This is one of the singularities of the Federal Constitution which can only be explained by the jar of conflicting interests.] Thus it is only in case of an event which cannot often happen, and which can never be foreseen, that the election is entrusted to the ordinary representatives of the nation; and even then they are obliged to choose a citizen who has already been designated by a powerful minority of the special electors.

It is by this happy expedient that the respect which is due to the popular voice is combined with the utmost celerity of execution and those precautions which the peace of the country demands.
But the decision of the question by the House of Representatives does not necessarily offer an immediate solution of the difficulty, for the majority of that assembly may still be doubtful, and in this case the Constitution prescribes no remedy.

Nevertheless, by restricting the number of candidates to three, and by referring the matter to the judgment of an enlightened public body, it has smoothed all the obstacles *y which are not inherent in the elective system.
[Footnote y: Jefferson, in 1801, was not elected until the thirty-sixth time of balloting.] In the forty-four years which have elapsed since the promulgation of the Federal Constitution the United States have twelve times chosen a President.

Ten of these elections took place simultaneously by the votes of the special electors in the different States.

The House of Representatives has only twice exercised its conditional privilege of deciding in cases of uncertainty; the first time was at the election of Mr.Jefferson in 1801; the second was in 1825, when Mr.Quincy Adams was named.