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Committee of detail report
by Dr Nicholas Cole (npcole)
Cite as: Dr Nicholas Cole, ‘Committee of detail report’ in N. P. Cole, Grace Mallon and Kat Howarth, The Creation of the Electoral College, Quill Project at Pembroke College (Oxford, 2016), item 76.
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 Committee of Detail report returned to the idea of an executive chosen by the members of the national legislature, specifying that a ballot should be taken, and departing from the instructions they had originally been given on July 23rd. This seems to instead reflect debates in the Constitutional Convention on July 24th, 25th, and 26th, which had re-aired almost all of the issues concerning the selection and nature of the executive, and the motion of Houston and Spaight on the National Legislature which passed by seven votes to four. Even though James Wilson, the delegate who originally proposed removing reference to the National Legislature, was a member of the Committee, his position was not reflected in the report. Had this been the end of the matter, the debate would have rested close to where it began, with selection by the legislature.
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Approved for publication
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