Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-01-18

Vice President, who would be distin-
guished by their eminent ability and
wisdom, and who would be independent
of the popular passion, and who would
not be influenced by tumult, cabal or
intrigue, and that in the choice of a
President they would be left perfectly
free TO exercise their judgment in the
selection of the proper person; in short,
the idea was that a small body OF select
men could be more safely entrusted
with the election of a President and
| Vice President than the whole body of
the people. Now that Democracy is
better understood, and popular govern
ment has been more thoroughly tested,
We have learned that electoral bodies can
be more safelysstrusted than small ones;
that while it may he possible to corrupt
small bodies, it Is impossible to corrupt
large ones, and that danger of tumult,
which was ever present in the minds Of
the trainers of the constitution, arises
chiefly from the exclusion of the masses
from power, and comforting it upon a
| few. That the candidates for electors
should be pledged in advance to vote for
particular persons was not only not con-
templated by the trainers Of the Consti-
| tuition, but was expressly excluded by
|
pendent, and not influenced by preYi-
Gus committals or engagements, so that,
when they came together, they could
deliberate with perfect freedom for the
best interests Of the Republic How
completely this theory has been over
| turned in practice for more than seven
! ty years it is unnecessary to recite. The
electoral colleges have turned out to be
wholly useless. Every reason given for
their original establishment has abso-
| lutely failed in practice, but, while they
are pOwerless- for good, they may be
potent for evil in their election. En-
rors may easily be committed,
and in very many instances
have been, while nobody would
mistake the names of Grant and Gree
| ley, changes in the names on long list
of Electors may occur from errors in
printing or fraud sufficient to reverse
| the vote of a State. The present Elec-
| tOral system circumscribes the power
and rights of an individual voter, and
prevents him from voting for men of
/ his choice for President and Nice-Presi-
| dent, unless there are enough of his way
OF thinking in the same State to meet
/ in convention and nominate Electors to
represent their views. The present re-
quirements of the constitution, that all
| Electors shall meet on the same day in
their respective States, and cast their
votes, is liable TO accident and Interrupt
! ton, as in Wisconsin in 1857. He would
prefer that the President should be elect
ed by the people as one community,
giving the election to the man who re-
ceived the highest number of votes,
! without regard to State lines or munich
pal divisions, so that the national char
acter should be fully represented in one
| department. But in assuming that the
smaller States will not consent to an
amendment by which the President
would be elected by the people of
! the United States as one community,
/ he believed they could have no objec
| ton to such a change of things as would
| bring the election of President directly
| to the people of the several States, each
State TO be divided into as many dis
tricts rs it has Senators and Representa-
/ tives, each district TO have one vote in
| the election of President and Nice-Presi-
dent, and the vote of that district to be
counted in favor of the candidates for
| President and Nice-President who re-
ceive the largest number of votes in it.
This would still give to each State the
!
election of President and Vice-President,
the votes, however, to be given directly
! for the candidates by the people, with
out the intervention of Electors.
The speaker then argued the fairness
of the proposed plan, and the intrinsic
\ Injustice to the States of the present sys-
TEN and its peril to the country,
and the opportunities it affords
| for corruption, cabal and intrigue, when
an election is thrown into the House of
| Representatives But it will be asked
what is the remedy? He answered that
he would be glad if some method could
| be devised by which the nation could es-
| cape the danger of having the House of
| Representatives to elect a President in
| that case, but if such is to be the resort,
in case no candidate for the Presidency
get majority of all the votes, he would
| have both Houses of Congress meet in
| Joint convention, and each Senator and
| Representative to have one vote. This
would be in exact harmony with the
principles upon which the election is
now to be made by the people of the
several States. Under the new system
which he proposed the people of the sew
eral States shall vote directly for the
| President, each State to have
as many districts and as
many votes as it has Senators
and Representatives in Congress, and
why the same rule should not be pre-
served when the election is thrown into
Congress it is hard to perceive. His
| object was to point out to the members
of the Senate and country the dangers
that lie. in the pathway of anation's con-
| tingencies, some of them not remote
but near and probable which threaten
( the country with revolution and the
| Government with destruction, and to
urge that the path of duty is the path
/ of safety; that now in time of peace
and of political calm throughout the
nation we should address ourselves to
! the removal of these perilous obstruc-
| tiOns that were hidden to the eyes of
our fathers. But hope has been brought
te our knowledge by observation and
experience, and TO sum up in recapitu-
| lation, ! would say that if this system
| of electoral colleges is to be continued
some means should be devised by which
/ the election of these electors in the
! States should be contested; so that if it
has been controlled by fraud or violence,
or if there be two sets of electors, each
claiming the right to cast the vote of
| the State there may be some machinery
or tribunal provided by which the
| fraudulent returns could be set
aside or corrected and the cOntending
| claims of different sets of electors are
/ settled in advance of the time when the
vote is to be finally counted, and by
which the President Of the Senate may
no longer be left to exercise the danger
Gus powers that seem to be placed in his
| hands by the Constitution, nor the two
houses of Congress, by the operation of
the twenty-second joint rule. Patriotic
men OF all parties must rejoice that
General Grant has been elected by so
large a majority that the electoral votes
of Louisiana and Arkansas are unim-
portant to the result, for without intend
ing here to express any opinion in re-
gard to these votes, ] must b permitted
to say that they are surrounded by such
circumstances and attended with so
much doubt in the public mind that the
peace of the nation might be imperilled
if the result of the Presidential election
was to be determined by their plan of
dispensing with electoral colleges and
electing the President directly by vote
of the people of the whole country, as
one community, or dividing the States
up into districts. 1t seems to be
remedy for many of the
evils and dangers to which /
have referred, but even then some tri-
bunal should be applied to to settle con-
tested and doubtful results in districts
and at disputed points, and this tribunal
should be removed as far as possible
from the control of excited parties. This
naturally suggests the supreme Court of
the United States or the district judges
of courts Of the United States for such
tribunal. Whatever tribunal might
be created would require much conslde-
ration in regard to the details and meth
cd of operation, into which 1t is not inn
portaut that / should now attempt to