tion, probably more than 50,000 fraudulent votes were cast by a fearful conspiracy, defrauding the people out of their rightful choice of electors, and that the men who executed these frauds are at large, having immunity from all punishment, while those who planned and aided them reap the rewards of office, it is not too much to say the time has come when the national government should be clothed with the power to make and alter State regulations respecting the times, places, and manner of 'choosing electors of President and Vice-President, leaving Congress to judge whether and when it may be expedient to provide officers either in some of the great cities, or generally to conduct such elections. In doing this, an opportunity is afforded also to secure to every qualified voter the right to vote by ballot in convenient election districts to be prescribed by law. This subject has attracted attention, and the plan of clothing Congress with the power proposed has received the sanction of some of the ablest and best statesmen of the country.46 The committee report a joint resolution in accordance with these views: JOINT RESOLUTION proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, (two-thirds of both houses concurring,) That the following amendment of the Constitution of the United States be proposed to the several States for adoption, pursuant to the fifth article of said Constitution: ARTICLE Congress may at any time by law make uniform" regulations, or alter by a uniform rule those prescribed by the legislatures of the several States, for the appointment of electors of President and Vice-President, who shall be chosen by the voters in the States qualified to vote for members of the House of Representatives, and who shall vote by ballot, in convenient election districts prescribed by law. ELECTION OF PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT DIRECTLY BY THE PEOPLE, OR BY ELECTORS CHOSEN IN SINGLE DISTRICTS. 48 There is evidently a strong and growing feeling in favor of electing the President and Vice-President directly by the people. The subject is well worthy of consideration. But if this should not be deemed practicable or advisable now, the plan of electing in single districts the electors of President and VicePresident, now authorized by the Constitution, merits the most serious consideration. 46 On the 28th January, 1869, Mr. Buckalew, (democrat,) of Pennsylvania, introduced into the Senate of the United States a proposition to amend the Constitution as follows: The 2d clause, 1st section, article 2, of the Constitution of the United States shall be amended to read as follows: Each State shall appoint, by a vote of the people thereof qualified to vote for representatives in Con. gress, a number of electors equal to the whole number of senators and representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress; but no senator or representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector; and the Congress shall have power to prescribe the manner in which such electors shall be chosen by the people. 47 The object of requiring a uniform rule is to prevent Congress from authorizing elections by districts in one State, and by general ticket in another, to suit the exigencies of political parties. 48 This has been proposed in Congress.-Ashley's speech of May 29, 1868. The President in his annual message of December 9, 1868, said: I renew the recommendation contained in my communication to Congress dated the 18th July last-a copy of which accompanies this message-that the judgment of the people should be taken on the propriety of so amending the federal Constitution that it shall provide 1st. For an election of President and Vice-President by a direct vote of the people, instead of through the agency of electors, and making them ineligible for re-election to a second term. 2d. For a distinct designation of the person who shall discharge the duties of President, in the event of a vacancy in that office by the death, resignation, or removal of both the President and Vice-President. 3d. For the election of senators of the United States directly by the people of the several States, instead of by the legislatures; and 4th. For the limitation to a period of years of the terms of federal judges. The Constitution provides that "each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number. of electors equal to the whole number of senators and representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress."-Art. 2, sec. 1. It is competent for the legislature of any State to provide for the election of these electors in single districts prescribed by State law. Efforts have been made to secure this in some of the States, but they have uniformly failed.49 Electors have generally been chosen in the States by a general ticket for the whole State, and by votes cast by the voters in prescribed election districts. The legislatures of some of the States have appointed the electors. In some of the States representatives in Congress were chosen by general ticket, but this was deemed so unequal and unjust that Congress interposed in 1862, and required, as a general rule, that they should be elected by single districts composed of contiguous territory. 50 A change of the Constitution, so as to provide for the election of these presidential electors in single districts, has been urged by some of the ablest men of the nation. 51 On the 7th of May, 1800, Alexander Hamilton wrote to Governor Jay, of New York, and urged him to call the legislature of that State together, for the purpose of districting the State so as to elect presidential electors in single districts. He says: "As to its intrinsic nature, it is justified by unequivocal reasons of public safety. The reasonable part of the world will approve it."-7 Hamilton's History of the Republic, 380. He regarded the mode which has been adopted in a few of the States, of appointing presidential electors by the legislature, as contrary to the spirit of the Constitution, if not its letter. He said the Constitution had not made the appointment of the President to depend on pre-existing bodies of men who might be tampered with beforehand," and he insisted that the Constitution "referred it in the first instance to an immediate act of the people,' "to men chosen by the people for the special purpose."-See No. 68 of the Federalist. * His son, Hon. John C. Hamilton, eminent for his learning, says that Hamilton, "at the first election of President, urged that the electors should be chosen by the citizens. He had also, during the preceding year, written to Van Rensselaer, the lieutenant governor, on this subject. An effort in conformity with these views, it is seen, had recently been made in Congress to provide for districting the States, for the express purpose of choosing electors of President, and had been defeated."—7 Hist. of Repub., 378. 