Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1880 — A New Mode of Choosing Electors. [ARTICLE]

A New Mode of Choosing Electors.

Some leading Republicans of New York, who fear the result of the Presidential contest at the ballot-boxes next year, are contemplating an immediate change in the mode of appointing the electors of President and Vice President. The' constitution provides that each State shall appoint its electors in such manner as its Legislature may direct. Down to about 1820 the Legislatures in all the States chose the electors. Thenceforward State after State conferred the power directly upon the people through the ballot-boxes. South Carolina adhered to the old mode down to the close of the civil war. New York clung to the ancient system till after the Presidential contest of 1824. At the close of a bitter struggle, which temporarily prostrated the Democratic party in the State, the method was adopted of choosing the electors by Congrees districts, each district to choose one elector, and the whole body to then meet and choose the two Senatorial electors. The only Presidential contest under that system in this State was that of 1828, when Gen. Jackson secured twenty electors and John Quincy Adams 16. In 1829 the Legislature adopted the general ticket method, which has since prevailed. Those Republicans who now contemplate a change fear that the State cannot be carried by their party next fall; and they propose to secure a portion, and perhaps a majority, of the electors *by adopting the Oongiess district system of 1828, while some advocate the extreme measure of returning to the old method of appointment by the Legislature, whereby, for this once at lepst, they oonld give the Republican

candidates for President and Vice President the whole thirty-five votes of the State. It is in the power of the incoming Legislature to adopt either of these modes if it sees fit, and the Legislature is overwbelminglv Republican in both branches. Those who urge the taking of this bold step look at the subject from the two standpoints of present success and the next census. They say that the measure would certainly secure them the Presidency now, and that the apportionment under the census of 1880, by stripping the South of onethird of its power, would make everything sure in the future. Such is the scheme in contemplation. Perhaps the Legislature will carry it through, and perhaps not.