September 6, 1787: The Electoral College Completed

James Madison by Bradley Stevens after Charles Willson Peale, 2002

Collections of the US House of Representatives, https://history.house.gov/Collection/Listing/2002/2002-048-000/

“If the present moment be lost it is hard to say what may be our fate.”

--James Madison to Thomas Jefferson on the potential failure to adopt the Constitution

Thursday, Sepetember 6, 1787: The Convention Today

The Convention continued to contemplate the plan for an Electoral College. Under this plan:

• The President and Vice President would be elected by an Electoral College.
• Each state would have a number of electors equivalent to its combined number of Senators and Representatives—each state would thus have a minimum of three electors (the smallest states had one Representative and two Senators), and large states would have far more than three.
• These electors would be chosen “in such manner as its [each state’s] Legislature may direct.”
• Each elector would cast two votes, which were for separate candidates, only one of whom could be from the elector’s home state.
• Whichever candidate got the most electoral votes would become President of the United States, assuming that candidate won votes from a majority of electors
• The second-place candidate would become Vice President.
• If no candidate won votes from a majority of electors, then the Senate would choose the President from one of the top five vote-getters.

The Convention had considered many plans for how to choose the President and found all of them lacking for various reasons. They seemed to be settling for the Electoral College as the least objectionable option, but the biggest sticking point was the last point listed above: most delegates feared that no one would win a majority in most Presidential elections and the Senate would then regularly choose the President, who might then be controlled by what many thought was the more corruptible House of Congress.

Gerry (MA) proposed this workaround: if a President was running for reelection and did not win votes from a majority of the electors, then the whole Congress (not just the Senate) would choose the President in that specific scenario. This would make the President less dependent on the Senate, since there would be far more members of the House of Representatives than the Senate.

King (MA), Williamson (NC), and Gouverneur Morris (PA) liked Gerry’s idea, while Read (DE) and Sherman (CT) didn’t. Sherman said this would give outsize influence to the large states, since large states would have far more Congressmembers in the House of Representatives. He said he’d prefer a plan where each state’s Congressional delegation got one vote, regardless of how many Representatives that state had.

Wilson (PA) thought the Electoral College idea “a valuable improvement,” but he was on the verge of dropping his support for the Constitution because he dreaded how much power the Senate would now have over the President. The President would need the Senate’s support to get elected and reelected, to appoint executive officers, to appoint judges, and to ratify treaties. “According to the plan as it now stands, the President will not be the man of the people, as he ought to be; but the minion of the Senate. He cannot even appoint a tide-waiter without the Senate.” G. Morris (who often agreed with Wilson) “expressed his wonder” at Wilson’s concerns, finding them overblown.

Hamilton (NY) liked Gerry’s proposal but thought it would be best to just remove the majority requirement.

The Convention had several votes to pick through different elements of the Electoral College plan, as well as revisiting the Presidential term of four years. Most significantly, by an 8–3 margin (Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina opposed), the Convention voted to require a Presidential candidate to win votes from a majority of electors in order to keep the Senate from deciding.

Williamson argued for both of Houses of Congress, instead of just the Senate, to resolve Electoral College impasses. While this was similar to Sherman’s proposal earlier on, Sherman now said an even better idea was to let the House of Representatives alone pick the President when the Electoral College couldn’t—provided that each state’s House delegation got one vote regardless of how many representatives each state had. Mason agreed with him, and Sherman’s proposal passed 10–1, Delaware opposed.

The Convention had finally solved (to its contentment, at least) the riddle of how to create an Electoral College scheme that would satisfy the various interests of the large and small states while also protecting the President’s independence from Congress.

Synopsis

• The Convention completed its work on the Electoral College.
• If no Presidential candidate won votes from a majority of electors, the House of Representatives would choose the President under a system where each state’s House delegation got one vote.

Delegates Today

• Langdon (NH) and Sherman (CT) rode along the Schuylkill River with Jacob Hiltzheimer in William Rush’s carriage.
• Either before the session began or shortly after, McHenry (MD) spoke to Gouverneur Morris (PA), Fitzsimmons (PA), and Gorham (MA) about adding a power to build piers to protect shipping in the winter. One of them, either Morris or Gorham, thought it could be done under the words “provide for the common defence and general welfare,” a thought that shocked McHenry.
• Madison (VA) wrote a letter to Jefferson (the current US ambassador in France). Using cyphered writing (Jefferson and Madison had a code that they used when writing about sensitive subjects), he described in brief how the Constitution would work and lamented that “the plan should it be adopted will neither effectually answer its national object nor prevent the local mischiefs which every where excite disgusts agst the state governments.” (He argued that this description of the Convention’s work didn’t violate the Convention’s rule of secrecy since the Convention would be completed before the letter reached Paris.) He described an atmosphere of “universal anxiety” both within and without the Convention. Those without were in the dark about the delegates’ plan. Those within had no idea what reception the Constitution would receive from the public.

Philadelphia Today

• The state's Supreme Executive Council ordered the treasury to give its doorkeeper 40 pounds to buy firewood for the Council and for the Secretary's office.