George Washington and the Electoral College

Now that I am done with my AP testing I can get back to writing blog posts and continue reading.  Today and last week I read several essays and Papers.  About the beginnings of American democracy.    
The first thing I read is a chapter from Ellis about George Washington.  During the Ameican Revolution, Washington was the de facto leader of the United States, and many people expected him to somehow take over when the war was done.  The pensions that were offered to the army were not able to funded by the Congress, and this angered many of the soldiers.  A conspiracy was made that would have the army lead by Washington take over the continental congress. When Washington heard of this plot he did was horrified.  This inspired him to give his famous Newburgh Address after giving this it was clear that Washington was not like other leaders.  He had the opportunity to take power like Cromwell or Napoleon but, he stayed true to the revolution and its ideals.  That is what separates Washington from these other leaders he was able to restrain himself and not take more power.   This is what makes him such a unique figure throughout history.  Ellis writes about how instead of making himself critical to the revolution Washington made the ideals of revolution more important.  There was no one to stop Washington from taking absolute power other than himself.  He was able to recognize the importance of democracy and having a government of laws.  This is what makes him such a unique leader throughout history.  It is very rare that someone is given the opportunity to take so much power and does not take it.
The next step for the new American democracy was creating a way to elect the president.  This process was long and arduous.  Much discussion was centered around to create a system that would work fairly for all the states.  The founders were also worried about direct democracy because they did not believe that the people could be trusted entirely to make the best decision.  This is how they eventually came to create the electoral college process that we know today.  It is clear that the other existing examples of democracy greatly influenced this new system. From the reading in Slonin it is clear that the system was considered not considered perfect but they did think it was very good.  A lot of people have wanted to change this system as there have been over 700 attempted amendments since the electoral college was created.  Overall a system was created that although not perfect was able to make people at the constitutional convention satisfied for the most part.  The electoral college is still under scrutiny though especially in recent elections where two presidents have lost the popular vote but won the election. Maybe people are more capable than they were back in the 1780s and won't make mistakes like founders thought they would.  A lot could still happen with this system in coming years.
My next blog post will be about the ratification debates.