The Press., 1888-09-27
(For The Press.) DEFECTS IN THE MODE OF ELECTINC THE PRESIDENT.

ner i'll which that struggle was finally set tied, convinced many thinking persons that our electoral system, if not entirely vicious, is at the best defective, as @ satisfactory and just method of electing president. The presidential contest of 1884 furnished as to the reliability of our electoral method. The national constitution is strangely ob scure in defining the application and scope of the electoral system. This obscurity is not the result of thoughtless or haste on the part of the convention which adopted the constitution, for the best method of electing president was carefully and thor oughly considered, and an agreement on the question by the convention was long delayed and difficult to reach. Election by congress, by the national senate, by state executives, and by state legislatures, were all discussed and rejected, and the system of election by means of electoral bodies in the various states was finally adopted.
 But the electoral bodies which the con- stitution created were wholly unlike the electoral college of to-day. The conven- tion considered an electoral body, which, in its workings, would obviate the dangers that they believed would arise if the cleo tion of the president were entrusted to the popular vote while the system of to-dIy, which is called the method of the constitu- tion, is nothing less than an election by the popular vote, masked by sham electoral body. The electoral college which the framers of the constitution had in mind, was body of able and distinguished men, "most capable, upon deliberation, as Ham, ilton said, "of analysing the qualities adapted to the office of president" Ham, ilton's ''eapable" and distinguished college of notables has become, i'll our time, a mere clerical body, whose change of vote, by "deliberation" and judgment, would be regarded as conclusive evidence of bribery and corruption. According to the provis- ions of the constitution, congress should possess no more authority in the selection of president than the federal judiciary, or any other branch of the federal govern ment. The assemblage of congress, and the counting of the votes in it's presence, in the plain sense of the constitution, would have been simply legal way of making the result of the national election known to the people. Even if the electoral col lege possessed, at the present day, any real choice or discretion, the part of congress would still be purely formal act ; yet, while the part of the electoral college has dwlndled to mere form, the power of congress has grown so rapidly, that it was seriously asserted ill 1876 that congress was the final judge of election contests and this assertion was defended upon the authority of the constitution.
 l Such power, however, is Une which the constitution plainly intended should be withheld from congress. In 1872 the U senate refused to admit the vote of Arkan. sas, because of an error which has since been generally admitted to have been an unintentional blunder. During the exist. ence of the so called twenty-second joint rule, the senate possessed the conceded right to reject, up )n it's own motion, the vote of any state. If then, at any time during the existence of that rule, both branches of the national legislature had been in the control of one political party it would have been possible for the senate by rejecting the vote of one or more states to have thrown the election into the house and thus, under the present arrangement to have secured the presidency for it's party The contest of 1876 would probably have been decided in this manner, If the contro of the house had been ill the hands of the party which controlled the senate. Sucl U, bility of it's occurrence shows the defect 1T joint rule is no longer in force, but its abol ishmept has not removed all of the evils il our electoral system.
 l. The method of choosing the highest off cer in our land is surrounded with fewer safeguards than the method of choosing subordinate local magistrates. The insuf fciency of the constitution in this respec is recognized by all students of the consti tuition, but the political tendencies of tho times prevent our legislators from apply ing 0 remedy. The contested election cases which have come before congress have been decided, in every instance, il favor of the party then dominant, or by strict party vote.
 Let us suppose, for instance, that twt sets of opposing electoral votes from one state shall come before congress in thu coming presidential election; in what man her does the constitution direct that thu question of their validity shall be deter mined 1? The constitution is strangely si lent on this point, 'The president of th senate shall, in the presence of the senat and house of representatives, open all O the certificates and the votes shall then b. counted" is the language of the constitu
 
 ed on confusion between what the electo toral college was intended to be, and wha it now really is.
 The electoral college was intended t. perform a part in our political system which in later times has not remained tC be performed. During the first half cen ? tury of our national existence the candi dates for president of the U. s. were named without any resort to nominating conven tions. Until toward the end of Jackson first administration the candidates wert nominated by congressional caucuses, O by the legislatures in the various states In the Fall of 1881 the first national O. n vention met, and from that time until tn present all candidates have been chosel m this manner. The national convention however, was an institution of which th framers of the constitution had no concep tion. While the method of congressiona and state nominations was relied upol there was apt to be more widely scattered vote, and so greater need of discretion ary and ''deliberative" body, as the electo raj college was designed to be. When thu need, however, for an electoral college wal found to be not imperative, that institution was retained in form merely, but its func tions were gradually usurped by congress
 Now, when two sets of electoral vote | ako ko io