Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1873-08-16
The Presidency of the U. $.
Senator Iorton's Plan OF EIeeting the
President and Vice Pre- sident.

Senator HOrton's Plan OF Electing the
President and Vice President.
Senator Morton is at Washington for
the purpose of availing himself of the
facilities of the Congressional Library
and certain imprinted records of Con-
gress in preparing his report for the
Senate Committee on Privileges and
Elections, OF which he is chairman,
upon the proposed election of the Pres
ident and Vice-President of the United
States by direct vote of the people, in
stead of by the intervention of theElec-
torial Colleges. The Senator is accom-
panied by the committee clerk, and in
tends to devote the ensuing days of his
sojourn to arduous research and annota-
ton upon the matter now uppermost in
his political thoughts. He intimates
that his bill and supporting speec OF
last session contains the substance OF
his mature thought and investigation
upon the subject, but recognizing the
truth of the remark of his industrious
predecessor in this particular field of
reform, Senator Benton, that select
body like Congress is always inert on
questions which propose to restore to
the body of the people privileges which
they have granted away, he intends to
prepare and submit for the adoption of
his committee such report as will go
ringing through the country and arouse
press and people to the demanding
either of a constitutional amendment,
proposed by Congress to the State Leg
islatures, or by the State Legislatures
to each other and to Congress. The
Senator, too, finds no cause of regret in
the fact that for once in his Senatorial
career he is engaged in an important
work that is neither sectional nor parti-
san, and which nothing but the worst
political malignancy can construe into a
design for his own advancement be-
fore the country. At the best, he claims
no more than ready perception of a
popular discomfort with nominating
conventions that cannot much longer
endure, and a willingness to meet such
sentiment half way. Mr.. Morton's
plan of reform, which is that of dividing
the States into Presidential districts of
equal population and contiguous terrific
ry, and giving each district a single
vote for President and Vice-President,
would, in his opinion, if adopted before
the summer of 1876, strike such blow
at the caucas tyranny of party conven-
tions that C@sarism, if there should be
any danger of it under the existing cleo
toral plan, would be impossible, or,
what is the same thing, possible only
in the event of the masses being as
enamored of the idea of perpetual
office holding as the army of office
holders now in possession.
Senator Morton, in his reports, in
tends to go back to the debates in the
Constitutional Convention over the
mode.of electing the President and Vice
President, and show how the best and
most logical minds there present, at the
head of whom was the illustrious Frank
lin, pointed out the inconvenience and
dangers of the method that prevailed,
and argued eloquently for entrusting
the people directly with the determine
ton of the one question that really con-
cerned them more than any other in the
federal system. He will show, too, the
mistaken reasons on which the conser-
natives in the convention carried the
point and fashioned their Presidential
election upon the aristocratic models of
the Venetian and Genoese Republics,
while fearing that they had already con-
ferred too much direct political power
upon the general mass of the people.
He will refer to the cases. of Jefferson
and Burr and Adams and Jackson to H.
lustrate his assertion that the Electoral
College system, besides being useless as
medium of selecting men of better
character and attainments than could be
discerned by enthusiastic and unthink-
ing direct voters, can become, through
intrigue, so dangerous as to precipitate
civil war, and that such danger grows
with the lapse of time, and is, by the
nature of the system, more dangerous
now than ever, and will be SO here
after.
The district system is supported by
the Senator in preference to the plan
preferred by others of giving every vo-
ter in every State a direct and indie.
pendent vote for President and Vice
President, because it gives more practi.
cal force to the wishes OF contiguous
communities and interests, and re.
strains the power of such log rolling
combinations as carry prohibitory
tariffs and fraudulent internal improve.
ment bills. This was the plan recon.
mended by an illustrious Senate com
mittee that sat upon thequestion nearly
fifty years ago and brought in a report
that contrasted the merits of both plans
= of voting; and though the logical argu
ment is admitted to lie apparently OF
the side of individual voting, the prac
teal view of the question demonstrates
that the result of vote by districts
organized as proposed would be mucl
nearer a pure, impartial expression o.
the popular will. Senator Morton ex
poets to carry. his committee unani
mously for his plan, and hopes to ad
vance the measure considerably before
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