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Show I DANGER IN ELECTORIAL COLLEGE. With the presidential election very close, there was a harking back to the famous Tilden-Hayes contest, which was decided by an "Electoral Commission" seating Hayes. During the height of the excitement, when bitterness was intense, Thomas F. Bayard proposed the" commission supporting the plan in a speech which has become historic. He said: How shall we who purpose to make laws for others do bettor than to exhibit our own reverence for law and set the example here of subordination to the spirit of law? . It cannot be disguised that an Issue has been sought, if not actually actu-ally raised in this country, between be-tween a settlement of this great question by sheer force and arbi-' arbi-' trary exercise of power or by the peaceful, orderly, permanent methods of law and reason. Ours is, as we are wont to boast, a government of law, and not of will; and we must not permit it to pass away from us by changing Ua nahiro "O, yet a nobler task awaits thy hand. For what can war but endless war still breed?" By this measure now bofore the Senate it is proposed to have a peaceful conquest over partisan animosity and lawless action, to procure a settloraent grounded on reason and justice, and not upon force. Therefore, it is meant . to lift this great question of determining de-termining who hns been lawfully elected President and Vice President Presi-dent of these United States out of . the possibility of popular broils and tumult, and elevate it with all dignity to the higher atmosphere atmos-phere of legal and judicial decision. deci-sion. In such a spirit I desire to approach ap-proach the consideration of the subject and shall seek to deal with it at least worthily, with a sense of public duty unobstructed, I trust, by prejudice or party animosity. ani-mosity. The truth of Lord Bacon's Ba-con's aphorism that "great empire and little minds go ill together " should warn ub now against the obstrusion of narrow or technical views in adjusting Buch a question ques-tion and at such a time In our country's history. It is very fortunate for this country coun-try that the decision did not rest on the vote in Minnesota. There the difference has been so small as to allow both sides to claim the state and charge Irregularities. While the electoral college is made a part of the election machinery, there will be danger of serious misunderstanding over election returns. The president I should be chosen by direct vote and a popular plurality should be essential to an election. nn |
