ent. They called this system checks and balances. This system was set up to ensure that the government would remain loyal to the people and loyal to their states (Hamilton). In The Federalist Papers, No. 68, Alexander Hamilton discusses the importance of having the president elected by the Electoral College. He said that in order to ensure that we do not end up with the same problems that America had with the monarch of England, it was important that the balance of power was spread throughout the government and that no one portion have too much power. Another reason Alexander Hamilton gave for not having congress elect the president was that the founders wanted to reassure states that they had not given up all their power to a federal government. In order to ratify the constitution, the framers knew that it would have to be approved in each of the thirteen states. They also knew that these states would be skeptical of a powerful central government that would have the ability to take away all their rights. So, they would have to make sure that each of these states was comfortable with the amount of power given to each branch of the central government.This point is also clearly evident today. During the election this year, the Republican Party ran on a platform that included the premise of a smaller government. This platform was in line with an MSNBC poll that was taken in July 2000, which asked this question, “Do you think it is important to limit the size of the federal government?” Over 72 percent of the 4,143 people surveyed said they believed that it is important to limit the size of the government. So even in the age of government programs which help support the citizens of this nation, people still understand the importance of keeping our government small. The second purpose for the Electoral College was to give smaller states the same rights and powers as the larger states. There are two primary reasons why the smaller...
