischief. The choice of
several, 10 form an intermediate body of cleo
tors, will be much less apt 10 convulse the COM
mumty with any extraordinary or violent move
ments than the choice of one, VINO was himself
te be the final object OF The public wishes. As
| the electors are 10 assemble and vote in tEe
State in which they are chosen, they will be
much less exposed TO heats and ferments, which
might be communicated from them to the peo-
H pie, than If they were all convened togeth-
! en-,
! Here is specified, as the most prominent evil
in the eectlnga Chief Magistrate, that popular
| ferment and strife, which il was supposed the
concerted precautions of the system had so
happily guarded against Its deservedly pIac-
ed in the foreground, as the evil most TO be APP
| pretended. 1t is the evil that has proved the
destruction ofevery Government that had an
! elective Chief Magistracy. We are now work
| ing out the problem, whether such Govern I
ment can continue to exist for any great length
oftime. 10 the want of faith in It's successful !
solutlonlS alone 10 be attributed lhe pdtIeut dc-
\ quiescence Of the wise and viruous men of 9th
er countries in their hereditary. monarchles.
! During the present stale ofmoutal advancement
! in Europe, with the influence OF our example !
before them, it is difficult to ascribe that &C
quiescence TO any other cause. They at least
deem the peril so great, that they are con-
tent TO wait a century longer for the full de-
velopment of the experiment we are making
| The result in the Southern Republics calls Tor
any thing but a confident security on our part
Ii is true, we have population with habits and
institutions materially different from those OF
any other country-so different that there is
some room for hoping, if not for believing, that
We may successfully escape the peril. 1t must,
| however, be remembered that we are but OF
the general human family, possessinr full
! .,,rD ~ fbo via-s orl f,itios Of fb- and