a right to insert in our
constitution a provision which controls or destroys a discretion
which may be, nay _must_ be, exercised by the legislature in
_virtue_ of _powers confided_ to it by the Constitution of the
United States. The fourth section of the first article of the
Constitution of the United States declares that the times, places
and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives
shall be prescribed by the legislature thereof. Here an express
provision was made for the manner of choosing representatives by
the State legislatures. They have an _unlimited_ discretion on
the subject. They may provide for an election in districts
sending more than one, or by general ticket for the whole State.
Here is a general discretion, a power of choice. What is the
proposition on the table? It is to limit the discretion, to leave
no choice to the legislature, to compel representatives to be
chosen in districts; in other words to compel them to be chosen
in a specific manner, excluding all others. Were not this plainly
a violation of the constitution? Does it not affect to control
the legislature in the exercise of its powers? * * * It assumes a
control over the legislature, which the Constitution of the
United States does not justify. It is bound to exercise its
authority according to its _own view_ of _public policy_ and
_principle_; and yet this proposition compels it to surrender all
discretion. In my humble judgment * * * it is a direct and
palpable infringement of the constitutional provisions to which I
have referred.--[Electoral Commission, p. 186.

The conclusion seems irresistible that a State constitution cannot
determine for the legislature who shall, or shall not, participate
in the choice of presidential electors, and that in so far as our
State constitution may attempt to do so, it is an infringement of
the national constitution. The discretion of the legislature, by
virtue of the supreme law of the land, being (except in so far as
it is controlled by the national constitution itself) thus
absolutely unlimited, it may, without doubt, as I think, authorize
all citizens without regard to sex, to participate in the choice of
presidential electors. But it has been suggested to me that
possibly by the State legislature, as used in the section of the
national constitution which we