I Will Not Describe In Detail The Present Mode Of Election, As The
Doing So Would Be Tedious And Unnecessary.
Two facts I wish,
however, to make specially noticeable and clear.
The first is, that
the President of the United States is now chosen by universal
suffrage; and the second is, that the Constitution expressly
intended that the President should not be chosen by universal
suffrage, but by a body of men who should enjoy the confidence and
fairly represent the will of the people. The framers of the
Constitution intended so to write the words that the people
themselves should have no more immediate concern in the nomination
of the President than in that of the Senate. They intended to
provide that the election should be made in a manner which may be
described as thoroughly conservative. Those words, however, have
been inefficient for their purpose. They have not been violated.
But the spirit has been violated, while the words have been held
sacred; and the presidential elections are now conducted on the
widest principles of universal suffrage. They are essentially
democratic.
The arrangement, as written in the Constitution, is that each State
shall appoint a body of electors equal in number to the Senators and
Representatives sent by that State to Congress, and that thus a body
or college of electors shall be formed equal in number to the two
joint Houses of Congress, by which the President shall be elected.
No member of Congress, however, can be appointed an elector.
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