mitted, pure in their normal functions. The Presidency
remained a real Government. Congress remained a real check.

In England, where the opposite principle was adopted, the Ministry
became first the committee of an oligarchical Parliament and later a
close corporation nominating the legislature which is supposed to check
it.

The same fear of arbitrary power was exhibited, and that in fashion
really inconsistent with the democratic principles which the American
statesmen professed, in the determination that the President should be
chosen by the people only in an indirect fashion, through an Electoral
College. This error has been happily overruled by events. Since the
Electoral College was to be chosen _ad hoc_ for the single purpose of
choosing a President, it soon became obvious that pledges could easily
be exacted from its members in regard to their choice. By degrees the
pretence of deliberate action by the College wore thinner and thinner.
Finally it was abandoned altogether, and the President is now chosen, as
the first magistrate of a democracy ought to be chosen, if election is
resorted to at all, by the direct vote of the nation. At the time,
however, it was supposed that the Electoral College would be an
independent deliberative assembly. It was further provided that the
second choice of the Electoral College should be Vice-President, and
succeed to the Presidency in the event of the President dying during his
term of office. If there was a "tie" or if no candidate had an absolute
majority in the College, the election devolved on the House of
Representatives voting in this instance by States.

In connection with the election both of Executive and Legislature, the
old State Rights problem rose in another form. Were all the States to
have equal weight and representation, as had been the case in the old
Continental Congress, or was their weight and representation to be
proportional to their population? On this point a compromise was made.
The House of Representatives was to be chosen directly by the people on
a numerical basis, and in the Electoral College which chose the
President the same principle was adopted. In the Senate all States were
to have equal representation; and the Senators were to be chosen by the
legislatures of the States; they were regarded rather as ambassadors
than as delegates. The term of a Senator was fixed for six years, a
third of the Senate resigning in rotation every two years. The H