Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-01-04
Desirable Oh anges in Our Electoral
NVetem.

his seventh term in Congress, has intro
duced bill in the House proposing
amendm ent, changing the
manner of electing the President and
Vice. President of the United States from
the present cumbrous and indirect
method into direct vote of the people.
There are multitudes of thoughtful citi
Gems who hope to see this needed reform
brought about. 1t is an anomaly in a
Republic to have the Chief Magistrate
of the United States chosen by inter-
mediaries. Under the present system
few voters in what are called pivotal
States may determine the result of an
election irrespective of what may be the
real choice of the voters. We have seen
this done repeatedly. Inthe late election
enormous sums of money were raised
with the avowed object of buying
a slender plurality in the States of New
York and Indiana. 1t has not even
been sought to disguise the fact that one
million dollars we're raised in Philadel-
phia to secure the thirty-six electoral
votes of New York for General Harrison.
We don't propose to treat the matter
from party standpoint, but on its merits,
and will therefore admit that the rumor
that $50 900 were raised in the city
of New York in 1856 to be spent in
Pennsylvania to secure that State for
Mr.. Buchanan was probably founded on
fact. The leaders of both parties have
been tarred by the same stick, to a
greater or less extent, but the system
itself is radically bad.
Were the President elected by the di-
rect vote of the people the incentive to
spending such immense sums in COR
rupting 'the'voter would no longer exist.
Brides would have to be spread out on
such an enormous scale as to discourage
the unscrupulous men who are ready to
prostitute their fellow citizens. and
there would be ten times the uncertainty
as to return for the money and
labor. Taking into account the ordinary
trend of the politics OF the United States,
it is comparatively easy to defeat the will
of the people by capturing the electoral
votes of two or at most three of the close
States. During the last Presidential
election it was generally conceded that
the thirty-six electoral votes of New
York and the fifteen votes of Indiana
would be conclusive of the result. They
are both ordinarily close States. In New
York it is possible to determine the
result in the State in average years by
the unstinted employment of money in a
single downtown ward. Every one re-
members what Dorsey's "crisp new two
dollar bills" did in Indiana in 1880
towards electing Garfield, while Dudley's
work in the same State in the Harrison
campaign is now being made the subjec.
of official inquiry.
Not even the corporations and the
trusts are wealthy enough to attempt
to bribe the whole people of the
United States. 1t is scheme so gigantic
as to discourage the most resolute maste,
in the art of corruption.
There would be difficulties under the
| new system. In democratic republic
the ideal President ought to be elected by
majority of the popular vote. This
cannot always be secured, but popula,
plurality would do very we'll. We have
had friction in our elections of Presiden,
in the past. Under the old system
which provided that in electing the
Chief Magistrate the candidate who re.
| ceived the highest number of the votes ol
the States should be President and the
next highest Vice-President, Aaron Bur,
came very near being President instead
of Thomas Jefferson, although the former
was the choice of very few American
citizens, while Jefferson had an over.
whelming majority of the popular vote
This anomaly, which came very neal
being disaster, led to a modification ol
the law governing the election of Presi.
dent and Vice-President which intro.
duced our present electoral system oi
voting for each officer by name, or rather
of indicating who should be voted for in
nominating conventions. Owing to the
fact that none of the candidates received
majority of the votes OF the States
in the Electoral Colleges OF 1924, Mr..
John Quincy Adams was elected Presi.
dent by the House of Representatives
although General Jackson had received
an overwhelming expression of the pop.
ular preference. In that famous contest
Old Hickory received 1868 votes tc
los, 1921 for Adams, A 1882 tor Crawford
and 46,5S7 for Clay. By the influence Of
the last-named statesman, the House Of
Representatives elected Adams over the
popular favorite, and Clay became his
Secretary Of State. This was the origin
of the famous bargain" cry, Of
which the gallant Harry and his
friends never heard the last. II
undoubtedly prevented Clay from
ever becoming President. At the
next election Jackson received 647 ,231
votes to 509,O97 for Adams, while he
carried even greater proportion of the
popular vote. The result showed in 9
striking manner how indignant the
American people are at any trifling with
their preferences.
While we have had minority Presi
dents, this election of John Quincy
Adams was the only instance in our his
tory when man who had received the
| hiOhoct pop,l,. rokz