Presidential Lottery Read Free Page B

were, and there would be ample time following the election to make my intentions known. Second, were the November 5 election to prove inconclusive, I judged that newspapers, television, magazines, and other agencies of opinion would themselves launch the kind of program I proposed, and that communication among the electors would surely be constant and overpowering. Third, if you look at the canceled parts of Article II of the Constitution you will see that an early and abiding principle of the electoral system was that the electors must not meet at one central location, but “shall meet in their respective states,” the intention as stated in the debates being that this would prevent “cabal, intrigue, and corruption.” When this article was superseded by the Twelfth Amendment, the prohibition was repeated in the opening sentence, and I judged that this might be interpreted to mean that correspondence between the electors was also prohibited, and if conducted, would void any plan of cooperation between the parties. At any rate, I knew what I was going to do, and I hoped that other electors of similar persuasion knew what they were going to do, also.
    An overriding question haunted me then and now. Was what I proposed in any way unethical? Theoretically I hadbeen chosen by Hubert Humphrey to help him win the Presidency; actually I had been nominated by Milt Berkes to help him keep the Democratic party strong, and these two obligations I proposed to respect. But I decided early that I would not be partner to any blackmail; I would not allow either myself or my party to be placed in a position in which deals had to be made of a character not consonant with our political principles. Also, I was much influenced by the Constitution and its original intentions. That I might have suffered censure or even excommunication was much in my mind, especially when our local newspaper awakened its readers to the fact that this might be a very close election; in an editorial they pointed out that Bucks County was fortunate in its possible electors in that both the Republican and the Democratic were men of proved integrity who could be relied upon to vote the way the state had voted. At the moment the editorial appeared I was a man prepared to do exactly the opposite, impelled by my dedication to the principles of our government and my desire to protect them.
    What was it I proposed to do? If Nixon won the popular vote and led in electoral votes by a clear margin, I would recommend to my party leadership that they arrange a compromise with the Republicans and direct enough Democratic electors to swing to the Republican column to ensure Nixon’s election; I would volunteer to be a member of that group and to absorb whatever opprobrium fell upon us. If the Democratic leadership showed no interest in trying to achieve such a compromise with the Republicans, I would have been willing to try myself, backed up by the electors who I feltsure would feel as I did. If such a plan were achieved, I would vote in accordance with it. If Humphrey clearly won the popular vote and the electoral votes to go with it, I would propose that the Republican high command meet with the Democratic to work out a compromise, and when it was defined, direct enough of their electors to vote for Humphrey to elect him. If they refused to do this, I would have campaigned among the Republican electors to encourage them to do so on their own account.
    Finally, what do I mean by compromise? I mean just what this word has always meant in American politics since the days of the Constitutional Convention and the towering speeches of Henry Clay. I mean that if the Democratic party had ensured the election of Nixon, the Democratic party would have gained in return certain considerations as to Cabinet positions and a voice in the running of the Departments of State and Defense. I mean that if the Republicans had helped elect Humphrey, they would have been entitled to the same