Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-01-13
Judge Blacks Project.

Judge Black, in a letter toa convention
of Democratic editors at Indianapolis, dis
cusses the electoral system in tho election
of president, and suggests some striking
changes, somewhat in the nature Of Mr..
CalhOun's idea of dual executive. The
judges plan is that the person receiving the
highest electoral vote should be president
and the second highest the vice president.
This was the constitutional requirement
from 1859 to 1904, but the experience OF
the presidential election of 1900 resulted
in change of the constitution in this re-
spect to its existing form. At the elec-
tion of 1900, jefferson and Burr were the
Democratic candidates for president and
vice president, and each received seventy
three electoral votes. There was no
choice, and after q struggle in the House
of Representatives, lasting six days, Mr..
Jefferson was elected by majority Of tho
states, and Burr became vice presi lent.
But Judge Black, in the change he pro-
poses, would arm the vice president with
novel powers, which can best be explained
in his own language:
earn the vice president with power,
not to control the administration or to in
fluencc its patronage, but simply to pro-
tect the absolute rights of the minority by
q veto on unconstitutional, corrupt and
partial legislation. Contine the exercise of
this power to proper cases by providing
that when a bill is passed by the two
Houses, against which ono third of the
members protest in writing as being in
conflict with the constitution, unjust and
unequal in the burdens it imposes on the
people, tending to corruption and extrava-
gauce, or calculated to abridge the freedom
Of elections, then the bill, together with
the protest, shall be submitted to the vice
president as we'll as the president, and
shall not become law without approval
of both. This, or something equivalent,
would secure us against the worst damage
to which our institutions are now exposed ;
would preserve tho general government in
its whole constitutional vigor, save the
states from extinction, and give to popular
liberty new lease Of liic."
This is not the idea ola dual executive
favor.d by Calhoun and others, for it does
not propose the vice president shall share
with the president any executive function.
The suggestion is not likely to strike the
public favorably. Tho tendency of Opin-
ion is to a single head for the government,
elected by the popular vote, under .
system which will preserve to the states
their existing power in determining the
result.
Judge Black in advocating constitu-
tional amendment for the election of
United States senators by the people of
the various states instead Of by the Legis-
latures Gas he does in his letter to the In
diana editors) makes practical suggestion
which will undoubtedly meet with much
favor. He justly says such a change in
the mode of selection would without doubt
give us better men, and at the same time
be a more reputable, a more dignified and
less corrupting way Of choosing senator's.
There can hardly be doubt of this. The
experience Pennsylvania, New York and
Tennessee are now going through in the
choice of United States senators proves it.