The Daily Gazette

THE APPOINTMENT OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS.

Congressman Hurd, of Ohio, has made a point with reference to the appointment of Presidential Electors, which is worthy of very particular attention at this time, especially as, at least in our State, propositions for changing the method at present in vogue are understood to be under very serious consideration.

The point made by Mr. Hurd is that the Fourteenth Amendment makes a very radical modification of the original constitutional provision with regard to the appointment of Electors, and this fact has been strangely overlooked by those who have hitherto discussed this subject. A careful reading of this amendment will, we think, induce most persons to think Mr. Hurd is in the right.

The original expressions of the Constitution with regard to the appointment of Electors are as follows:

"Each State shall appoint in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct a number of Electors equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which such a State may be entitled in Congress, etc."

It will be seen that the power to provide methods of appointment under this section of the Constitution is very broad. Then compare this language with that of the Fourteenth Amendment, which says:

"Whenever the right to vote at any election for Electors for President or Vice-President, or for United States Representatives in Congress, executive or judicial officers, or members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State."

This looks very much like an effective estoppel to the appointment of Presidential Electors by the Legislatures, or by the Governors, or in any way except by the votes of the male citizens of twenty-one years of age or upwards. It apparently does not interfere with the adoption of the district system, although there is no telling but that the language of the amendment might be strained to cover even that system. At any rate, it is very plain that this is not a good time to tinker with the laws relating to Presidential Electors in New York or elsewhere.