1803: Constitutional Intent for Electing the Presidency: How the Twelfth Amendment Failed to Anticipate the Rise of Competin

The goal of historians should be to eliminate any personal biases relying solely on facts to capture the most accurate portrayal of a time - to start with facts and allow a thesis to mature naturally, not vice-versa. The passing of the twelfth amendment to the United States Constitution is one of those occurrences where scholars have failed to do their homework. I have yet to find a single source that quotes any one of the many congressmen engaged in drafting the twelfth amendment; the U.S. Code, in 2010, referenced just one article pertaining to the twelfth amendment, Thomas Jefferson Counts himself into the Presidency, 2004. I found that the current understanding of twelfth amendment origins is in great disharmony with historical facts. This has left many without a clear understanding of the issue. This paper challenges the currently accepted view that Article II of the United States Constitution failed to account for a rise of competing national parties. I contend that the twelfth amendment passed Congress in order to prevent the rise of competing national parties. This paper answers the question: "Which electoral method, Article II or the twelfth amendment, accounts for a rise of competing national parties?" To bring the reader into a time where states are not yet united, I use a hypothetical 2012 North-South American Union to put the issue in its proper perspective. I use, as proofs, electoral results and statements of belief from prominent statesmen like Washington, Jefferson, and Adams; constitutional drafters - Madison, John Rutledge, Charles Pinckney, Robert Yates, Edmond Randolph, Oliver Ellsworth, Morris, and Peirce Butler; congressmen like Abraham Baldwin, George Thatcher, John Smilie, John Randolph, Robert Waln, Robert Harper, Harrison Gray Otis, John Brown, Henry Lee, Michael Leib, William Hill; and those who debated the twelfth amendment - James Hillhouse, Uriah Tracy, William Plumer, Wilson C. Nicholas, John Q. Adams, John Taylor, Peirce Butler (a Drafter abovementioned), Samuel White, and Jonathon Dayton.

Author: Robert Burgett
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Published: 04/19/2012
Pages: 206
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.62lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.44d
ISBN: 9781432785871

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