Southwest-sentinel. [volume] (Silver City, N.M.) 1883-189?, 1895-01-29


CRAVE DANGER IN OUR PRESI.
DENTAL ELECTION SYSTEM.
Formore than a hundred years
our Federal constitution has been
in full operation; and yet ninety
years have elapsed since the pro-
.posal and adoption Of any amend
ment except hethree which abol-
ished human slavery and closed
the civil war. Not a single state
in the union shows such stagDa-
ton in constitutional reform. On
the contrary our increasing states,
each in it's own Jurisdiction, have
modelled and remodeled their fun
damental institutions, to check
Legislative and other abuses and
yield more closely to popular con-
troll; yet the antiquated machinery
of the Federal government still
creaks on Interpretations unchang-
ed, exposing as repeatedly to the
dangers Of national anarchy and
confusion. / speak of ~constitu-
tional machinery alone; for as
concerns the general scheme Of
our government aud the general
distribution of state and federal
powers, 1 offer no criticism. Our
fathers framed wisely in those lat
ter respects, and custom and prec-
edent have aided the development
of good results. l con6ne myself
here to desirable reforms in the
method Of presidential elections,
and in the relation Of both presi-
dental and congressional terms to
the popular elections Of a biennial
November.
In the first place, our anomalous
method of choosing the chief ex-
ecutive by electoral colleges has
become, in the course of a century,
not only a senseless but a dilatory
and dangerous duplication. We
know how utterly the expedlent Of
1857, for obstructing popular suf-
frage on a national scale, has fall
ed of its original purpose; and
now truly, in consequence, the
quadrennial assemblage of ouI
present age, when millions of vot-
ers undertake on an autumn day
to choose by theiroown ballots q
President and Vice President Of
the United States, has become in
spirit a complete perversion Of
what the constitution itself intend
ed. Mo- is it to an incoming con-
gress, but to a retiring one, ano
often in effect to a defeated ano
dishonored one-and in fact, to 6
house of representatives, voting
by states, which was constituted
two years earlier-that our fedora.
plan confdes themomentous choice
Of a president Whenever no candi
date has received an electoral ma
, jority. What state would trus
any assembly for so solemn an ar
bitrament short of that legislator,
which was chosen at the time whel
, the Executive was voted for?
Still another constitutions
change is highly desirable in th.
same connection. We woul,
abridge the present long interya
which elapses between the popu
) lar vote and the entrance Of a nel
administration and a new congress
, upon their several responsibilities
Ever since 1904, "the fourth O
, March," originally an Academia
: date, has been craven into tn
Z very tablet Of our federal ~constitu
/ ton. The paramount interest Q
I the people of this union is to hav
their declared will carried expedi
! tiously into effect; and from ths
{ preferable point Of view, whateve
constitutional amendment subst'
tutos some other date for the 4t
( of March viii require America
Inauguration day to be move
Q backward and not forward Ih
: present basis for an electoral pr,
Y portion BY states has is merit
4 and need not be exchanged for
numerici poll Of the whole uniol
but ia either case, We shout
lswoep out. once aud for an, ih.