the choice of members
of the House of Representatives, or indirectly, as in the choice of
Senators and electors of President. Respect for public officers and
obedience to law will not cease to be the characteristics of our people
until our elections cease to declare the will of majorities fairly
ascertained without fraud, suppression, or gerrymander. If I were
called upon to declare wherein our chief national danger lies, I should
say without hesitation in the overthrow of majority control by the
suppression or perversion of the popular suffrage. That there is a real
danger here all must agree; but the energies of those who see it have
been chiefly expended in trying to fix responsibility upon the opposite
party rather than in efforts to make such practices impossible by either
party.

Is it not possible now to adjourn that interminable and inconclusive
debate while we take by consent one step in the direction of reform by
eliminating the gerrymander, which has been denounced by all parties as
an influence in the selection of electors of President and members of
Congress? All the States have, acting freely and separately, determined
that the choice of electors by a general ticket is the wisest and
safest method, and it would seem there could be no objection to a
constitutional amendment making that method permanent. If a legislature
chosen in one year upon purely local questions should, pending a
Presidential contest, meet, rescind the law for a choice upon a general
ticket, and provide for the choice of electors by the legislature, and
this trick should determine the result, it is not too much to say that
the public peace might be seriously and widely endangered.

I have alluded to the "gerrymander" as affecting the method of selecting
electors of President by Congressional districts, but the primary intent
and effect of this form of political robbery have relation to the
selection of members of the House of Representatives. The power of
Congress is ample to deal with this threatening and intolerable abuse.
The unfailing test of sincerity in election reform will be found in a
willingness to confer as to remedies and to put into force such measures
as will most effectually preserve the right of the people to free and
equal representation.

An attempt was made in the last Congress to bring to bear the
constitutional powers of the General Government for the correction
of fraud against the suffrage. It is important to