History of the Electoral College
How the American Voters Elect the President in the US
The Founding Fathers had three fundamental problems with selecting the President of the United States. Their solution created the Electoral College amid huge concerns.
The Electoral College was a Constitutional compromise between those factions wanting direct elections of the president and those that desired the House of Representatives select him. Each side had three main concerns for the Republic: tyranny, small states and geography. The principle architects were the Federalists lead by Alexander Hamilton, George Washington and John Adams who, as large landowners, bankers and businessmen, favored a strong central government. Hamilton wrote on Wednesday, March 12, 1788, in Federalist Paper #68: “It was equally desirable, that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities…proper to govern their choice.”
The Jeffersonians disagreed. While supporting the constitution like the Federalist, they believed that the greatest threat to liberty was posed by a tyrannical central government and power should be held by the common people. Jefferson said in his 1823 letter to George Hay; “I have ever considered the constitutional mode of election [electoral college] the most dangerous blot in our Constitution and one which [will]…give us a pope….”
The Compromise
Never to the liking of Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic Republicans, the deal was none the less instituted.
- Tyranny:
The Federalists felt that entrusting so much power to the people may present problems in itself. Their society consisted of one where intelligence, wealth and status were closely associated. “Of course, they knew they were superior to other individuals. They were unabashed elitists, and they weren't embarrassed about it;” reported Alex Kingsbury of US News and World Report on 6/4/06. In his book Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Gordon Wood says, “This elite fraternity destroyed any chance of others duplicating their achievements.”
The consensus arrived at by the Founding Fathers was that all men, while created equal, must have “…respect for the natural aristae [aristocrats*;]” as Jefferson said in his letters to Madison on Rights, March 15th 1789. Hamiltonians believed only natural aristocrats contained sufficient intelligence so as not to be persuaded by manipulation, coercion and favorite son status as stated in the Federalist Paper. Jefferson’s wing accepted the compromise because of geographic difficulties mentioned below.
- Small States:
and Jeffersonians were suspicious of the power of larger states or centralized power. The electoral vote was designed to enfranchise smaller states with effectively more power while ignoring the central government issue. Each state had the same number of electoral votes as they have representative in Congress, therefore, increasing the effective “value” of the votes from small states.
- Geography:
The nation was spread over a large geographical area and national campaigning was impractical if not impossible. Conventional thinking was “the office should seek the man; the man should not seek the office." The problem was how to get the office to seek the man that was unknown in the vast majority of the states. “Talents for low intrigue…may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other…merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States.” Hamilton #68
This geographic problem increased the problem of preventing corruption. Federalist # 68 - Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption. These most deadly adversaries of republican government….”
* Natural aristocrat differs from aristocrat by intellect versus birthright. Today natural aristocrats would be considered “the best and brightest” among us.
