Embed Jump To
Download Jump To Label (click on the image to download)
Or Embed Jump To Inside Your Webpage
<a href="https://www.quillproject.net/fetch/m66"><img src="https://www.quillproject.net/getJumpToImage/m66" alt="Quill - Jump To Icon (m66)" style="width: 110px; height: 59px;"></a>
To see the full record of a committee, click on the corresponding committee on the map below.
Concerns of the Committee of the Whole
by Dr Nicholas Cole (npcole)
Cite as: Dr Nicholas Cole, ‘Concerns of the Committee of the Whole’ in N. P. Cole, Grace Mallon and Kat Howarth, The Creation of the Electoral College, Quill Project at Pembroke College (Oxford, 2016), item 66.
The Creation of the Electoral College
(To read a specific commentary item, please click on its link.)
- The choice of the president in the national legislature
- Election by the people and the merits of election by Congress
- The 'chimerical' nature of election by the people
- The first idea of an electoral college
- A role for state legislatures
- Independence via ineligibility
- An accountable executive
- Concerns of the Committee of the Whole
- An equal voice for all states?
- A democratic magistrate
- The merits of popular election debated
- The problem of forbidding re-election
- A President for life?
- A summary of the difficulties presented by the creation of the executive
- The electoral college proposed for a second time
- The electoral college agreed to
- Election by National Legislature reinstated
- An element of chance
- Alternative modes of election
- The President to be chosen by the State Governors
- Madison's comment on various modes of election
- Committee of detail report
- The idea of an electoral college reintroduced
- The electoral college as a tool for the Separation of Powers
- Limitations of the Electoral College
- Ineligibility and the Electoral College
- Qualifications for Electors
- A role for the House of Representatives instead
- The final iteration of the electoral college
Commentary
The discussion in the Committee of the Whole resulted in a proposal that kept in place the idea of an executive magistrate chosen by the national legislature, guaranteed his necessary independence by a relatively long term in office (seven years) and by ineligibility for a second term of service. Though the Committee had considered making the magistrate more accountable to the state legislatures and had considered an early proposal for an electoral college (aimed not at securing democratic accountability but rather even greater independence), these had been rejected at this stage.
Associated event
Approved for publication
None