It will be allowed that, in an operation so all-important as that of an election of a President, every process should be regulated with the utmost exactness and precision; and, yet, there is scarcely an officer, great or small, important or unimportant, in the State government, or in the United States Governments, who is elected or appointed by a rule so undefined, so vague, so subject to abuse, as that by which we elect the Chief Magistrate of the Union.2 —SENATOR MAHLON DICKERSON, AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION, 1818
