The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1892-12-20
and having received the certificates of the

tSs
| itol in the afternoon of the day preceding
| the day upon which they are to vote. Up
| on organization the first step is to SEQ
| whether every electOr is present who has
been chosen. If there are any. vacancies
| caused either by death, refusal to serve,
| or even neglect to attend. these are immedi-
| ately filled by plurality vote by
| those who are present Having thus hlled
| the electoral college, a president is chosen
and secretary. who must be electors.
Upon the next day the electors meet at
| the capitol and there they vote first by bal
| lot for candidates for president, and then
| they vote for the candidates for vice pres
! dent, and there is but one restriction upon
| this vote, that one, at least, OF the men
| for whom they vote must not be n resident
| of the same state with themselves.
This is an operation which usually takes
| not more than from ten to fifteen minutes.
| and it requires usually, much more time TO
| make out the formal lists than 1t does to
| vote for the candidates The secretary pre-
| pares a list of all persons voted for for pres
| ident and the number OF vote; east. Ii
very seldom happens that in an electoral
college there are votes cast for more than
one person for president. The same thing
is done with the vote for vice president
The electors sign and certify the two lists,
and they add to them their own certificates
of election as electors, certified by the sore
tary of state. There are three Of these
lists made; one of them is forwarded, uH-
of the United States: another is delivered
to the United States Judge of the district
i'll which the state capital is situated: il
third is committed to a special messenger,
who is elected by the electoral college and
commissioned to carry to Washington and
deliver TO the secretary of state Of the
United States this certified list and to re-
ceive Il receipt therefor.
For this service the electors receive such
mileage and pay for attendance as is al
lowed by law to members of the legislature
for their attendance and travel.
This Is the very simple method which
prevails in every state i'll the union, and
it well readily be seen than in effect it is Il
mere formal declaration of the result of
the popular election of November. al
though at the beginning Of the government
it was expected to be the important function
of presidential election
There has never been a case when a
presidential elector has been tempted to be-
tray his party. 1t was said III 1876 that
attempts were made that some one or two
electors be offered large sums of money TO
vote either a blank ballot in the electoral
college, or TO vote for the candidate of the
opposition. 1t is doubtful whether such
suggestion would have ever been attempted,
for no elector would dare at that time,
however great the temptation, to sell his
vote. 1t would have been the outcaSt of
him, and his name would have gone into
tradition alongside of that of Benedict Ar
| mold.
There was in 1876 however, another pro-
| position made in good faith and one which
many believed might be accepted 1t was
suggested that as many republicans be
lieved that Mr.. I'iIden had received ma
| jority of the popular vote. some republican
| electOr would ward off this by voting for
| him. and great excitement was occaSioned
| by the announcement that Mr.. James Rus
sell Lowell, of Massachusetts, was Consd-
| ering such a step. If Mr.. Lowell or any
other republican elector had voted for Til
| den in the electoral college, it would have
| given him an undisputed majority Of ono
| vote. Mr.. Lowell however while inclined
| to believe that Mr.. Tilden was elected. de-
| clared that the question was one with which
| he as an elector had nothing to do. 1t was
| his duty simply to vote in accordance with
| the wishes of that party which had chosen
| him as an elector, and he did so.
| In looking back over the tables of the
| electoral votes it IL noticed that sometimes
| the vote of n state has been divided, al
| though this IS comparatively a rare occur
| renee in recent years. Once the vote of
| New Jersey was divided. In 1850 re
markable Ieturn was made by the Cali
| fornia electoral college. In the campaign
| a forged letter had been circulated which
gave the impression that General Garfield
! was friendly to Chinese immigration. The
| forgery was discovered and its i'll effects
negatived in the east. but the damage had
| been done i'll California, and to that letter
| was attributed the fact that General Gar
| field lost ;he electoral vote of that state.
| He received. however one vote. One of
| the democratic ell ctors was Judge Terry.
| who was lew years ago shot by a United
| States marshal. and who had himself
| killed United States Senator Broderick in
| g duel. Terry was so unpopular that n
| sufficient number of men refused to vote
| for him to elect one Garfield elector and
| that accounts for that singular and single
| electoral vote from California in 1880
| In the electoral college which meets to de-
| clare the result of the November election,
| there will be a division of the electoral
| votes in some of the states; in Michigan
| because the electors are there chosen by
| congress districts, and in some other states
| because by agreement there was fusion re-
| sulting in the election OF some democratic
| and some Weaver electors.
| The electoral tables show one curious
| thing which to many of the present genera
| ton seems very remarkable. and that is
| that although Mr.. Greedy was the candi-
| date of one party in 1872 yet he received
| no electoral votes. This was due to the
| fact that Mr.. Greely died within two weeks
| after the election Had his party won at
| the November election, a very serious ques-
| ton would have arisen. The electoral col
! iege would have had the power in fact
! the duty. 10 select from some liberal dem
! Ocrat the man who should take the dead
| candidates place. and it has often been a
| matter of speculative comment what the
| electoral college would 90 IN case tins duty
| was upon them. The electoral colleges have
| only one perquisite, or piece of patronage:
! they are able to appoint the messengers
| who take the lists to the secretary of state.
| and this is an eagerly sought honor. 1t
| is usually given to a man who cares for no
| other office. He is paid mileage and
| allowed a sum sufficient to pay his expenses
| 1t is looked upon a. furnishing the occasion
| for a free and officially important trip to
| Washington Those messengers who come
| from the Pacific slope make a little some
| thing besides. since the mileage is a good
| deal more than the railroad fare.
1t was this Office, or the failure to get it,
which led one of the greatest politicians
the country has ever seen to make such
decision respecting his career as caused
him to decline all public office.
One day in his old age, and when he was
reminiscent, Thurlow Weed was asked
why it was that he had invariably declined
public office He could have been minister
to France, governor of New York. United
States senator and a member of President
Taylor's cabinet, but he never could be per-
suaded to accept any office. He said:
u was discharged cured very early in
my life. l had worked very hard to secure
the election Of John Quincy Adams cleo
tors in 1924 The state legislature then
elected the electors, and had been of some