A Senate of the States: September 6th, 1787

Article V Blog ^ | December 18th 2017 | Rodney Dodsworth

[Jacquerie]

Presidential Elections. Little over a week before the close of the federal convention, the senate was still responsible for appointing a president should no one obtain a majority, or if two with a majority had an equal number, of electoral votes.

While their electoral college system minimized the possibility of “pre-bought” presidents, our Framers nonetheless cast a suspicious eye at the senate. The convention intended a ‘high-toned’ second branch to check the house, but had they gone too far? Their senate had the power to appoint the president, name his officers, appoint judges, make treaties and try impeachments. This constituted something uncomfortably close to legislative, executive and judicial powers in a small group of men, which is the very definition of tyranny. If the senate elected the president, could the president in time become a mere creature of this small group? If so, history would judge the Constitution as the incubator of an aristocracy rather than a grand experiment in republicanism.

So, in the event of a tie, or no majority of votes from the state-appointed electors, the convention revisited which house of congress, or perhaps the congress in joint-session, or in one-state-one vote fashion, was to elect the president. Throughout the day delegates remained focused on the first purpose of the electoral college, which was to elevate a fellow-citizen not burdened with political debts, not beholden to any party or faction, to a temporary post of enormous responsibility and political power. The Framers’ President would take his oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States” with a clear conscience.

Elbridge Gerry motioned that if a sitting president was not reelected with an outright majority of state electors for a second term, congress, in joint session, should elect the president.

[familyop]

To all:

What kind of senators would state legislatures choose? And what kind of president would senators appoint? What kind of president would a majority Democrat Congress elect?

If the politicians in the legislatures of all of the states could have chosen our current president, would they have elected Donald Trump?

Would they respect and uphold our Second Amendment for everyone?

Would they cut government spending and taxes?

[SMGFan]

If not for 17th amendment , I wonder which Senators would have had been in Congress fewer terms or not at all.

[Loud Mime]

"Gerry and Sherman were not alone. Even the aristocratic Gouverneur Morris thought the existing framework compelled the president to look over his should toward the senate before he nominated men to high offices. It squinted too much toward blending the two branches."

[Jacquerie]

My goodness. Thanks. I shall thrash my copy editor.

[Jacquerie]

Good question. The suspect the qualities that got men elected to the pre/post 17th Amendment were quite different.

[Jacquerie]

If presidential elections had gone the way our Framers intended, we wouldn’t need a President Trump.

[Jacquerie]

Make that, “I suspect . . .”