The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1922-12-17

| by the numerical majority or direct
vote and which prompted the conven-
| ton at first to approve the election
of president by the National Legis-
lature." This was afterwards aban-
doned because the house, by the con-
stitution, was given the sole power
of impeachment of the president, and
| the senate the sole power of trying
him on the impeachment, and it was
not thought wise to make the chief
executive so dependent on the legis-
| lative body, besides, it was feared.
that if congress had the power of
election, the president and congress
might intrigue for his reelection. So
the convention substituted the cleo
toraI college, which is a temporary
body, appointed for the sole purpose
of election and then to become func-
tus officio, and consists of a number
equal to the whole number of both
houses of congress, and each state ap-
points it's quota as the legislature of
that state designates. The principle
of the concurrent majority is pre-
served without the dangers attending
an election by the National Legisla-
ture.'
1t is true that the convention did
not foresee the usages and practices
of party conventions made up largely
of office-holders and office-seekers,
but that does not destroy the con-
currency of the election. 1t only lin
its, by custom and party usage, the
choice of the electors to the nominees
of the political conventions. And the
electors of each state in voting for
the nominee of political convention
vote under instructions from their
state; but the sense of each state is
taken and is controlling in the cleo
ton of the president.
1t is urged that under our present
system, we sometimes have a minori-
ty president, meaning thereby, that
a president may have received a ma
jority of the electoral college, but only
minority of the popular vote. Lin
coin and Wilson are often referred to
as minority presidents, in their first
elections, which is twadddle. We have
meyer had a minority president, ex-
cept Hayes. The only majority
known under our system in the cleo
ton of president is the majority of
the electoral college-the concurrent
or constitutional majority.
There is no inherent or natural
right in majority to rule. The right
is purely conventional. One hundred
men have no inherent or natural right
to force their opinions or rule upon
fifty men. They derive that right from
agreement, with the fifty men. The
right of the majority to rule is the
right derived from social compact.
They rule by reason of and in the
manner prescribed and because the
majority is ascertained in the method
designated. by the articles of agree
ment, which constitutes the social
compact.
The majority prescribed in our fed
eral compact, that is, the agreement
of the states in the election of the
president, is the concurrent or con-
stitutional majority, of the electoral
college, and to speak of any other ma
jority or minority is absurd.
l will now consider some of the dis
astrous results Of the suggested
change.
To change the election of presidents
to the numerical majority, thinking
that it will perfect the constitution
and make the government more popu-
lar and responsive to the popular will,
is a great and fatal error. 1t will
establish an absolute democracy-the
democracy of the French Revolution
of 1893-and will sooner or later de-
generate into a despotism. The de-
mocracy we now have is a constitu-
tiOnal democracy-a republic. The
democracy of checks and balances. A
democracy in which the sense of every
state is separately taken in the cleo
ton of the president.
The Union can be destroyed as
effectually by consolidation as by dis
solution. The suggested change would
wipe out state lines, and form one
consolidated constituency. The least
populous section would be at the
mercy of the most populous. 1t is
urged by some, that as the numerical
ma iority controls in the different
state governments, it could control
as acceptably in the federal govern
ment. In the first place, the state
ment that the numerical majority eX-
clusively controls in the state gov
ernments is not true. In the second
place, there is not the same diversity
Of climate, soil, pursuits and conflict
ing interests to be composed and
compromised in a single state, that
there is in all of the states, consti-
tuting the United States.
Under the proposed change, the
south and west, the great wealth pro-
ducers. would be governed absolutely,
and consequently exploited by the
east. the great profit gatherer. It
would be a complete surrender by the
south and west of the government, to
the east. which in it's last analysis,
means the government of the nefar-
ious and invisible influence. popularity
known as Wall Street" whose bust
ness, social and political maxim, is
Rob Roys:
Good old rule and simple plan,
That they may take that have the
power,
And they may keep who can"
The difference in the methods of
procedure by wall Street and the
methods pursued by Rob Roy, is vast
ly in favor of Rob. He met his in
tended victim face to face. steel to
steel and man to man." and took and
kept with his trusty claymore. Wall
Street" works underground, in the
dark, by intrigue, artifice, deceit and
treachery. The old cateran took only
those things which he could see, while
wall Street" (as was said by Judge
Black of the Dagger in the
south), "Robs children whose fathers
are yet unborn"
The power to regulate the suffrage
was not delegated by the states to the
| federal government but each state re-
served the absolute unrestrained and
/ i