American political maneuver culminates at Washington.The Presidency and membership in the Senate and the House of Representatives are the great stakes.By a venerable tradition, scrupulously followed, the judicial department is kept beyond the reach of party greed.
The framers of the Constitution believed that they had contrived a method of electing the President and Vice-President which would preserve the choice from partizan taint.Each State should choose a number of electors "equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State maybe entitled in the Congress." These electors were to form an independent body, to meet in their respective States and "ballot for two persons," and send the result of their balloting to the Capitol, where the President of the Senate, in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives, opened the certificates and counted the votes.The one receiving the greatest number of votes was to be declared elected President, the one receiving the next highest number of votes, Vice-President.George Washington was the only President elected by such an autonomous group.The election of John Adams was bitterly contested, and the voters knew, when they were casting their ballots in 1796, whether they were voting for a Federalist or a Jeffersonian.From that day forward this greatest of political prizes has been awarded through partizan competition.In 1804 the method of selecting the Vice-President was changed by the twelfth constitutional amendment.The electors since that time ballot for President and Vice-President.Whatever may be the legal privileges of the members of the Electoral College, they are considered, by the voters, as agents of the party upon whose tickets their names appear, and to abuse this relationship would universally be deemed an act of perfidy.
The Constitution permits the legislatures of the States to determine how the electors shall be chosen.In the earlier period, the legislatures elected them; later they were elected by the people; sometimes they were elected at large, but usually they were chosen by districts.And this is now the general custom.Since the development of direct nominations, there has been a strong movement towards the abolition of the Electoral College and the election of the President by direct vote.
The President is the most powerful official in our government and in many respects he is the most powerful ruler in the world.He is Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy.His is virtually the sole responsibility in conducting international relations.He is at the head of the civil administration and all the important administrative departments are answerable to him.He possesses a vast power of appointment through which he dispenses political favors.His wish is potent in shaping legislation and his veto is rarely overridden.With Congress he must be in daily contact; for the Senate has the power of ratifying or discarding his appointments and of sanctioning or rejecting his treaties with foreign countries; and the House of Representatives originates all money bills and thus possesses a formidable check upon executive usurpation.
The Constitution originally reposed the choice of United States Senators with the state legislatures.A great deal of virtue was to flow from such an indirect election.The members of the legislature were presumed to act with calm judgment and to choose only the wise and experienced for the dignity of the toga.And until the period following the Civil War the great majority of the States delighted to send their ablest statesmen to the Senate.Upon its roll we find the names of many of our illustrious orators and jurists.After the Civil War, when the spirit of commercialism invaded every activity, men who were merely rich began to aspire to senatorial honors.The debauch of the state legislatures which was revealed in the closing year of the nineteenth century and the opening days of the twentieth so revolted the people that the seventeenth constitutional amendment was adopted (1913) providing for the election of senators by direct vote.
The House of Representatives was designed to be the" popular house." Its election from small districts, by direct vote, every two years is a guarantee of its popular character.From this characteristic it has never departed.It is the People's House.
It originates all revenue measures.On its floor, in the rough and tumble of debate, partizan motives are rarely absent.
Upon this national tripod, the Presidency, the Senate, and the House, is builded the vast national party machine.Every citizen is familiar with the outer aspect of these great national parties as they strive in placid times to create a real issue of the tariff, or imperialism, or what not, so as to establish at least an ostensible difference between them; or as they, in critical times, make the party name synonymous with national security.The high-sounding platforms, the frenzied orators, the parades, mass meetings, special trains, pamphlets, books, editorials, lithographs, poster--all these paraphernalia are conjured up in the voter's mind when he reads the words Democratic and Republican.
