Page:Debates in the Several State Conventions, v5.djvu/535

1787.] Mr. BUTLER thought the mode not free from objections; but much more so than an election by the legislature, where, as in elec- tive monarchies, cabal, faction, and violence, would be sure to pre- vail.

Mr. PINCKNEY stated, as objections to the mode, first, that it threw the whole appointment, in fact, into the hands of the Senate Secondly, the electors will be strangers to the several candidates, and, of course, unable to decide on their comparative merits. Thirdly, it makes the executive reëligible, which will endanger the public liberty. Fourthly, it makes the same body of men which will, in fact, elect the President, his judges in case of an impeachment.

Mr. WILLIAMSON had great doubts whether the advantage of reëligibility would balance the objection to such a dependence of the President on the Senate for his reappointment. He thought, at least, the Senate ought to be restrained to the two highest on the list.

Mr. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS said, the principal advantage aimed at was, that of taking away the opportunity for cabal. The President may be made, if thought necessary, ineligible, on this as well as on any other mode of election. Other inconveniences may be no less redressed on this plan than any other.

Mr. BALDWIN thought the plan not so objectionable, when well considered, as at first view. The increasing intercourse among the people of the states would render important characters less and less unknown; and the Senate would consequently be less and less likely to have the eventual appointment thrown into their hands.

Mr. WILSON. This subject has greatly divided the House, and will also divide the people out of doors. It is in truth the most difficult of all on which we have had to decide. He had never made up an opinion on it entirely to his own satisfaction. He thought the plan, on the whole, a valuable improvement on the former. It gets rid of one great evil, that of cabal and corruption; and Continental characters will multiply as we more and more coalesce, so as to enable the electors in every part of the Union to know and judge of them. It clears the way, also, for a discussion of the question of reëligibility, on its own merits, which the former mode of election seemed to forbid. He thought it might be better, however, to refer the eventual appointment to the legislature than to the Senate, and to confine it to a smaller number than five of the candidates. The eventual election by the legislature would not open cabal anew, as it would be restrained to certain designated objects of choice; and as these must have had the previous sanction of a number of the states; and if the election be made as it ought, as soon as the votes of the electors are opened, and it is known that no one has a majority of the whole, there can be little danger of corruption. Another reason for preferring the legislature to the Senate in this business was, that the House of Representatives will be so often changed as to be free from the influence and faction to which the permanence of the Senate may subject that branch.