The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1884-09-25
Voting for President.

| This year: although some ten million
voters will express q preference by their
votes who shall be President, only four
hundred and one persons in the United
States will actually vote for one.
+. That is the number of the Electors"
| # whom each State chooses one for
each Senator and one for each Repre-
sentative, to which it is entitled. The
people at present choose these electors
in each State, but the Legislature of
State may at any time direct that they
be appointed in any other way.
Probably great many men are
ignorant of the reason why the people
do not vote directly for President.
The Convention which formed the
Constitution under which we live, in
1857, spent more time and thought
on the question how President should
be elected than on any other part of the
Constitution.
An immense number of propositions
was submitted. Some of them were re-
jected one day, to beaccepted the next;
others would be accepted one day, and
rejected the next. There was one sug-
gestion that the Governors of all the
States shonld meet and choose the Pres.
ident; another that he should be elected
by Congress.
Among those which were offered
many times and always rejected, was
the proposition that the people should
make the choice. OF the two parties
then in the country,-if the thirteen
colonies under the Confederation could
be called country, -one was in mortal
terror lest the rights of the States should
be overthrow; the other had not lit
tie distrust of the people.
The first of these parties afterward
became the Democratic party, which
from time to time to the present has
usually been the champion of State
rights. It opposed the proposition to
elect President by popular vote,
because of fear that the large States
would overpower the small ones.
The Federalists opposed it because
they did not believe the people could be
fully trusted to make good choice. Out
of this agreement, for different reasons,
sprung the scheme of an indirect cleo
ton by electors not proportional in
number to the population. Each State
|
senators and representatives in Con-
gress.
Several objects were accomplished by
this scheme. The electors were chosen
by States. The influence of the smaller
States would not be overcome by mere
force of numbers, nor would the larger
ones be able to dictate arroSantly to the
smaller. Moreover, it was thought that
a chosen body of electors would act in
dependently, and would make better
SELECTION than could the people as y
whole.
In this latter expectation there has
been disappointment from the begin
ming. An intrigue, secretly carried on,
defeated John Adams for president
at the very first election under the con-
stiution in 1889.
But that part of the plan which gives
electors to the state, and not in proper
ton to their population, will continue
to be wise as long as there are state
lines and local government by states:
The time ight come when New
England, New York, Pennsylvania and
Ohio,-casting as many votes as the
whole south, except Missouri, would
be able, by their unaninity, to decide
! all elections. This is not at all desira-
BILE. The larger states may wish for it,
but were the election to be decided by
Populur votes, the independence of the
smaller states weuld suffer severely.
When any one remarks that John
Quincy Adams was wrongly chosen
President, because Jackson had more
popular votes than he; that Polk was a
minority" President, and that Lincoln
was elected by a minority of votes and
by minority of States, he speaks fool
ishly.
The Constitution does not provide for
popular vote at all, nor did the faith
ers who framed it intend to leave any
part of the election to the mercy of a
popular vote. Though they did not
accomplish all they intended, they have
left us system which, if not perfect,
secures the country against the dicta-
ton of the great States, and gives us a
mode of election which is popular
enough for all practical purposes.