50 Act of July 16, 1862; 12 U. S. Stat., 572. In an article in the "Washington Chronicle" of February 2, 1869, Hon. John C. Hamilton, referring to this subject and the contest between Burr and Jefferson for the Presidency, says: Aaron Burr and Jefferson were competing for the democratic vote in opposition to John Adams, who had lost the confidence, never fully enjoyed and never deserved, of the leaders of the Washington party. The success of the democratic effort depended upon the vote of the State of New York. To gain the legislature was the great object. While throughout the interior of the State the strife was warm, the city of New York was the chief arena of the contest. Jefferson's letters show how intensely he was watching the result. The labors of Burr were incessant, and he triumphed. How did he triumph? Hamilton expressly states, by the foreign vote of that city. To insure his success in controlling the legisla ture, he was elected a member of it in an interior county not his residence. Thus was proved the truth of Jefferson's remark, that "great cities are the sores of the body politic." It was to prevent the recurrence of much a scene that Hamilton framed the amendment providing for the districting of each State by Congress, to choose the presidential electors. Had the expression of public opinion been fairly obtained since, this might have been regarded only as a calamitous exception in our history by those who have forgotten that the result of this election established the dominion of the slave power and the continuance of slavery in this republic for sixty years. But have not recent events justified Hamilton's precautionary prudence? How was the recent election in New York carried? How was the republican party cheated out of the votes of that State? Who can honestly deny that it was carried by "cabal, intrigue, and corruption," by grossest frauds, that will fester and prevail unless this amendment shall become a part of the Constitution. New York now is the only victim of her city; but as vast emporiums of commerce are formed elsewhere near the heart of the nation, similar occurrences will, indeed must, ensue. In deciding whether the amendment shall pass, it is always well to remember that an omission to exert, when necessary, a salutary power of the Constitution is as great an offence against duty as to abuse a power. The amendment framed by Hamilton is in these words, the parts not within the quote marks being added: "As the most eligible mode of obtaining a full and fair expression of the public will, Congress shall," in its first session after each decennial census, "divide each State into districts equal to the whole number of senators and representatives from each State in the Congress of the United States; each of said districts shall be formed, as nearly as may be, with an equal proportion of population in each, and of counties and, if necessary, of parts of counties contiguous to each other, except where there may be some detached portion of territory The reasons which support the policy of electing representatives in single districts are equally cogent in favor of selecting presidential electors in the same way. In the last presidential election the vote of the city of New York gave the entire electors of that State to Horatio Seymour, whereas, if the election had been by single districts, General Grant would have received 17 electoral votes from that State. This is cited simply as an instance where one great city by a fraudulent vote has controlled the choice of every district of the State. The purpose of the frauds on the elective franchise in New York city was to carry the State. If the possibility of doing this shall be removed, in every State where the controlling influence of large cities may enable successful frauds of this kind to be repeated with similar results, the highest motive therefor will cease to exist. And this is precisely what will be accomplished by selecting presidential electors in single districts. This scheme of course contemplates an abandonment of the plan heretofore adopted in some of the States of appointing presidential electors by the legislature; so flagrantly in violation of the republican idea that all political power should flow directly from the people. The Constitution is "a new evangel 52 to the nations." It has reared the grandest fabric of human government ever known to man. But the institutions of a country cannot by any prescience be created in fullgrown perfection; they must grow by the experience of the past in the ever-recurring necessities of the present and the future. The investigations of the committee have developed election frauds of monstrous proportions and most dangerous character. If Congress shall devise an adequate remedy to prevent their recurrence, so that the elective franchise shall forever honestly reflect the popular will, enlightened by education made universal under the fostering care of benign laws, and extended in the spirit of catholic justice by a universal suffrage which knows no distinctions founded on creed, race, color, nativity, education, or property, recognizing forever the political equality of all rational adult male citizens guiltless of infamous crime, the republic will continue to bless with happiness and prosperity the innumerable millions of people who will throng this continent, soon to be exclusively its own, where it may abide and endure perpetual as time. The committee report a joint resolution in accordance with these views: JOINT RESOLUTION proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, (two-thirds of both houses concurring,) That the following amendment of the Constitution of the United States not sufficient of itself to form a district, which then shall be annexed to some other district," the validity of which elections shall be decided by Congress. On the 1st of February, 1869, Judge Spalding, of Ohio, introduced in the House of Representatives a proposition to amend the Constitution, as follows: As the most eligible mode of obtaining a full and fair expression of the will of the people in the choice of President and Vice-President and representatives in Congress, it shall be the duty of Congress, at its first session after each decennial census, to divide the respective States into electoral and congressional districts, the electoral districts equalling in number the senators and representatives from said States, respectively, in Congress, and the congressional districts equalling the number of representatives in the same body; said dis tricts shall be formed, as nearly as may be, with an equal amount of population, and be made up of counties and parts of counties, parishes, or other subdivisions contiguous to each other. Each of said electoral districts thus formed shall quadrennially choose one elector of President and Vice-President of the United States, and each of said congressional districts shall biennially choose one representative to the Congress of the United States; the time, place, and manner of holding such elections of electors and representatives to be prescribed by Congress. 62 Bingham's argument on trial of the assassins of President Lincoln, p. 30. be proposed to the several States for adoption, pursuant to the fifth article of said Constitution: ARTICLE The electors of President and Vice-President shall be chosen as follows: Two53 electors of President and Vice-President shall be chosen at large from each State by the qualified voters therein. A number of electors in each State equal to the whole number of representatives to which such State may be entitled in Congress shall be chosen in single districts of contiguous and compact territory, each containing, as nearly as practicable, an equal amount of population. The times, places, and manner of choosing such electors shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature thereof, but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations. Congress shall prescribe the mode of determining the validity of the choice of electors, and of contesting the right to the office of President and Vice-President. 53 This preserves the present distribution of power, and will make it practicable to adopt congressional for electoral districts. If all the electors should be chosen in single districts, the electoral and congressional districts must necessarily be different. Bill, relating to the election for representatives to Congress, &c. Page. 29 57 85 9, 20 12, 13 12, 13 14 32, 33, 34 13 18 18 20 22, 24, 44 21, 24, 25, 34 49 49 82 86 92 90 reference to argument of. Buckalew, as to constitutional amendment C. Common pleas, court of.. 22 Committee, joint resolution of, as to constitutional amendment |