Reply #55: There are a couple of [View All]

[H2O Man]

answers on here that, while not "wrong," aren't fully accurate. The original EC (the structure of which lasted only about 20 years) was to help encourage small states to join the union. However, it was not to put them on equal footing with the large states -- the Senate representation did that. The House, of course, was based on population, which still gave large states a larger say in the original EC.

The actual reasoning was far more about allowing qualified individuals the ability to be elected as President. The media, as much as anything, played a significant role in this decision. Men from small states tended to remain unknown in larger states, hence unlikely to be considered for office.

The anticipated response is "those from small states who distinguished themselves in either House of Congress would be known nation-wide." That simply was not the case in that era. More, the concept of "career politicians" was not in line with the thinking of what, for our sake here, we might call the Jeffersonian Founding Fathers. The Hamiltonians believed in the elite class. The EC was, in large part, to prevent an elite career politician from having the unfair advantage over someone in the mold of the later Abe Lincoln.