Finally, as the convention was drawing to a close in late August, the matter was handed off to its Committee on Unfinished Parts. They proposed a model that had been used to “elect” monarchs and emperors under the Holy Roman Empire, a confederation of more than a thousand semi-sovereign territories and lordships in central Europe. When the emperor died, local princes and archbishops gathered in a Council of Electors (Kurfürstenrat), usually in Frankfurt, Germany, to vote on a new emperor. This is similar to how popes have been chosen since the Middle Ages. Even today, with the passing of a
...more
