The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-01-30
THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE.

makes the history OF the electoral cohese
worth recalling, and Congressman Henry
C. Lodge has made il the subject OF an in
teresting article. In the convention OF
1857 the opposing forces were the National
on the one side and the State Right on
the other. che compromises between the
two forces formed the constitution. There
was also deep-seated Jealousy OF the
executive power, and strong disposition TO
subject it to careful limitation. There was
a conservative desire to subject all sources
of government to checks and balances.
And out of this desire to secure delibera-
ton and calm judgment. and to avoid all
risk of rash Or hasty decisions, grew the
plan finally adopted for the choice of
president and vice president. The conven-
ton in its conservatism was against re-
ferring the choice of the chief magistrate
to direct vote OF the people. Only one
state voted for it, while every state voted
that the president should be elected by
congress. Gouverneur Morris, of New
York. opposed this plan as opening the
road to intrigue and corruption, and
finally for it vas substituted the plan of
electoral colleges, usually attributed to
Hamilton, which was adopted by the con-
vention and ratified afterward by the
states.
This compromise did away with the
direct popular vote and avoided at the
same time the evils of choice by con-
gress. The plan was as follows: The
al ho Oh T.
numbers equal to the representatives and
senators of the state in congress. On q
gwen day all the electors chosen in all the
states were to meet In college in each state
and vote Tor president and vice president.
The person having the highest number of
votes in the electoral colleges of all the
states was to be president, and the person
having the next highest was to be vice
president.
The theory was that the electors would
be the selected wisdom and virtue of each
state; that they would, as a deiiberative,
impartial tribunal. removed from popu-
lar excitement and party conflict. choose
the first citizen of the country for presi-
dent. OF course the scheme soon failed
to work. At the first election the electors
simply registered the public will of the
whole people in making Washington pres
ident, and exercised their own preference
in choosing John Adams vice president.
At the next election the electors merely
registered the popular will by voting for
Washington for president, but in choosing
vice president the electoral system began
to show signs CT failure. The Federalist
electors voted for Adams, and the anti
Federalists or Jeffersonlans for George
Clinton.
The equal vote for Jefferson and Burr in
1900, and the struggle which followed, led
to an amendment doing away with the
provision giving the presidency to the per-
son having the highest number Of electoral
votes and the vice presidency to the person
having the next highest This Twelfth
amendment to the constitution provides
that the electors shall name in their BAL
lots the person voted for as president and
the person voted for as vice president.
This is the only change that has been
made in the method of choosing a presi-
dent since the adoption of the Federal
constitution.
We vote every four years in each state
for electors to select a president and vice
president. These electors can be chosen
in any manner the legislature of the state
may direct, either at large, by districts, or
in the legislature itself. All these methods
have been used, but the country finally
a1 i % H. e
choosing electors at large for each state.
This uniformity has been recently broken
by Michigan, which last year returned to
the district system. Mr.. Lodge does not
believe that this example of a return to
the old system will be generally accepted,
as the country has decided in practice
that the vote of each electoral college ought
to represent the majority vote of each
state. The electors are named in each
state by the different parties and are voted
for In block. The electors chosen meet in
their respective states on given day and
vote. Their vote is duly recorded and
sent not only by mail, but also, in ac-
cordance with tie Old form. by special
messenger 10 congress. where the votes
are opened, counted, and declared by the
two houses.
The old forms survive, but have lost all
of their original meaning save in one
point. Party conventions select our pres
idents and vice presidents and the elect
ors merely register the expressed will of
the party which dominates and elects
them. The electors have no power. They
simply register ia constitutional forms the
will of the party that elected them. Con-
corning the one important point in which
the electoral college has q real and vital
meaning. Mr.. Lodge says:
The people ought to vote ss they always have
for president and vice president, by states
This is an important and necessary application
OF ths federal principle, and il is preserved by
the electoral colleges. Al the same tine the
direct vote of the people for the chief magls-
trate is obtained as well as ii could be in any
arrangement, for the electors long since ceased
20 come between the people and the prssi-
dency, and they really register the popular will
IS directly a. II the votes were given Tor presi-
dent and vice president without any inteFven-
ton.
The intent Of the trainers OF the consti-
tuition was TO lift the election OF president
and vice president above the passions of
party strife. and the curious thing Is that
so impracticable an idea as non-partisan
electors should have been enacted by so
able body Of practical statesmen as COM
posed the convention that framed the
constitution. Its failure was visible as
early IS 1872, and the whole original
theory Of electors exercising any discretion