Year: 1873

President OF tho United States-Tho


Proposed Amendment or tho Consti-


tuition.


In the brief interval last year between the
day Of the popular vote and the confrmatory
action of the Electoral Colleges in the election
of the President and Vice President of the
United States an unexpected event occurred,
which, in its immediate consequences, startled
the whole country with the uncertainties, irreg-
ularities and dangers involved in the existing
methods of electing those two important public
officers. This unexpected event was the death
of Horace Greeley, the Presidential candidate
of the anti-administration elements of the
country in opposition to General Grant, re-
nominated as the standard bearer Of the party
in power; and the immediate consequences,
the half dozen electoral bodies chosen in be-
half of Greeley and Brown, were such as to
bring the danger into bold relief that in the
chapter of accidents a President, by the Elec-
toral Colleges might be chosen, not voted for
and never dreamed of by any consider
able portion of the people in their suf-
frages. From the profound Impression thus
made upon the public mind in favor Of
change in the present method of choosing our
President and Vice President the subject
was brought 70 the attention of Congress more
emphatically than ever before, and in view of
a constitutional amendment on the subject in
season for our next Presidential election.


In Difference to the general public opinion
of the country, the Committee on Privileges
and Elections of the United States Senate at
the last session of Congress were instructed
during the recess to the meeting of the next
Congress to consider the subject of the con-
stitutonal amendment suggested, and to
report their views and conclusions thereon to
the Senate at their earliest convenience after
the reassembling of that body. In obedience
Indiana Carpenter, of Wisconsin Anthony,
of Rhode Island, and Bayard of Delaware of
said committee, recently met in this city, and
after numerous conferences from day to day
they agreed upon the following propositions
as expedient to be embodied in new amend
ment of the constitution -


!. To rolish the Electoral Colleges.


2. That the President and Vice President be
elected by the people voting directly for the candi
dates.


8. That each State shall be divided into as many
districts the State is entitled to Representatives
in Congress- to be composed OF contiguous terri
tory, compact in form, and as nearly equal in popu
lation as may be- and the person having the high
est number OF votes for President in each district
shall receive the vote OF that district, which shall
count one Presidential vote; that each State shall
be entitled to two Presidential voters at large,
which shall be counted for the person having the
highest number OF votes In the whole State.


4. The person having the highest number OF such
Presidential votes in the United States shall be
President.


s. These provisions to be applicable to the elec-
tion OF Vice President


8. Congress shall have power to provide for hold
ing and conducting the election for President and
Vice President, and to establish tribunal for the
decision Of contests to the vote in any district
or State, and make regulations governing the pro-
ceedngs OF these tribunals.


The essential point in the popular demand
for change is here embodied in the PROPOSE
ton to abolish the Electoral Colleges. With
the fathers of the constitution popular sove-
reignty was an untried experiment, and so to
guard against apprehended popular disturb
ances and possible revolutions in our Presi-
Dental elections the trainers of our organic
laws interposed these electoral colleges or
commissions, giving to the people, in each
State, the election of number of electors
equal to the representation OF the State in the
two houses of Congress, and giving to these
electors the election Of President and Vice
President, but requiring majority of the
electoral votes cast for an election, or, in the
absence Of such majority, an election by the
House of Representatives. But originally the
constitution provided that the electors should
vote for two candidates for President and that
the person having the highest number of votes
cast, if majority of all, should be the Presi-
dent, and the person having the next highest
vote cast, if majority, should be the Vice
President In the election of 1900 the Presi-
Dental electors voted 70 for Thomas jefferson
and t73 for Aaron Burr, the republican ticket,
against 65 for John Adams, and GA for G. @.
Pinckney, the federal ticket, the federalists
thus leaving no room for controversy as to
their first choice for President, in giving one
Note less ioI Iinchney tuhH ior hualus. 1ne
republican electors, however, thought no such
distinction was necessary in reference to their
ticket, and hence the trouble which followed.


The tie between Jefferson and Burr both be-
ing voted for for President, carried the election
into the House of Representatives, and there
so sharp, violent, doubtful and protracted was
the struggle that revolutionary settlement
began to be apprehended, when some patriotic
federalists interposed and turned the scale in
favor of Jefferson But as the great danger
which had been escaped might under similar
conditions again occur the republican party