The writings of James Madison, comprising his public papers and his private correspondence, including numerous letters and documents now for the first time printed. |
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TO THOMAS JEFFERSON. |
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 | The writings of James Madison, |  |
TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.
Dr. Sir I return the letters from Docr. Cooper
inclosed in yours of the 7th. It is truly to be
lamented that at his stage of life, and in the
midst of his valuable labours, he should experience
the persecutions which torment and depress him.
Should he finally wish to exchange his present berth
for one in our University, and make the proposition
without any advances on our part, there could be
no indelicacy in our receiving him. What I should
dread would be that notwithstanding his pre-eminent
qualifications, there might be difficulties to be
overcome among ourselves in the first instance; and
what is worse that the spirit which persecutes him
where he is, would find a co-partner here not less
active in poisoning his happiness and impairing the
popularity of the Institution. We must await the
contingency, and act for the best.
You have probably noticed that the manner in
which the Constitution as it stands may operate
in the approaching election of President, is multiplying
projects for amending it. If electoral districts,
and an eventual decision by joint ballot of
the two Houses of Congress could be established,
it would, I think, be a real improvement; and as
the smaller States would approve the one, and the
larger the other, a spirit of compromise might
adopt both.
An appeal from an abortive ballot in the first
meeting of the Electors, to a reassemblage of
plausible, and in comparison with the existing
arrangement, might not be inadmissible. But it
is not free from material objections. It relinquishes,
particularly, the policy of the Constitution
in allowing as little time as possible for the Electors
to be known & tampered with. And beside the
opportunities for intrigue furnished by the interval
between the first and second meeting, the danger
of having one electoral Body played off against
another, by artful misrepresentations rapidly transmitted,
a danger not to be avoided, would be at
least doubled. It is a fact within my own knowledge,
that the equality of votes which threatened
such mischief in 1801 was the result of false assurances
despatched at the critical moment to the
Electors of one State, that the votes of another would
be different from what they proved to be.
Having received letters from certain quarters
on the subject of the proposed amendments, which
I could not decline answering, I have suggested for
consideration, "that each Elector should give two
votes, one naming his first choice, the other naming
his next choice. If there be a majority for the
first, he to be elected; if not, and a majority for the
next, he to be elected: If there be not a majority
for either, then the names having the two highest
number of votes on the two lists taken together,
to be referred to a joint ballot of the Legislature."
It is not probable that this modification will be
relished by either of those to whom it has been
of their own. Nor am I sure that there may not be
objections to it which have been overlooked. It
was recommended to my reflections by its avoiding
the inconvenĩces of a second meeting of Electors,
and at the same time doubling the chance
of avoiding a final resort to Congress. I have intimated
to my correspondents my disinclination to
be brought in any way into the public discussion
of the subject; the rather as every thing having a
future relation only to a Presidential Election may
be misconstrued into some bearing on that now
depending.
| The writings of James Madison, | |