SENATE.

Amendment to the Constitution.

in lieu of the third paragraph of the first section of the second article of the Constitution of the United States, the following be proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of the Legislatures of the several States, shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution, to wit: The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves. They shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice President; and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice President, and of the number of votes for each; which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the Government of the United

have but the one reading, there is no remedy; but the form of proceeding is so different from Parliamentary rules, that some correction of it should take place. He asked what would now be the regular question?

The PRESIDENT.-On inserting the amendments adopted in Committee of the Whole, in the report of the select committee.

from New Jersey was to abolish the office of Vice Mr. NICHOLAS said, the object of the gentleman President; but the sense of the Senate had been already expressed on that subject. He hoped the time of the House would not be lost on a subject already decided.

Mr. DAYTON Would not ask any favor.

Mr. ADAMS.-If an amendment cannot be inserted now, he thought the mode of proceeding inconsistent with order. He understood that, originally, it was decided that nothing should be considered as final which had not the sanction of two thirds; and he had held back some amendments under the impression that it was still open. If the rules of the Senate determine that a resolution shall have but one reading, there was a pal

States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such a majority, then, from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Rep-pable contradiction between them and the rules of resentatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But, in choosing the President, the vote shall

be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote. A quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States must be necessary to a choice.

"The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice President shall be the Vice President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have a majority, then, from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice President. A quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person Constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to

that of Vice President of the United States."

Mr. DAYTON moved to strike out from the words "and Vice President," in the twelfth line, and all that concerned the Vice President in that paragraph.

The PRESIDENT said it was not in order to strike

out.

Mr. DAYTON then moved to strike out all that related to a Vice President in the forty-third line, and to the end of the paragraph.

The PRESIDENT said that it was not in order in that stage of the business to strike out any part.

Mr. DAYTON.-If there is no way to come at the abolition of that office, when the majority of the Senate have it so much at heart, he must even give it up as a fruitless attempt.

Mr. TRACY concurred in the decision of the Chair. The motion, however, arose from not reading the resolution three times, as was the usage with bills; in which cases, having amended them on a second reading, you cannot amend on a third without the consent of the whole. Here you have amended, and the resolution is taken up amended; if the Senate is determined it shall

the other House.

The PRESIDENT entered into a circumstantial

detail of the progress of the proceedings on the amendment; and concluded by stating that the proceedings had been perfectly regular and according to order; that, in the present stage, all that had been adopted must be considered as ready for the final vote; that no amendment could be made inconsistent with what had been already agreed to in the detail; but that it was still open to any amendment not incompatible with what was already adopted.

Mr. PICKERING offered an amendment in addition, and not incompatible with what had passed. It was to insert after the word "President," in the thirty-second line, the following words: "But if within twenty-four hours no election shall have taken place, then the President shall be chosen by law." This amendment he offered as a remedy by which we could avoid that civil war threatened on a former occasion.

Mr. ADAMS wished the motion to be varied so as to come in after the 37th line. The motion he considered as embracing an object extremely important, and though the case was an extreme one, of no election being made, it was not unprecedented, for it had very recently happened in New Jersey, where no Governor had existed for a whole year. He did not approve of the precipitation with which the Senate was carrying this amendment forward. He considered it as intending to prevent a federal Vice President being chosen. He hoped that the House would proceed with more deliberation.

Mr. PICKERING consented to the alteration proposed by his colleague.

Mr. TRACY thought the amendment offered by the gentleman from Massachusetts like a great many others, it would require a dozen more amendments to explain it. How was the choice to be made of a person to be chosen by law?

Mr. PICKERING. The States might choose by lot, or by ballots in a box, which the President might collect; or a number of names might be put in a box from which the Speaker might draw

one.

Mr. SMITH admired the ingenuity of gentlemen, as they left all consideration of what the people would wish or think about such a proceeding out of the question. Suppose they were to throw the dice for the Executive Chair! It would be equally wise with any of the expedients offered; the gentlemen could serve their friends; the candidates names might be written, and the highest throw have it!

Mr. TRACY. However gentlemen may ridicule the ballot, it has a precedent. By the constitution of Kentucky it is provided that when two candidates are equal in votes, the choice shall be made by lot.

Mr. BRECKENRIDGE. That practice has been long exploded.

