Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-11-02
b the Associated Press.

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great deal Of paint, the machinery
built by the carpenters of the Consti-
tuition for elevating men to the head
of the Republic remains very much
like 1t was in 1887, when they laid
down their hammers.
Tuesday will see the thirty-seventh
time 1t has been used to elect Presi-
dent. 1t has put q men into ONCE.
reelected nine Of them. Six Vice
Presidents have come into. the White
House by death. Two of these,
Theodore Roosevelt and Calvin Cool
idge, were reelected.
The two changes in the Constitution
were by the twelfth and twentieth
amendments. The twelfth specified
principally that the electors should
select one man for President and
another for Vice President, making
plain which was to be which. The
twentieth changed the date Of in
auguration from March 4 to January
20 and empowered Congress to take
care of the situation If no President
or Vice President had qualified before
that date.
The Constitution makers, sweating
through long Summer in Phila-
delphia. found much material to dis
card when they set to measuring OF
electoral ideas. They decided against
direct popular election, chiefly for
fear Of the influence populous States
would exert. Just one member, Col.
Mason Of Virginia-who was one of
+ the three that did not sign the Con-
stitution-expressed doubt that the
people would exercise good Judgment.
Decide on Four Year Term.
They also discarded plans to have
the State Legislatures choose a Presi-
dent; threw out one to have the Gov
errors Of the States elect one. They
debated long over whether his term
should be for seven years. Much more
debate went on before they decided
on the four-year term.
They decided that the President
should be chosen by electors. Each
State was told to appoint q number
of electors equal to its total number
Of national Representatives and Sena-
tors). The method Of appointing the
electors was left to the discretion Of
each State Legislature.
The country set out on its first cleo
ton during the Autumn Of 1888. On
July 20 New York became the eleventh
State to ratify the Constitution. North
Carolina and Rhode Island refused
their assent and did not take part in
the flrSt election.
September Is, 1888, Congress di-
rected that electors to choose a Presi-
dent and Vice President be appointed
on the first Wednesday of the next
January, that they meet in their re-
spective States and vote on the first
Wednesday in February and that the
new Congress meet in New York on the
first Wednesday in March.
Washington's Name First.
Mails and travel were slow. But
during the Autumn and Winter the
word was spead along the snowy
countryside. The first name that
leaped full-syllabled to all tongues was
that Of George Washington. = /
In Connecticut, New Jersey, Della.
ware, South Carolina and Georgia, the
Governors did not call the Legislature
in time to provide for an election.
New Hampshire and Massachusetts
provided a complicated system of
choosing electors, in which the people
did some voting. The New York
Legislature talked so long it did not
get around to arranging to take part
in the choice Of the first President.
Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia
held popular elections but the voting
was light. Returns were slow. They
did not even vote on the same day.
When February 4 came, the day for
the electors to meet in their respective
States, two men from Maryland and
two from Virginia did not show up.
Ice kept one Of the Maryland men
from getting there. The others had the
govt.
The new Congress, meeting in New
York. did not have a quorum of the
Senate until April s, more than a
month late. It was April 80, almost
two months after his term had started,
by the time they got through the busi-
ness of counting the electoral vote and
arranging for the Inauguration Of
George Washington. He stood on the
balcony Of the Federal Statehouse on
Broad street, held Els right hand high
for the oath, and sand:
i swear 1t. So help me God"
C~kS~rx -
The original theory had been that
the presidential electors should exer-
else their free will In the selection Of