The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-03-01
8itIluond 1ispattI..
acknowledgements Akeh y is'e'
1r,oo.ora, colleges or Bodies.

Il Is worthy of note that Just at the tn'e
wacn tits proposed by certain persons III '"e
,,ortberu States to abolish the electoral eo'
,o,no which nominally chooses the freslac'''
.na Vice. President Of the United su"eS'
another pcr.oa. styled by FErER COOPER i"
..,,r,own LrcuRGus," proposes 10 resort 70
the establishment Of electoral co'ieseS Us +"
means of putting sn end to caucus noh'ha'
s;nns doing away with petty politicians,
killing off corncr-grocery statesmen, and root
inc ont all the evils Of our present system of
voting. This LUXURIOUS Is Mr.. {. &. +.
CLARKE, Of Oswego, New York.
The first objection that each reader would
naturally make is that each State Legislature
il an electoral college for the election OF Uni
tod States senators, and yet no elections are
moro VIGOROUSLY corrupt. Mr. CLARKE re-
Mics that this result is owing to the charac-
tor of the methods employed to choose the
members of the State Legislatures. The
wire.pulIers know the geographical limits OF
every election district, aud just what men thcy
can use as instruments in carrying out their
pefarious purposes. Instead Of secret ballot,
he would have an unknown primary conStitui-
ency. For example, there are twelve thou
sand voters in the city of Richmond. Let
these be divided by lot into say twelve pri'
mary constituencies. 1t is evident that as
oniv one-tweIfth of the voters would be in
any one primary constituency, and as these
would be distributed throughout the city,
there would be an end OF ward POLITICIANS,
and others Of still smaller influence. The
men composing the several constituencies
wou,d in due time meet and select good and
true men to choose all their offices for them,
or to select good and true men who should
select other good aud true men to choose all
their officers for them. These constituencies
to be changed once in two years, or oflcrcr,
we suppose, if necessary. The idea is that
the primary constituency being unknown
could not be worked upon for the purpose
of inducing them TO choose inferior men. and
that being SO Influenced, the voters, who
naturally prefer good men, would always Sc
lect such rs their electors, and these electors
being of still higher grade Of intelligence
and character, would choose no inferior mcn
as public officers.
However plausible this scheme may ap-
pear-apd it is free from the insupcruble ones
which attach to minority reprcScntatlon-it
is, we opinc, impncticable. The wrc-work-
ers and trigger-sctters have to be consulted
before any change can be made i'll the organic
law of any State. 1t is possible, too, that the
scheme, if it were put into operation, would
work very differently from what its origin
ator and its advocates suppose ii would. we
conccde that some method of purifying the
ballot-boX and raising the standard OF fitness
for Office is dcsidcratum but we knoW not
where It is TO lie found. The probability Is
that so soon as the population Of the eoui-
try becomes as dense as that of Massaclu-
sets now il, our Government will go the
way of all that have preceded ii i'll the course
of time, and we shall have rulers who will
save us The trouble of voting. Why should
we have the vanity to suppose that 1t Was
reserved for us to do what all the wiscst men
who ever lived before our day have utterly
failed to do-namcly, successfully conduct Il
free Government?