SENATE.

the consequence? On the third day of March neither party will give out, and it will end in the choice of a third man, who will not be the choice of the people, but one who will, by artful contrivances, bring himself to that place with the sole intention of getting in between them. Choice by lot would certainly be better than this. Would not any man prefer a choice by lot rather than such a course, as it would break up the Constitution, and leave the people without a President in whom they would confide?

The principle of the Constitution, of electing by electors, is certainly preferable to all others. One of the greatest evils that can happen is the throwing of the election into the House of Representatives. There, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Massachusetts, and New York, may combine; they may say to the other States, we will not vote for your man; for either of those States giving their whole votes to a third character may bring him in. We see the practice daily in Congressional Mr. HILLHOUSE.-We had been told, some elections, when both parties obstinately adhere to days ago, that a candidate proposed to be chosen their candidate; a third is set up and carried in by law, was near having his head cut off; such a to the rejection of both. By the new mode proprocess would be rather disagreeable to him. He posed every man will have an interest to intrigue wished to avoid it himself, and to prevent others for himself to obtain the eminent station. Gengetting into such a critical situation, and if the tlemen may suppose that such is the predomiamendment were to be adopted, he had no doubt nancy of their party, they may carry in any Presthat nineteen times out of twenty, the choice ident. But no party can long hold an ascendancy would devolve on the House of Representatives. in power; they will ill treat each other-or some It was certainly not an unusual practice in elect- of them will disagree, and from the fragments ive governments to choose persons for eminent new parties will arise, who will gain power and stations by lot. It was very common at Athens, forget themselves, and again disagree, to make and they were a very wise and prosperous people, way for new parties. The Constitution was predand had an orderly and well regulated Govern-icated upon the existence of parties; they will ment. It would certainly be a preferable mode to the choice at the point of the bayonet. If he had any conception of the operation of the proposed amendment, it would be to produce no election. The complex mode provided by the Constitution was conceived in great wisdom. It was necessary, when the country was agitated, to operate as a check upon party and irregular passions. Parties will always have their champions, and they will be always well known; to attack another champion is to restrain the passions by some degree of uncertainty during the contest. But, by the new amendment, it would be every man to his own book, and every demagogue would be a leader and a champion, and, in the contest, parties would be divided between the two principal champions, and a third would come in and win the race.

If every man were to act correctly, no party passions would prevail on an occasion so important; but carry the champions of two opposite parties to the House of Representatives, and instead of voting thirty-seven times before they decide, as on the last occasion, they will vote thirty hundred times. You are told that, at the last election, one was intended by the people for President, and the other for Vice President; but the Constitution knows no vote for Vice President. Alter it as you now propose, and let two candidates be equal, and then you will be told that they were both intended for President. What will be 8th CoN.-5

always exist, and names will not be wanting to rally under, and difference of interests will not be wanting for pretexts: the agricultural will be arrayed against the mercantile; the South against the East; the seaboard against the inland. As to what he had heard about cutting off heads, he supposed that could not have been meant as a threat; in his part of the country such a crime could not take place. The gentleman, however, must be supposed to know his neighbors better than he did, but he could not suspect such danger from a valiant people.

Mr. PICKERING said the amendment he had offered was suggested to him by the alarming picture of danger drawn by the gentleman from Maryland. He thought the dangers indeed exaggerated, though possibly they might not be; but he thought it proper to provide how elections should be conducted, and to determine between tumult or civil war and law.

Mr. SMITH did say that, at the last Presidential election, the party opposed to the present Chief Magistrate did contemplate laying aside the popular choice and electing a President by a law to be passed for the occasion, at the time: he had also said, that had the measure been carried into effect, the person, whoever he might have been, would have met the fate of an usurper, and his head would not have remained on his shoulders twenty-four hours.

Mr. WRIGHT.-It had been said, that we meant

Amendment to the Constitution.

DECEMBER, 1803.

Amendment to the Constitution.

