Schramm on the Electoral College

The Electoral College voted yesterday. In 2000, Peter Schramm delivered an address to Ohio's presidential electors, Dec. 18 (italics in original):

.... It is a defining feature of our American system of government that, while we claimed unambiguously the peoples' right to rule, we the people at the same time decided to limit our own rule. Thus the people established a Constitution. The exercise of this original right, to use Chief Justice John Marshall's words, is a very great exertion. It was an action by the people that limited their own power. The Constitution — through separation of powers and federalism, those two great discoveries of American political science — is a great limiting document. The first manifestation of the people's rightful authority was therefore an act that limited their own power. When we use the phrase, limited government, we mean Constitutional government. Why would the people limit their own power and authority?

The Constitution of the United States limits and defines the power of the people. Through various devices and methods used — separating the executive power from the legislative and the judicial; through federalism; as well as the manner in which officials of the federal government are elected, for example only members of the House of Representatives are elected, in the original un-amended Constitution, by the people directly (U.S. Senators were chosen by state legislatures); as well as by the indirect election of the president of the United States by the Electoral College — the Founders hoped that the people's will would be channeled in a certain direction.

The Constitution constructs and re-constructs, refines and enlarges, the will of the people to make as certain as possible that the will of the people would be reasonable. The Constitution is nothing less than the attempt to craft majorities that would be disinclined or unable to interfere with the rights of the minority. Once the people established the Constitution, the majorities they formed would be Constitutional majorities, not simple numerical majorities. The president of the United States takes an oath to the Constitution, not to the majority, or to the people who he may think got him elected, not even to the Electoral College, nor to anyone or anything else. Just to the Constitution.

In other words, the formation of majorities is not simply a mathematical or quantitative problem. The Constitution is concerned not with simple majority, not with the size of majorities, but with their character. It is a qualitative problem. The various majorities that are formed, both in the different branches of the government, and in the states, have a different character than would a simple national majority....

In a related vein, see John Fund's Minority President.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 12/14/04 06:57:16 PM
Categorized as Historical & Speeches and Suchlike.