AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION IN RELATION TO THE ELECTION OF
PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT.
The attempt was renewed at the session of 1825-'26 to procure an
amendment to the constitution, in relation to the election of the
two first magistrates of the republic, so as to do away with all
intermediate agencies, and give the election to the direct vote
of the people. Several specific propositions were offered in the
Senate to that effect, and all substituted by a general proposition
submitted by Mr. Macon--"that a select committee be appointed to
report upon the best and most practicable mode of electing the
President and Vice-President:" and, on the motion of Mr. Van Buren,
the number of the committee was raised to nine--instead of five--the
usual number. The members of it were appointed by Mr. Calhoun, the
Vice-President, and were carefully selected, both geographically
as coming from different sections of the Union, and personally
and politically as being friendly to the object and known to the
country. They were: Mr. Benton, chairman, Mr. Macon, Mr. Van Buren,
Mr. Hugh L. White of Tennessee, Mr. Findlay of Pennsylvania, Mr.
Dickerson of New Jersey, Mr. Holmes of Maine, Mr. Hayne of South
Carolina, and Col. Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky. The committee
agreed upon a proposition of amendment, dispensing with electors,
providing for districts in which the direct vote of the people was
to be taken; and obviating all excuse for caucuses and conventions
to concentrate public opinion by proposing a second election between
the two highest in the event of no one receiving a majority of the
whole number of district votes in the first election. The plan
reported was in these words:
"That, hereafter the President and Vice-President of the United
States shall be chosen by the People of the respective States,
in the manner following: Each State shall be divided by the
legislature thereof, into districts, equal in number to the
whole number of senators and representatives, to which such
State may be entitled in the Congress of the United States;
the said districts to be composed of contiguous territory,
and to contain, as nearly as may be, an equal number of
persons, entitled to be represented, under the constitution,
and to be laid off, for the first time, immediately after
the ratification of this amendment, and afterwards at the
session of the legislature next ensuing the appointment of
representatives, by the Congress of the United States; or
oftener, if deemed necessary by the State; but no alteration,
after the first, or after each decennial formation of
districts, shall take effect, at the next ensuing election,
after such alteration is made. That, on the first Thursday,
and succeeding Friday, in the month of August, of the year one
thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, and on the same days
in every fourth year thereafter, the citizens of each State,
who possess the qualifications requisite for electors of the
most numerous branch of the State Legislature, shall meet
within their respective districts, and vote for a President and
Vice-President of the United States, one of whom, at least,
shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with himself:
and the person receiving the greatest number of votes for
President, and the one receiving the greatest number of votes
for Vice-President in each district shall be holden to have
received one vote: which fact shall be immediately certified to
the Governor of the State, to each of the senators in Congress
from such State, and to the President of the Senate. The right
of affixing the places in the districts at which the elections
shall be held, the manner of holding the same, and of canvassing
the votes, and certifying the returns, is reserved, exclusively,
to the legislatures of the States. The Congress of the United
States shall be in session on the second Monday of October, in
the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, and on
the same day in every fourth year thereafter: and the President
of the Senate, in the presence of the Senate and House of
Representatives, shall open all the certificates, and the votes
shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number
of votes for President, shall be President, if such number be
equal to a majority of the whole number of votes given; but if
no person have such majority, then a second election shall be
held, on the first Thursday and succeeding Friday, in the month
of December, then next ensuing, between the persons having the
two highest numbers, for the office of President: which second
election shall be conducted, the result certified, and the votes
counted, in the same manner as in the first; and the person
having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the
President. But, if two or more persons shall have received the
greatest and equal number of votes, at the second election,
the House of Representatives shall choose one of them for
President, as is now prescribed by the constitution. The person
having the greatest number of votes for Vice-President, at the
first election, shall be the Vice-President, if such number
be equal to a majority of the whole number of votes given,
and, if no person have such majority, then a second election
shall take place, between the persons having the two highest
numbers, on the same day that the second election is held for
President, and the person having the highest number of votes
for Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President. But if two or
more persons shall have received the greatest number of votes in
the second election, then the Senate shall choose one of them
for Vice-President, as is now provided in the constitution.
