candidates for the presidency or for the vice-presidency.
Each elector simply wrote down two names, only one of which could be the
name of a citizen of his own state. In the official count the candidate
who had the largest number of votes, provided they were a majority of
the whole number, was declared president, and the candidate who had the
next to the largest number was declared vice-president. The natural
result of this was seen in the first contested election in 1796, which
made Adams president, and his antagonist vice-president. In the next
election in 1800 it gave to Jefferson and his colleague Burr exactly the
same number of votes. In such a case the House of Representatives must
elect, and such intrigues followed for the purpose of defeating
Jefferson that the country was brought to the verge of civil war. It
thus became necessary to change the method. By the twelfth amendment to
the constitution, declared in force in 1804, the present method was
adopted. The electors make separate ballots for president and for
vice-president. In the official count the votes for president are first
inspected. If no candidate has a majority, then the House of
Representatives must immediately choose the president from the three
names highest on the list. In this choice the house votes by states,
each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose must consist of at
least one member from two thirds of the states, and a majority of all
the states is necessary for a choice. Then if no candidate for the
vice-presidency has a majority, the Senate makes its choice from the two
names highest on the list; a quorum for the purpose consists of two
thirds of the whole number of senators, and a majority of the whole
number is necessary to a choice. Since this amendment was made there has
been one instance of an election of the president by the House of
Representatives,--that of John Quincy Adams in 1825; and there has been
one instance of an election of the vice-president by the Senate,--that
of Richard Mentor Johnson in 1837.

[Sidenote: The electoral commission (1877).]
One serious difficulty was not yet foreseen and provided for--that of
deciding between two conflicting returns sent in by two hostile sets of
electors in the same state, each list being certified by one of two
rival governors claiming authority in the same state. Such a case
occurred in 1877, when Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina were the
scene of struggles between