The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1912-07-25

Dental Electors Would Have Alb
| solute Power Under the Constifu.
ton to Elect Whomsoeyer They
Piease-n the Election should be
Put Up to Congress There Would
Still be Deadlock in the House and
the Situation an interest,"
ing and Peculiar One.
Hon. A. w. Lafferty, member OF
Congress frsn Oregon. has contribut-
ed the following entertaining article
to the Washington Post on the prob
! lens that may confront the next cleo
toral college:
1T is perfectly thrilling to con-
template all the possibilities of the
forthcoming presidential election.
The fact that three formidable can
didates are in the field, one of them
a president and another former
president, in itself presents a spec
tacle not heretofore witnessed in the
history of our country, but even
a study of the constitutional proceed
ure in electing a president and vice
/ president in case of deadlock in the
electoral college, which now seems
to be a very likely outcome of the
bitter contest to be waged
the very startling thing which l be-
lieve will happen in the latter event
namely, that the 529 electors to
be chosen November 5, will call a
| convention of their own number, and
take the matter of breaking the
deadlock into their own hands.
I'm such eevnt the electors may
go outside of the entire list of aspir-
ants in choosing both president and
vice-president. They may elect
Champ Clark, Governor Hadley, JUS
| tice Hughes, Bryan, or any other cit
| izen who was born in this country
and is thirty-six years Of age.
THE 529 electors to be chosen
have the absolute power under the
constitution to elect whomsoever they
| please. True, by custom they are
supposed to vote for those candidates
who were the nominees of their re-
| spective parties. But they are
neither bound by any law nor by the
constitution to so vote. And If it
shall be apparent the morning follow
| ing the forthcoming election that no
one would have a. majority in the
electoral college, granting that the
votes of the electors are cast in the
usual way, there will be no reason,
moral or legal, why the electors
should not hold a caucus in advance,
and decide upon both a president and
vice-president.
There cannot be the slightest
doubt but that a conclusion solemn
ly reached in such a convention, COM
posed of body of leading men of
the country, equal in number to the
combined membership OF the Senate
and House, would be carried out in
good faith by the electors when they
returned to their several states to
cast their official votes.
Heretofore the electors have
never taken the course here suggest
ed in case of a deadlock in the cleo
toral college But it was because one
party or the other was dominant in
the House of Representatives, and
the electors of the dominant party
knew that by failing to relieve the
deadlock in the electoral college their
party would prevail when the elec-
tion was thrown into the House.
Situation q Peculiar One.
''At this time, however, the situa-
ton is entirely different II the 529
electors fail to choose a president
and vice-president, under the consti-
tuition the duty will devolve upon
the House of Representatives to elect
the president, and upon the Senate
to elect the vice-president. And it
is certain that the House would be
unable to elect a president, and it is
very doubtful If the Senate would be
In case of both bodies failing to
elect, the secretary of state would
succeed to the presidency for four
years, and in case of his death he
would be succeeded by the other
cabinet oficer in the order fixed by
law.
For these reasons it is more than
probable that the pressure Of public
sentiment will be brouget to bear
upon the 529 electors to take the job
into their own hands, IL there is a