ways be accompanied with danger. The third
expedient was therefore adopted, and it was agreed that the votes should
be transmitted sealed to the President of the Senate, and that they
should be opened and counted in the presence of the Senate and the House
of Representatives. If none of the candidates has a majority, the House
of Representatives then proceeds immediately to elect a President, but
with the condition that it must fix upon one of the three candidates who
have the highest numbers. *x

[Footnote v: As many as it sends members to Congress. The number of
electors at the election of 1833 was 288. (See "The National Calendar,"
1833.)]

[Footnote w: The electors of the same State assemble, but they transmit
to the central government the list of their individual votes, and not
the mere result of the vote of the majority.] [Footnote x: In this case
it is the majority of the States, and not the majority of the members,
which decides the question; so that New York has not more influence in
the debate than Rhode Island. Thus the citizens of the Union are first
consulted as members of one and the same community; and, if they cannot
agree, recourse is had to the division of the States, each of which has
a separate and independent vote. This is one of the singularities of
the Federal Constitution which can only be explained by the jar of
conflicting interests.]

Thus it is only in case of an event which cannot often happen, and which
can never be foreseen, that the election is entrusted to the ordinary
representatives of the nation; and even then they are obliged to choose
a citizen who has already been designated by a powerful minority of the
special electors. It is by this happy expedient that the respect which
is due to the popular voice is combined with the utmost celerity of
execution and those precautions which the peace of the country demands.
But the decision of the question by the House of Representatives does
not necessarily offer an immediate solution of the difficulty, for the
majority of that assembly may still be doubtful, and in this case the
Constitution prescribes no remedy. Nevertheless, by restricting the
number of candidates to three, and by referring the matter to the
judgment of an enlightened public body, it has smoothed all the
obstacles *y which are not inherent in the elective system.

[Footnote y: Jefferson, in 1801, was not elected until the thirty-sixth
time of balloting.]

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