150 The Campaign of 1896 



to provide by a most elaborate and ingenious gov- 

 ernmental arrangement. They distrusted what 

 would now be called pure Democracy, and they 

 dreaded what we would now call party government. 



Their distrust of Democracy induced them to con- 

 struct the electoral college for the choice of a Presi- 

 dent, the original idea being that the people should 

 elect their best and wisest men, who in turn should, 

 untrammeled by outside pressure, elect a President. 

 As a matter of fact the functions of the electorate 

 have now by time and custom become of little more 

 importance than those of so many letter-carriers. 

 They deliver the electoral votes of their States just 

 as a letter-carrier delivers his mail. 'But in the 

 Presidential contest this year it may be we shall 

 see a partial return to the ideals of the men of 

 1 789 ; for some of the electors on the Bryan-Sewall- 

 Watson ticket may exercise a choice between the 

 Vice-Presidential candidates. 



The distrust felt by the founders of the Constitu- 

 tion for party government took shape in the scheme 

 to provide that the majority party should have the 

 foremost place, and the minority party the second 

 place, in the national executive. The man who re- 

 ceived the greatest number of electoral votes was 

 made President, and the man who received the sec- 

 ond greatest number was made Vice-President, on 

 a theory somewhat akin to that by which certain re- 

 formers hope to revolutionize our system of voting 

 at the present day. In the early days, under the 

 present Constitution, this system resulted in the 