But, when a second election shall be necessary, in the case of
Vice-President, and not necessary in the case of President,
then the Senate shall choose a Vice-President, from the persons
having the two highest numbers in the first election, as is now
prescribed in the constitution."
The prominent features of this plan of election are: 1. The
abolition of electors, and the direct vote of the people; 2.
A second election between the two highest on each list, when
no one has a majority of the whole; 3. Uniformity in the mode
of election.--The advantages of this plan would be to get rid
of all the machinery by which the _selection_ of their two
first magistrates is now taken out of the hands of the people,
and usurped by self-constituted, illegal, and irresponsible
bodies,--and place it in the only safe, proper, and disinterested
hands--those of the people themselves. If adopted, there would be
no pretext for caucuses or conventions, and no resort to the House
of Representatives,--where the largest State is balanced by the
smallest. If any one received a majority of the whole number of
districts in the first election, then the democratic principle--the
_demos krateo_--the majority to govern--is satisfied. If no one
receives such majority, then the first election stands for a
popular nomination of the two highest--a nomination by the people
themselves--out of which two the election is sure to be made on
the second trial. But to provide for a possible contingency--too
improbable almost ever to occur--and to save in that case the
trouble of a third popular election, a resort to the House of
Representatives is allowed; it being _nationally_ unimportant which
is elected where the candidates were exactly equal in the public
estimation.--Such was the plan the committee reported; and it is
the perfect plan of a popular election, and has the advantage of
being applicable to all elections, federal and State, from the
highest to the lowest. The machinery of its operation is easy and
simple, and it is recommended by every consideration of public good,
which requires the abandonment of a defective system, which has
failed--the overthrow of usurping bodies, which have seized upon
the elections--and the preservation to the people of the business
of selecting, as well as electing, their own high officers. The
plan was unanimously recommended by the whole committee, composed
as it was of experienced men taken from every section of the Union.
But it did not receive the requisite support of two-thirds of the
Senate to carry it through that body; and a similar plan proposed in
the House of Representatives received the same fate there--reported
by a committee, and unsustained by two-thirds of the House: and
such, there is too much reason to apprehend, may be the fate of
future similar propositions, originating in Congress, without the
powerful impulsion of the people to urge them through. Select bodies
are not the places for popular reforms. These reforms are for
the benefit of the people, and should begin with the people; and
the constitution itself, sensible of that necessity in this very
case, has very wisely made provision for the popular initiative of
constitutional amendments. The fifth article of that instrument
gives the power of beginning the reform of itself to the States,
in their legislatures, as well as to the federal government in its
Congress: and there is the place to begin, and before the people
themselves in their elections to the general assembly. And there
should be no despair on account of the failures already suffered. No
great reform is carried suddenly. It requires years of persevering
exertion to produce the unanimity of opinion which is necessary to
a great popular reformation: but because it is difficult, it is not
impossible. The greatest reform ever effected by peaceful means in
the history of any government was that of the parliamentary reform
of Great Britain, by which the rotten boroughs were disfranchised,
populous towns admitted to representation, the elective franchise
extended, the House of Commons purified, and made the predominant
branch--the master branch of the British government. And how was
that great reform effected? By a few desultory exertions in the
parliament itself? No, but by forty years of continued exertion,
and by incessant appeals to the people themselves. The society
for parliamentary reform, founded in 1792, by Earl Grey and Major
Cartwright, succeeded in its efforts in 1832; and in their success
there is matter for encouragement, as in their conduct there is an
example for imitation. They carried the question to the people, and
kept it there forty years, and saw it triumph--the two patriotic
founders of the society living to see the consummation of their
labors, and the country in the enjoyment of the inestimable
advantage of a "Reformed Parliament."