It is in this way that the election of the President of the
United States practically takes place. Nominally, the election is
indirect: the population at large does not vote for the President;
it votes for electors who choose the President. But the electors are
always chosen under an express engagement to vote for a particular
candidate: nor does a citizen ever vote for an elector because of
any preference for the man; he votes for the Lincoln ticket, or the
Breckenridge ticket. It must be remembered that the electors are not
chosen in order that they may search the country and find the
fittest person in it to be President, or to be a member of Parliament.
There would be something to be said for the practice if this were
so: but it is not so; nor ever will be until mankind in general are of
opinion, with Plato, that the proper person to be entrusted with power
is the person most unwilling to accept it. The electors are to make
choice of one of those who have offered themselves as candidates:
and those who choose the electors already know who these are. If there
is any political activity in the country, all electors, who care to
vote at all, have made up their minds which of these candidates they
would like to have; and will make that the sole consideration in
giving their vote. The partisans of each candidate will have their
list of electors ready, all pledged to vote for that individual; and
the only question practically asked of the primary elector will be
which of these lists he will support.
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