The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1893-02-16

The Valley Virginian.
CLIFTON FORGE, VA.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS.
A Discussion by William L. Wilson
and Prof. Schouler.

A Discussion by William L. Wilson
and Prof. Schouler.
presidential Campaigns as an Edu.
cational Influence" was the New York
| Nineteenth Century Clubs topic for dis
cusslon at its last meeting. 1t was ably
handled by Congressman William L.
Wilson, of West Virginia, and Prof. j.
w. Shoulder. The attendance was large,
the banqueting hall being almost filled.
Among those present were ex-Secretary
of the Treasury Charles S. Fairchild and
Dorman B. Eaton. Congressman Wilson
said:
ITO my mind there is nothing more
sublime than the spectacle of great
people, 65,000,000 in number, going
through the constitutional duty in their
own free way, electing their Chief Mag
| istrate. I shall consider it tonight, first,
as throwing light upon what has been
pronounced by foreign and home stu
dents of our institutions as the weak
and dangerous point in our constitution,
and that is the machinery provided for
the election of the President of the Uni
ted States. 1t is about the only point
| of the constitutional system that has
miscarried almost from the beginning
| The men who formulated the constitu-
| tion of the United States, with few ex-
captions, distrusted the capacity and the
| intelligence of the people to perform
| many of the functions of government,
and the government of the United States
as it left their hands, rested in the hands
of the people only in one point, and that
was in the choice of the members of the
House of Representatives
"The electoral college failed of living
up to what was intended for it almost
from the beginning. With the disap-
pearance of General Washington as
candidate for the presidency the indie
pendence of the electors vanished and
they became merely a part of the ma
chinery of election, without any discre-
ton or judgment of their own.
sit seems to me that we have reached
a point in the history of the country
when it would be very wise to dispense
with this Intermediary body of electors
and allow the people to choose, without
their intervention, the President and
Vice>President. There is no case upon
record where any elector chosen to vote
for a particular candidate has proved
recreant to his trust. The present, cleo
ton, it seems to me, ought to convince
the people of the country that we should
dispense with the electoral system and
commit the choice of the Chief Magis
trate of the country directly to the vo-
tiers of the country. But would not go
so far at present as to say that the elec>
ton of the President should be commit
ted to the people in a mass like the elect
ian of = G.nuarnnr in a State 1t seems to
me that the plan submitted by Mr.. Ben
ton, and again by Mr.. Morton, after the
disputed count of 1876, is the better plan
that is, to divide the States into cleo
toral districts and then have the people
vote directly, either by electoral dis
tricts or by the general ticket system, as
at present.
'.And the reason for this is that in my
Judgment, if we submitted the election
the majority vote of all the voters of the
country, there might be such possibility
of fraud in certain sections of the coun>
try in States where certain party might
have contro of the machinery, so as to
prevent the fair choice of the people be-
ing reached.
sin many respects the campaign
through which we have just passed has
been very mnch different from any cams
paign of medern times. or from any po-
litical campaign of which history gives
us a record. If we contrast the political
revolution of 1892 with the campaign of
1840-that campaign in which the whole
country was worked up to delirious ex-
element, when in great delirium of
public excitement a change of govern
how much better and how much wiser
is the method pursued today than the
method of half century ago. 1t is due
to this fact, doubtless, not that we are
wiser than the men of those times, nor
more phlegmatic either, but we have
entered on period in the history of the
country when we are called on to settle
questions very different from those that
confronted the early statesmen of the
country.
For century we were simply pre-
pairing the field in which free governs
ment was to be tried. We have now
reached that point when the great ques-
tions of the future are to he financial
and economic. And the problem of the
future is whether great people who
haven't been particularly trained to de-
eide controversies of this kind, whose
schooling has been chiefly along other
lines-how far great people like this
will be able to decide questions that res
quire the application of scientific truth
and precision as much as any of the 9TH
er great controversies of our day.
''For the past ten years the questions
before the people have at least called for
some tension of thought to understand
them. There has been no feature of the
campaign just ended so gratifying as the
fact that it has been utterly impossible
to throw into it the features and the
excitement of an ordinary canvass.
'The marching clubs and the torch>
| light professions have been little cared
| for. Abusive oratory has been frowned
upon. l may say that have never seen
the day before when the people so qui-
| city and SO patiently listened, hour after
hour, to discussions of the great ques-
tons of finance and taxation. Even
that exceedingly welcome and at times
enjoyable public speaker, the campaign
joker, has been out Of place in this cams
paign.
Il have seen myself, in remote coun-
try district, an audience that sat for a
whole day, without adjcurning for din
ner, to listen to succession of speakers
on the issues of the campaign, none of
whom tried to amuse them, but to in