Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.

304 ABRIDGIMENT OF THE H. OF R.] Election of President by the House of Representatives. [FEBRUARY, 1825. does it amount to? Neither more nor less, by the ascendency of their talents, the elevathan that the people know how to make laws tion of their characters, or by disinterested debetter than we do; and that we are more wor- votion to their5 country, my life upon it, these thy of the trust of making a President, than exalted qualities will neither escape the attenthe people. This is palpably inverting the tion of the people, nor fail to make the approprinciples of the constitution. Upon what priate, corresponding impression. They have principle is it, that the people of the United no selfish purposes, no ambitious aspirations, States have retained in their own hands the no secret and sinister designs, to prevent or power of electing a President, and have not re- pervert the free and impartial exercise of their tained a single vestige of the power of legisla- judgments. It is, in the nature of things, imtion, on the general concerns of the republic? possible that they should have. All their feelA single glance at the subject will satisfy any ings are essentially patriotic. They rejoice one who comprehends the terms of the propo- only in the glory and prosperity of the repubsition, that acts of legislation cannot, in the na- lie, and are proud of the opportunity of elevatture of things, be performed by a multitude of ing to power, those who are best qualified to people, dispersed over a vast territory, like that promote these great ends. Sir, the glory and of the United States. If every citizen were a prosperity of the country is their glory and statesman, still would they be incapable of prosperity; and what other possible object can legislation; because they could not have those they have, in electing a President? After all, preliminary consultations, and that mutual in- the quality most essential in the election of that terchange of ideas, which must necessarily pre- great officer, wielding, as he does, the vast cede every intelligent act of general legislation. patronage of a great and growing country, is They have, therefore, delegated that power en- an honest purpose. This you will always find tirely and exclusively to Congress. But have with the people; but man is not man, if you they the same obstacles to surmount, in elect- always find it anywhere else. ing a President? Are any preliminary consul- But, sir, there is another ground which distations and interchanges of ideas, necessary to tinguishes the election of a President by this enable them to perform that act? On the con- House, from an act of legislation; and shows trary, every citizen gives his suffrage with more that the obligation which the popular will imcoolness, deliberation, and wisdom, in the bal- poses upon the representative, should be much lot-box of his own vicinity, than he would if stronger in the former case than in the latter. all the people of the United States were col- In the ordinary case of legislation, we are, in lected together. The people, therefore, have most instances, called upon to act upon emerretained the power of electing the President, gencies, of sudden and unexpected occurrence. under the idea that they are a safer depository The current of events is in a perpetual fluctuaof that power, than any which human wisdom tion; circumstances are continually presenting could possibly devise. This, sir, is the princi- themselves in new combinations, which no one pie of the constitution; and it is the principle could anticipate, and which must, nevertheless, of eternal truth. All experience has sanctified constitute the basis of legislation. For examand confirmed it. The history of every people pie, before we came here, none of us knew. that capable of freedom, demonstrates, that, in we should be called upon to give a vote reselecting officers, even of the highest grade, they specting the Cumberland Road, the Delaware are fully competent to form a correct judgment and Chesapeake Canal, or the Suppression of of the peculiar qualifications demanded by any Piracy. Topics like these are continually emergency, or required for any office. Look springing up, which we must decide, before into the history of those republics that have they have even been the subject of deliberagone before us. Where do you find, illustrat- tion among the people. But what is the naing either the civil or military departments of ture of that question, which we shall be called any nation, statesmen or generals of more ele- upon to decide on Wednesday next? And vated characters and splendid endowments, what are the circumstances under which we than those that were elected, even by the wild shall decide it? It is a question which has been democracy of Athens, or the conflicting com- distinctly presented to the people, for considerpound of aristocracy and democracy, that ation, by the constitution; and has been, for swayed the destinies of Rome? All the distin- the last four years, fully and freely discussed guished patriots and statesmen, who reflected before the people, with an immediate view to so much glory upon those ages, and left such the exercise of the highest power, and most noble examples to reanimate the slumbering sacred privilege, they possess-the actual choice genius of succeeding generations, were elevated of the man who is to preside over their destito office by the choice of the people. Sir, nies. It is a question, therefore, which, from if there be any function which, in the organic the very mode of its recurrence, must always operations of civil society, the people are pecu- be presented to us, after it has undergone the liarly qualified to perform, it is, by a sort of deliberate examination, and, to a certain exinstinctive perception, which seems almost to tent, the decision of the people. rise above reason, the selection of men best But there is another view of the constitution calculated to represent them in important po- on this subject, which leads us still more clearAitical stations. If public men are distinguished ly to the conclusion, that, in the selection of a

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Title: Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.
Author: United States. Congress.
Canvas: Page 304
Publication: New York, [etc.]: D. Appleton and company [etc.]; 1857-61.
Subject terms: United States -- Politics and government

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Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.

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