Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-07-21
!. -. =. .aOoLUMBUs,s O., TUESDAY MORNING.
0blo: Statesl;an.. /.
The President Proposes Constffu
fiOnal Amend nm enls. -.

The President Proposes Constiiu-
tiOnal Amendments.
The President, Saturday afternoon, sent
the following message to the two Houses of
Congress: sf5 uJ rG1if5u-4a saE uc-
s'To the Senate and House of ReWesentG-
tues: ,7.-=----.-o-----
Experience has illustrated the wisdom
of the trainers of the Federal Constitution
under all circumstances. The result OF
their labors was as near an approximation
to perfection as was compatible with the
faliibility of men. Considering the estima-
ton in which the Constitution has ever
been held by our countrymep, it is not
surprising that any proposition for Its al
teration or amendment should be received
with reluctance and distrust. .fdaoi
"Whilst this sentiment deserves COM
mendatiou and encouragement, as useful
preventive of unnecessary attempts to
change its provisions, it must be conceded
that time has developed imperfections and
omissions in the Constitutions the reforma-
tion of which has been demanded by the
best interests of the country Some of
these have been remedied in the manner
provided in the Constitution There are
others which, although heretofore brought
to the attention of the people, have never
been so presented as to enable the popular
Judgment to determine whether they
should be corrected by means of additional
amendments. IE9W IA.5 ei et lli
/ zfeMy object in this communication is to
suggest certain defects in the Constitution,
which seem, to me to require correction,
and to recommend that the judgment of
the people be taken on the amendments
proposed sai sF1 si II isHat ois if
1.-The first of the defects to which 1 de-
sire to call attention, is in that clause of the
Constitution which provides for the cleo
Of
through the Intervention of Electors, and
not by an immediate vote of the people.
The importance of so amending this clause
as to secure the election of President and
Vice President by their direct votes, was
urged with great earnestness and ability
by President Jackson in his first annual
message, and the recommendation was re-
peated in five of his subsequent commune
cations to Congress, extending through
eight years of his administration. In his
message of 1922 he said: To the people
belongs the right of electing their Chief
Magistrate. 1t was never designed that
their choice should in any case be defeated,
either by Intervention OF the Electoral
College, or by the agency confided, under
, certain contingencies, to the House of Rep
resentatives.' He then proceeded to state
the objections to an election of President
by the House of Representatives, the most
important of which was that the choice of
clear majority of the people might be
easily defeated. He closed the argument
with the following recommendation
"sI would therefore recommend such
an amendment of the Constitution as may
remove all the intermediate agencies in the
election of President and Vice President.
The mode may be so regulated as to pre-
serve to each State its present relative
weight in the election, and a failure in the
first attempt may be provided for by con-
filming the second to a choice between the
two highest candidates. In connection
with such an amendment it would seem ad-
visable to limit the services of the Chief
Magistrate to a single term of four or six
years. 1f however, it should not be adopt
ed, it is worthy of consideration, whether
a provision disqualfying for office the rep
resentatives in Congress on whom such an
election may have devolved, would not be
proper
"Although this recommendation was re-
peated with undiminished earnestness in
several of his succeeding messages, the
proposed amendment was not submitted to
the people by Congress. The danger of a
defeat of the peoples choice in an election
by the House of Representatives, remains
unprovided for in the Constitution, and
would be greatly increased if the House of
Representatives should assume the power,
arbitrarily, to reject the votes of a State
which might not be cast in conformity with
the wishes of a majority of that body. But
if President jackson failed to secure the
amendment to the Constitution, which he
urged so persistently, his arguments con-
tributed largely to the formation of party
organizations which have efectually
avoided the contingency of an election by
the House OF Representatives. These or
CARNATIONS, first by a resort to the caucus
system OF nominating candidates, and after
ward to State and National Conventions,
have been successful in SO limiting the
number of candidates as to escape the dam
ger of an election by the House of Repre-
sentatives.
SIT is clear, however, that in thus limit
ing the number of candidates, the true OBJ
ject and spirit of the Constitution has been
avoided and defeated. 1t is an essential
feature in any republican system of gov
ernment that every citizen possessing con-
stitutional qualifications has right to be-
come candidate for the office of Presi-
dent or Vice President, and that every
qualified elector has right to cast his vote
tor any citizen whom he may regard as fit
for office. La l1 .st4r -t.a7 -a
'sBut under the party organizations
which have prevailed for years, these es-
sential rights of the people have been as
effectually cut off and destroyed as if the
Constitution had prohibited their exercise.
The danger of a defeat of the popular
choice in an election by the House of Rep
resentatives is not greater than an election
made noninally by the people themselves
when, by the laws of party organizations
and by constitutional provisions requiring
the people to vote. for Electors, instead OF
for President or Vice President, it is made
impracticable for any citizen to be candi-
date except through party nomination,
and for any voter to cast his suffrage for
any other person than one thus brought
forward through the manipulations of a
nominating convention.
"It is thus apparent that, by means of
party organizations, the provision of the
Constitution which requires the election of
the President and Vice President to be
made through the College, has been made
instrumental and potential in destroying
the great object of comforting the choice of
these officers upon the people. 1t may be
conceded that party organizations are in
separable from republican government, and
that when formed and managed in subor-
dination to the Constitution, they may be
valuable safeguards of popular liberty
But when they are perverted to 'pur-
poses of bad ambition, they are liable to
become the dangerous instruments of over
throwing the Constitution itself.
NStrOngly impressed with the truth of
these views, 1 feel. called upon by an i'm
perative sense of duty to renew substan-
TALLY the recommendation so often and
earnestly made by President Jackson, and
to urge that the amendment to the Consti-
tuition herewith presented, or similar
proposition, may be submitted to the people
1or their ratification or rejection.
''Recent events have shown the necessi-,
ty of an amendment to the Constitution
distinctly defining the persons who shall
discharge the duties of President of the
United States in the event of a vacancy in
that Office by death, resignation or removal
of both the President and Vice President
1t is clear this should be fixed by the Con-
stitutien and not left to repealable enact
ments of doubtful cOnstitutionality.
1T occurs to me that, in the event of
vacancy in the office of President by death,
atinn lisahilit ar renanual of both