While Hamilton was at the
Constitutional Convention, he gave a speech for
six hours on
June 19, 1787. In the speech, he called for a
Constitution akin to the
British model. He praised the
British system of government to an extreme that his fellow
New York delegates walked out on him and refused to vote the same way that he did.
His speech was a revision of the
Virginia Plan. He proposed that the
President should be appointed by
electors, much like the
Electoral College. However, he wanted the
President to be appointed for life. The
Congress would be composed of a
House and a
Senate. The
House would be popularly elected, as it is now. The
Senate would be elected by
electors, just like the
President. Also, the
Senators would be appointed for life as well.
The idea is to balance
the rich against the poor. The
Senate and
President would be more
prestigious and
aristocratic, whereas the
House would be representative of
the common man. Also, if the
President were to be elected for life, he would have no reason to try and gain more power than he has, since he has a
perpetual term. This would make him
above corruption. The same thing applied to the
Senate.
However, all
Hamilton's speech did was create the idea of the
Electoral College.