El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-10-17

& the erection OF the president OF the
United states has resulted In a COM
/ plete sUbversiOn or Inc electoral
I theory of the trainers of the consti-
: tuition, although they stiu employ the
! identical machinery the constitution
save them. The real problem that
confronted the convention was TO
find a method that would be satisfac-
! tory to the smaller states. They
! would be entirely lost in the shuttle
: II there was popular election with
one vote counting Just as mucn as
I another they had to be consulted in
! the matter. for thIt was the only way
/ they could be induced to become a
/ part Of the Union. To make the cleo
! ton by states wholly, on the other
! hand, would make The little handful of
( people in Delaware as influential in
/ determining the result as the great
{ population of New York and WOCld
( give the few people of Rhode Island as
/ much power as the many of Pennsyl-
vania.
Each Had Two Electors.
/ To strike happy medium was the
pulling problem, and the plan we
have was the result. Each state was
! TO start out with two electors, ir-
/ respective Of size, and the others
! were TO be based on the same appOr-
! uOnment as the house Of representa-
! tives- Thus the electoral colleges to-
/ gether form an exact counterpart of
[ the senate and house when they sit
J in joint session, the only difference
being that the senate and house meet
! together, while the electoral colleges
never meet in one body.
The government mad scarcely been
running long enough to get its ma
/ chincry wen oiled and shaken down
until there were propositions to change
the electoral system. The first part to
demonstrate its WcaEn was the
/ provision making the candidate re-
cciving the second highest vote vice
president.
The fear OF Hamilton that Adams,
( the vice presidential candidate on the
Federalist ticket. might get as many
votes rs Washington the presidential
candidate, and his manipulatiOns to
prevent such catastrophe, showed
congress how ill-COnCeived the plan
had been, and in 1897 a serious effort
Z was made to submit to the states an
amendment for ratifica ron that would
I make the votes for president and vice
president separate and distinct. But
then as now, nothing but a crisis
would move congress to action, and
there was no more chance for the pas
sage Of that important amendment
than there now is of the pa ssa &c Of an
( amendment for the changing Of the
I inaugural date or the provision of a
succession in the event both the presi-
. dent elect and the vice president elect
should die betW cen the meeting Of the
electoral colleges and the fourth Of
March.
Many amendments Proposed.
In every year that followed an
amendment was offered to remedy
this evil, and in the spring before the
presidential campaign of 1890 a bill
changing the whole machinery was
introduced ana considered at length
1t not Only provided for the elimina-
ton OF the Objectionable feature Of
selecting the second man a s vice pres
ldent but il revolutionized the system
OF counting the vote. It put this duty
in the hands of a grand committee
composed of six members of the
senate and SIX members Of the house.
with a justice of the supreme court
as the 18th member Here we see the
ldea Of the electoral commission OF
ISL i was provided, however, that
THIS commission could not determine
any issue showing or tending to show
VINO had secured the most popular
votes IN tdC choice OF electors An
other provision was that in case any
question arose over the preSIdeuCv 1t
should be decided by the senate and
any question over the vice presidency
by the house. The senate would not
agree 10 grand committee with a
justice uf the suurem me court as the
18th member. anJ substituted q pro-
vision setting forth that this 18th
member should be selected by the
senate, nominating three Of its mem
bers and allowing the house to choose
one Of taen to sit as the tie breaker.
After q rather drawn out fight the
senate and the house failed to get
together and the result was the dead
lock between jefferson and Burr less
than a year iater. out OF this grew
the '12th amendment to the consti-
tuition. Not only did it result in max
ing the electors vote for president and
vice president separately. but il for
the first time required that the vice
president have the same qualifications
as the president. Before that time
even a foreigner might have reached
the presidency by the vice presidential
- III srrH To-
bade.
4 Sentimental Change.
Next to the departure from the plan
of the fathers in making electors au-
donations rather than deliberative Of
ficers. the most important change that
has come about in our method Of Sc
iectinS presidential candidates has
not been q constitutional nor yet even
a legal change IL has been another
change brought aECUt by public senti-
ment. II is the custom of electing
electors by the general ticket plan
rather than by the district plan. 1t
is just as if We should decide to
elect all Of OUT members of the house
Of representatives by the state at
large instead OF by congressional dis
trlctS- For instance, Pennsylvania to-
day has eight Democratic members of
the house OF representative and q
Republicans. Its two senators are Re
publicans. II the vote should be the
same in November as it was two years
ago the Pennsylvania vote in the cleo
tOral college would he cast 81 for the
Republican candidate. Under the dis
trict plan it would be eight Democrats
and 20 Republicans. The latter was
intended TO be the plan, and was gen
orally adopted at FIRST. Each congress
sional district had its own electOr as
wei as its own member OF congress,
and the state at large had two cleo
tors. just as ii had two senator's
But that plan did not work very
we'll The states which chose their
electors by the legislature direct. soon
came to Goose them as a body and
had them cast their votes as a unit.
This arose from the fact that a state
legislature was either Federalist or
anti Federalist, and whichever party
was in the majority wanted the full
electoral college to be of its own po-
ltical complexion. When a few OF
the states had decided to thus cast
their vote in a lump, the other states
found that il they split theirs they
could not exercise their prODortionate /
influence in the selection of a presi-
dent. Under this pressure the states I
one by one went over TO the general /
ticket plan. Maryland was the last /
state to give up the district system +
of choosing electors, which she did 4
in 1852
Harrison Requested Change.
Michigan, i'm 1892, reverted TO this /
system in order to give Cleveland a /