SENATE.

true principle, then, would be to make provision Mr. COCKE was astonished to see gentlemen gofor the appointment of a person who should carrying over so much unnecessary ground. Could on the functions of Government till the Electors they suppose the people so indifferent to their may again meet and choose a President. A pro- own rights as not to make an election? Or, do vision vesting in the Senate the right of choice, gentlemen mean all these cavillings as amuseeven for one year, may be a motive for the other ment-to display their ingenuity at finding fault? House to perform their duty promptly. It was If there should be any failure of choice, why could not pleasant to discuss some topics, but we must not the Secretary of State arrange and carry on discuss them, if we mean to avoid evil. We must the Executive business until an election should suppose the existence of faction, of party, and again take place? even corruption, for we know that evil passions do and will exist, and that, by discussing, we guard against them. A House of Representatives elected two years before your Presidential election, may hold sentiments very different from him; the public mind may change in the time; and a party losing power may be led away by passion to conspire and throw every difficulty in the way.

Mr. BRADLEY thought the sentiments of the gentleman last up perfectly correct. He was satisfied that, if the House made no choice, the Vice President would administer the Government.

Mr. WRIGHT said that although the functions of the House of Representatives would expire with the third of March, yet there was, assuredly, time enough between the second Wednesday in February, and the third of March, to make a proper choice; nothing but obstinacy, or worse, would prevent an election; he would shut them up, like a jury, until they had made a choice: he could not conceive a case wherein any number of men in Congress would dare to set themselves up against the country, and put its happiness and their own lives at hazard, in such a way as the gentleman supposed.

Mr. S. SMITH.-The gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. ADAMS) appears not to be perfectly satisfied with his own amendment; and certainly the gentleman from Connecticut had shown that the amendment was defective; the candor of that gentleman he must acknowledge, he had taken the strongest hold possible of the subject; he had laid the fruits of experience before you, and pointed out the weakness which you had to protect. He would recommend it to the gentleman from Massachusetts to alter his amendment, so as to make it, that, in case the House should fail to choose, then, in four days after, the Vice President shall be President.

Mr. TRACY rose.

Mr. COCKE called for the question-the question!

Mr. TRACY.-Does the gentleman mean to call for the question while I am on the floor? I will not sit down upon such a call. What is the question, sir?

Mr. DAYTON hoped the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. ADAMS) would withdraw his amend

ment.

Mr. ADAMS thought the deliberation of one or two hours could not be thrown away.

Mr. WRIGHT hoped the decision on the amendment would not be pressed upon the House. What! is it proposed to take the choice of President out of the hands of the Electors and place it wholly in the House of Representatives, and tell them, hold out only four days, and you will then have the whole power in your hands; you may set aside all consideration for the wishes of your constituents-set popular opinion at defiance, and please yourselves by choosing a President of whom the people never, thought? Gentlemen should avoid this dangerous path which they wish to prepare; the people will not bear to be frowned upon by those whom their breath has made, and can unmake.

Sir, it is our wish to prevent all these dangerous or fatal courses and consequences; and we should keep in mind, that whatever we may conclude upon here, is completely guarded, not alone by the necessary consent of the other House, but that of three-fourths of the States. The Constitution, sir, would be preferable as it is, without the odious and anti-republican forms which gentlemen propose to engross upon it. What, sir, determine a most important principle of effective government by a non-effective act-determine an election by holding out a temptation to non-elecMr. ADAMS saw a new difficulty there also, for tion! He should prefer having the choice open there may not be a majority for both, and pro-to the Representatives bound by oath, by duty, vision will be necessary for the vacancy of the and by the Constitution, to such an alternative. Vice Presidency. If men so placed would be so blind to the calls of duty, the public indignation would bring them to their senses before the fourth of March. Honor and their oaths, sir, would bind them. He had too much confidence in the choice of his countrymen, and of the virtue and morality of those who are sent to the important stations of Representatives, to think they disregarded their oaths or their duty. Some gentlemen tell us, indeed, they know of no persons who would raise their hands against an usurper, if he had been set up, and insinuate that it would be a crime; but they find ready belief for acts ten thousand degrees more base and heinous in themselves; they can

Mr. HILLHOUSE thought there would be no danger of the Senate omitting to elect their President, who is, on a vacancy, the Vice President in fact. As to shutting the House up like a jury in a dark room, depriving them of fire, light, and food, he thought the measure too strong; he did not wish to see them at the mercy of the sheriff, who upon their laches might call in the posse comitatus, and trundle them out of the District, or send them to Coventry. If the House of Representatives should not make a choice, he saw no reason why the Government should not go on until an election should take place.