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Interesting historical find
Posted by David Hardy · 30 August 2007 11:01 AM
GunshowOnTheNet has an interesting historical find.
It's a proposal for constitutional amendments that would:
1. Provide for direct election of the President by popular vote;
2. Provide for succession should both President and VP be incapacitated (now covered by Amendment 25 (1967)).
3. Election of Senators by popular vote rather than by State legislatures (now Amendment 17 (1912);
4. Term limits for Federal judges.
What makes this interesting is that the proposal comes in 1868, from the unlamented Pres. Andrew Johnson.
Times sure have changed.
"But if the meaning of the constitution were doubtful on this subject, the general Assembly had no authority to settle the question by a law. The right of voting is a constitutional right, not to be intermeddled with by the ordinary legislature. If they can interfere at all, they may perpetually change and alter it, so as to suit party purposes and views; and some future legislature may even adopt the dangerous principle of universal suffrage. Custis v. Lane, 17 Va. 3 Munf. 579, (1813).