Year: 1876

In these days, when everybody hopes TO elect
n President by asserting somebody's jurisdic-
ton or disputing somebody's authority, it is
difficult to make any statement i'll regard TO
the constitution of the General Government
which will not provoke denial from some
quarter. But neither Gov. Grover nor ex-Gov.
J. Madison Wells, nor United States Commits
sioner Davenport, nor any other gentleman who
has been making very obvious or shady
efforts to help us to a Chief Magistrate,
will feel called upon to contradict the
thesis that this Government of ours
originally consisted of three branches-the
Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. To these
has been lately superadded branch PROCLAIM
atory, the powers of which are vested In the
Chairman and Secretary of the Democratic
National Committee. This fourth general de-
partment does not seem to have been evolved
as a counterweight against unchartered assunp-
tions by the other grand divisions, nor as pos
sessing any positive authority of its own, nor
vet as entirely decorative Ii was apparently
devised by modern statesmen exclusively rs
counter -irritaHt for alleviating political con-
gestion, and has therefore never excited any
alarm as a possible source of usurpation. The
Legislative branch, however, stands constantly
on guard against the suspected trespasses of
the other two, and takes its only solid COM
fort by advertising itself as the potential I'M
peachcr of somebody.


But the present House of Representatives is
not disposed to stand merely as an inert break
water against the tempestuous encroachmentS
of the President and the courts. 1t proposes
once for all to adjust these questions of con-
flicting jurisdiction in large and masculine
way, by cumulating within itself all the func-
tions of the Executive and the Judiciary. Or
rather the House offers to take all the response
bility of electing a President of its own, and
through him of naming judges of its own, and
thus secure perfect harmony and unity of
action. The programme is simplicity itself.
In order TO throw an election into the House,
it is not necessary that three or more candi-
dates should be voted for by the Electoral
College. 1t is only required that neither
of two candidates receives a majority of the
electoral votes that is, not simply majority
of the counted votes but q majority of the full
college. 1t only remains for the House. " to
declare by resolution that the electoral
vote of some State or States is "void;" !" and
presto! no majority exists. By this easy
method the House can always rectify any
popular mistake in the choice of a Chief Magis-
trate and place the unappreciated candidate in
the White House. The people will still be per-
mitted to amuse themselves by voting for Presi-
Dental electors, because it is necessary to have
a few electors to snub and cast ont. But the
actual Presidential battle takes place two
years before the so-called Presidential election,
when the particular House is chosen whose
function it is to declare by resolution" that
somebody is expelled from the Electoral Col
lege. The Hon. Proctor Knott has suggested
some variations in the minor details of
the orthodox plan, but no Democrat has so
far had the hardhOod to combat any of the
essentials of the scheme


Perhaps it should be added that some sane
persons consider this attitude of the House as
the most eccentric defiance of precedent, law,
and common sense in which political thinkers
or tinkers have ever indulged.