The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1892-12-20
MAKING PRESIDENTS.
NOW THE NATIONAL ELECTORAL
COLLEGE GOES 4EOUT THE YORK.
What the College Does and How 1t
Will Proceed TO Elect Glove
land and Stevenson.

New York. December 3-If the expecta-
tons of John Jay, James Madison, Roger
Sherman and the other great men who
wrote the constitution of the United States
had been fulfilled! the election of the presi-
deaf and vice. pr, silent would not occur until
ehe first Monday of January next. These men
reasoned that it would be wiser to dele
gate 10 Il commission which they called the
electoral college. sitting; separate body
an each state The responsibility of choosing
for the people their president and vice presi-
dent. The idea that prevailed was that the
citizens Of every state would be likely 10
elect their :lbleSt and wisest men as MEM
bers of this electoral college, and that these
men being perhaps better acquainted with
the necessities OF government and with the
Qualities of public men world make wiser
choice and ona less influenced by demo-
gogic or passionate impulse than the people
voting directly would be likely 10 do
The form IS Still preserved The presi-
dent and vice president Of the United States
are elected Oh die second Tuesday in Jan
mary The formal declaration of the cleo
tion is ,Aade by The vice president Of the
limited States or, IL there be none, by tho
presidenb of the senate Ill the presence OF
congress. Once N four years the senate
abandCns its ciia1ber. enters the house of
representatives liz body, sits with that
boIy, thus coast. uiIng the congress, and in
hts presence JclierS VINO are members OF the
congress count the vote delivered III the cleo
toral college, report the count 10 the vice
president, who declares il, and on the returns
makes the announcement OF the election of
the president.
From the beginning the Taople practically
repudiated the elt ctorai college, and ut the
late election Il great portion of those who
voted for the electors had no clear idea of
the functions of that body. The people
subordilrate,l the electoral college at the first
election. The name of Washington was so
pre-emineutly i'll The minds of the vast ma
5ority that when the electoral college met
they simply ratified by formal vote the
popular viii. Yet there We're some men at
that day who believed that some of the
electors might, without mourning any great
popular Indignation, have voted for John
Adams. FOR instance.
Under the original clause of the constitr-
ton there came trouble very early. In the
election of 1890 Thomas jefferson and
Aaron Burr were found to have received
an equal vote in the combined electoral col
lege. II jefferson had received one more
vote lie would have been declared elected
president, while Burr would have been de-
Clarcd chosen vice president for in the orig
iual constitution it was simply provided that
the man who received the largest number of
electoral votes would be certified TO congress
ms having been chosen president. and the
man who received the next largest as vice
president.
to make trouble. 1t would be sure 10 result
some time in the election of a vice president
OF different political faith from the president
elect, ana It also made Il constant peril that
there would be no choice in the electoral
college, 50 that congress would be constantly
required to choose the president and vice
president. jefferson was chosen by the
house, and. tWeuty-fOur wears later, John
quincy Adams was also chosen but in his
case ii was because no one had received q
In each Of these elections there were
CnarEes which amounted almost to scandal
Gus accusations that the friends of the sue
ceaSful candidates had made bargains There
was passion as great as any that has oc-
CURED III subsequent elections when the ac-
cUsation was made by Mr.. Burr's friends
hat, through a bargain with Alexander
Hamilton, the creator of the federalist
party, MIR. Jefferson. the creator of the demo-
cratic-repubicau party, was chosen presi-
dent 10y the house over Mr.. Burr. In 1924
II WAS tiie scandal OF the day, although
many believed 1t 20 he an unfounded one,
that Mr.. Adams'S friends had bargained
with those Of Henry Clay, the terms of the
bargain being that they should elect. Adams
president, and 1t he should appoint Mr.
Clay secretary of state. The accusation was
widely believed. aud contemporaneOus poll
7lcIanS OF Clay lifetime, always believed
that IL cost him the presidency, and students
OF political history ERE inclined to that opin-
ion now.
No serious disturbance, so far as the ma
chuery Of presidential elections is CON
ccTued. occurred until 1876 and 1877 Then
Il dangerous crisis. owing 10 a dispute over
the choice OF electors in several states was
developed. It was claimed by the Tlemoc-
racy that & sufficient number of electors
Aad been fairly chosen to give Samuel J.
Illden il majority in the electoral college,
1t was adversely claimed by the opposing
party that the electors representing it in
these disputed states had been chosen, but
Ill.
10 say the contest was so close that the
claims Of the victorious side could only be
established by majority of one electoral
vote
This cricis Is so recent that the vast ma
JOrlty Of citizens Who voted at the recent
election remember ii well. although there
was a great body of voters in 1892 whoOf
course, were mere lads in 1876. and who
known by tradition only what the danger
the perilOus excitement and the mighty
tension of that time We're. Some of the
shTeWicSt OF the statesmen of that day were
of opinion that nothing but the fact that
the country was but fresh from the expe-
rience Of civil war prevented an appeal
being made 10 arms. Other men, statesmen
in both parties, were of opinion that the
American people would not il any event
have initiated the habit of some of the
South American republics in deciding al
election by MILITARY force
1t was decided by piece of machinery
conceived III The spirit of compromise aud
with something like the idea Of arbitra-
ton at the bottom Of il. It was admittedly
an ultra-constituti0nal body TO which the
decision was left, but the abIest LAWYERS
united in agreeing that it was not uncon-
st;tutional, since all the forms of the cor
stitutiou We're recognized in the formal
declaration Of the count. 1t was called the
electoral commission, consisting Of members
of each house Of congress and a delegation
from the supreme court. It's decision by
one vote was IN favor of the claim of the
republicans and the democratic house of
congress formally accepted the decision
although By resolution declaring still its
belief that Mir THden was fairly elected
This grave lroUhl" suggested then what
was suggested in 1870, that the choice of
the president ana wee president should be
delegated directly 10 the people and the
electoral college abolished and this would
doubtless be done were it not for the feel
Ing that it would give some states too great
power. One great state casting an enor-
nous majority for the candidate of one
party might be allie 10 overthrow popular
viii! - expressed w Il dozen or more states
Nlr. Conkllnc once. a a matter of personal
interest, mad" an estimate of what the eff
feet Of Il popular election by the poople
would he His figures were astonishing
They showed that with two or three cx-
captions the entire list of presidents since