ad to be decided. As it was decided then, it
appears in the Constitution as submitted to the States in 1787; but
an amendment of the second article was proposed in 1804, which,
meeting the approval of the States, became part of the Constitution.

I must be pardoned if I repeat something of what has preceded in
this debate, by way of citation from the Constitution of the United
States, in order that we may find there our warrant for the present
measure. There were difficulties of which these fathers of our
government were thoroughly conscious. The very difficulties that
surround the question to-day are suggested in the debates of 1800,
in which the history of double returns is foretold by Mr. Pinckney
in his objections to the measure then before the Senate. The very
title of that act, "A Bill Prescribing a Mode of Deciding Disputed
Elections of President and Vice-President of the United States,"
will show the difficulties which they then perceived and of which
they felt the future was to be so full. They made the attempt in
1800 to meet those difficulties. They did not succeed. Again and
again the question came before them. In 1824 a second attempt was
made at legislation. It met the approval of the Senate. It seemed
to meet the approval of the Committee on the Judiciary of the House,
by whom it was reported without amendment, but never was acted upon
in that body, and failed to become a law. This all shows to us that
there has been a postponement from generation to generation of a
subject of great difficulty that we of to-day are called upon to
meet under circumstances of peculiar and additional disadvantage;
for while in the convention of 1787 there was a difference arising
from interest, from all the infinite variances of prejudice and
opinion upon subjects of local, geographical, and pecuniary
interests, and making mutual concessions and patriotic considerations
necessary at all times, yet they were spared the most dangerous
of all feelings under which our country has suffered of late; for,
amid all the perturbing causes to interfere with and distract their
counsels, partisan animosity was at least unknown. There was in that
day no such thing as political party in the United States:--

"Then none were for a party,
But all were for the State."

Political parties were formed afterward and have grown in strength
since, and to-day the troubles that afflict our country chiefly may
be said to arise from