Weekly Calaveras chronicle., 1866-10-27
Another Amendment Wanted.

'norouSniy, and propose another alteration
to that sacred instrument which the history
OF our country shows the need of. We would
humbly suggest that they propose an amend
ment to our Constitution which will abolish
the office of Vice President as it is now con-
stituted The Office. as it now stands, is bad
every way, and nothing especial to recon-
mend it but its antiquity, having been insti-
tuted by our fathers; but they did not re-
gard the office with any peculiar saeredness,
and altered the constitutional mode of elect
ing the incumbent, and left a provision in
the Constitution itself, by which any of its
parts could be. further amended by that or
any succeeding generation. AS our fathers
thought it no iniquity or sacrilege to change
the mode of electing the Vice President when
they found the method first prescribed in the
Constitution working badly, and as they did
not hesitate to make the change on the first
hitch they found in the primal method, we,
certainly, cannot be rightfully accused of
want of Difference to their wisdom, if we
SN-N~AN A4oAS s0SA oAtCld dtlOu as W Lie uuLleS
powers and duration of the office as sad ex-
perience has clearly demonstrated are neces-
sary. Had we never been so unfortunate as
to lose by death a Chief Magistrate elected
by the people, we could only surmise the re-
suit of such an event. But we have been taken
beyond the regions of speculation, and can
estimate actual facts. Thrice has that awful
calamity befallen us. Three times has q
democratic Providence" stricken the peo-
pies President, and reversed the peoples YER
dict given at the polls. There is no use in
attempting to conceal the fact, or of mincing
words about it, that great number of our
people firmly believe that Harrison ana Tay-
lor died by assassination as foul as Lincoln's; |;
that the life of James Buchanan was attempt
ed at his Inauguration, in the famous Will
lard Hotel poisoning case, and would have
been taken at all hazards in the first months
OF his official term if he had not proved rec
reant to his promises on Popular Sovereign
ty, made before his election-and that Lin
cold died, like Harrison and Taylor, not from
any personal animosity of the assassin, but
because his death, like theirs, would make
way for the elevation of Vice President
more favorable to the interests of slavery
than his chief F: and that James Buchanan
only purchased immunity by convincing the
bravos of slavery that he could and would
hn 1rsofr,l 70 xl,e -, Il.
breckenridge could be as his successor. 1t
is awful to think of even the possibility Of
these things; and yet whether this popular
belief be correct or erroneous, there are facts
which give it the air of plausibility, and it
will not do to spurn it as impossible, fer Lin
coins murder and Johnson's succes ssion have
proved its possibility. Whatever part, if any,
Davis or any of his Cabinet may have taken
in the death of Lincoln, Davis, according to
DR.. Craven, has given suffic lent reason whv
that murder was not con. .mitted in Iincoln's
first term of Office, for Hamlin. the Vice Pres
ldent' so Davis is made to say, was more OBJ
Jeetonaole tf.ah Lincoln. But the reason.
which ID avis is made to give, why none of
the Confederate Government could not have
mad any part in Lincolns death, in his Sec
ond term. is not sound; for, though Johnson
was then popularity supposed to be more
objectionable to the Confederates than Ham
lin, yet that they knew that Johnson was
their man his subsequent career has rendered
credible.
The system of election by which Washing
ton and the elder Adams received the Presi-
dency' and Jefferson his first term of office,
was not democratic; for while the candi-
date who received the highest number OF
votes in the Electoral college was President,
the next highest was the Vice President, and
thus the accident of the death of the Presi-
dent would place the candidate of the minor
ity in power. 1t was also immoral, as it con-
stantly gave the minority bribe to murder
the President elected by the majority. Such
system was most properly abolished. The
Constitution was amended, and for sixty
years we have elected our Presidents and
Vice Presidents under our present system.
But have VIC obtained in it safe method of
election? And is it not indirectly open to
the most obnoxious objections of that for
which it was substituted 1t is true that
now the same political party elects both the
President and the Vice President, and the
supposition would be that, in case of the nat
ural death of the President, the Vice would
still carry out the political principles on
which he and his Chief were elected but it
is curious fact, that while of the fourteen
Presidents who have held the Office by cleo
ton. but one has thrown off on his party.
and the platform on which he was elected,
all of the three Vice Presidents who have
succeeded to the Presidency, have sold out
the people who elected them. Whether these
three accidental Presidents were made such
Intentionally, for political purposes. is small
matter to this part of the argument; the fact
stands out in bold relief that in their cases
the will of the constitutional majority has
been subverted, and the result in each case
has been anti democratic. A President by
election owes his Office to the gift of the peo-
pie. and feels himself under some obligations
OF decency to respect the wishes of the peo-
pie, and the principles of the party which
elected him. Our accidental Presidents have
known no such policy. Having been raised
to an office it was not expected. by the peo-
pie, they should fill, they lave seemed to re-
sent. as personal affront, the fact that they
were not the peoples first choice. They