The Origins Of The Twelfth Amendment PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1901 edition. Excerpt: ... of number, and it was moved that the blank be filled with " one person." Randolph suggested that there be three members, to be drawn from the different portions of the country.1 This idea of balancing the sections, Eastern, Middle and Southern, appears repeatedly in the course of the debates. It was urged that the arguments for a plural executive were based on an anticipated unpopularity of the new Constitution rather than on principle;* that all thirteen of the States had agreed upon a single executive, and that a plural one would foment uncontrolled, continued and violent animosities. The decision in favor of a single executive was carried by a vote of seven States to three.3 After some discussion of the veto power, in which an absolute veto, a suspensive veto and no veto at all were each advocated, a vote was taken on the first and last suggestions, resulting in their unanimous rejection; and the revisionary power, subject to overruling by two-thirds of both branches of the legislature, was decided upon. It is interesting that this power should have been given at all, for, in the States, only Massachusetts had given her Governor a veto. The matter now seemed settled; there was to be a single executive, chosen by the national legislature for a term of seven years and ineligible thereafter, having a revisionary check on legislation. But the leven of dissatisfaction with such a mode was steadily working and produced no less than seventeen different suggestions before the Convention finally adopted the principle, in part, of Wilson's motion of June 2d. After a vote for the reconsideration of the mode of election, Gerry moved4 " that the national executive should be elected by the executives of the States, whose proportion of votes should...