Mr. BUCKALEW. I hope, Mr. President, that the consideration of this measure will not be concluded today, as I desire to speak to one point which I think important in connection with Presidential elections in this country. I was glad to hear the Senfrom Massachusetts {Mr. SUMNER] suggest that there was another reform more important than that which has been introduced to the attention of the Senate by the Senfrom Ohio, {Mr. WADE, and that is, that in the choice of President by the people they shall exercise their choice directly and not through intermediate agents. But, sir, I should be unwilling to vote for the proposition for which the Senfrom Massachusetts proposes to contend. He proposes to have votes given by the people directly for candidates for President and VEEP ". the ordinary majority or plurality rule which prevails at elections. The Senfrom Massachusetts is in favor of having this power of selection exclusively lodged in and exercised by the people of the U.S. themselves. He says that; I Presume he thinks that; but in point of fact, if the Senator will come to analyze the measure which he proposes to support he will ascertain that he stops far short of his object. Now, what I would desire would be that the E. of the U.S. should in point of act, and not in point of theory merely, select their chief Executive Magistrate, and the alter nate who accompanies him always before them as an associate candidate, I mean the VEEP. According to the accepted rule you submit in each State to the choice of a majority or a plurality, a certain number of electors to which the State may be entitled. You proceed to count the votes of one portion of the ". of that State; you reject and ignore and exclude the votes of all others. You do this upon a system. You do it throughout the country. Hence it is that your elections are a matter of chance, a matter of accident; there is no certainty that the real voice of the people, as exPressed by their ballots, will be executed in the Government of the U.S.; that the head of this Government will take office by Virtue of real votes given to him by those in whom the popular sovereignty of this country is lodged. Sir, would it not have been admirable in 1860 that in all parts of the U.S. every man's vote should have been counted for what it was worth upon the result, that there should have been no ignoring of mine rities anywhere? And would it not be an admirable rule for the future to provide that any political interest however small in a State should have its vote taken into account in the decision of this most important of our popular elections? If an opportunity shall be afforded me before this debate is concluded I will endeavor to show to the Senate, without consuming much time, that there is a necessity for reform in the manner in which the sense of the people of the U.S. is taken in selecting their Chief Magistrate, and that a reform directed to this point may be easily and conveniently carried into practice under, an amendment to the Constitution, or perhaps without an amendment of the Constitution, by a mere statute enacted by Congress. Mr. President, there is another point connected with Presidential elections upon which we may act and act completely as a legislative body, and that is the time when the Presidential election shall be held. There are very strong reasons of convenience and of policy in favor of fixing the Presidential election in the month of October, fixing it for the entire country for all the States uniformly upon the 2nd Tuesday of that month. I think that upon due consideration given to the reasons which apply to that question there will be little difficulty in coming to an agreement upon it. I propose if I can accomplish my purposes to call that question up and take the sense of the Senate upon it before we adjourn, in the hope that it may be assented to by both Houses. There are strong reasons for action upon this subject, some of which apply to the Present time. In the great State of NewYork a constitutional convention is about to be held under an act of the Legislature, to be enacted in pursuance of a recent vote of the people, for the purpose of reforming the constitution of that State. If you pass an act of Congress providing that the Presidential election shall be held on the 2nd Tuesday of October, instead of being held as now in November, no doubt that State in reforming her constitution will adopt.the former day for her State election also. are opportunities for fraud along the borders of adjoining States when their elections are held upon different days. We have heard complaints in relation to fraud along the bor ders of Pennsylvania and of NewJersey, and the same complaints have been made in the State of NewYork; complaints of voters passing from one State to another when their elections are held upon different days. This is an evil which is almost perfectly provided against when you establish the same day in all contermine us States for.; the sense of the people upon the sel?ction of officers. There is another reason for fixing one uniform day for general elections, especially in our great States, and that is the influence which an election in one State has upon an election in another State when the latter is held subsequently. There can be no question, for instance, that in 1844 the vote of the great State of NewYork was controlled by the vote which had been taken in October in Pennsylvania. It gave direction to the canvass in the State of NewYork; it gave momentum and force to that political interest which eventually triumphed in the State of NewYork. It controlled the fence men, all the movable voters, all those who constituted the balance of political power in that State; the consequence of which was that NewYork was carried by a very small majority for the candidate who was selected to be POTUS Now, by establishing the same day for holding elections in Pennsylvania and in NewYork, and in other States whose votes are powerful and important, you will prevent Presidential elections from being determined by the influence and control of one State upon another in the manner I have described. Again, the month of November, which is now fixed by act of Congress for holding the Presidential election, is much too late. It is too late in the season for convenience and for comfort, and I suppose that all those States which have fixed upon November as a month for holding their elections will, whenever the opportunity offers, very gladly change the time and make it one month earlier. And if you fix the Presidential election on the 2nd Tuesday in October, fix it upon the day which has been selected by most of the northern States as the day for holding their elections, then all those States which have fixed their State elections in November will make the change promptly. NewYork will no doubt make such change at her coming convention in case you invite such action by the passage of a proper law here at the Present session. Again, sir, by holding Presidential elections on the 2nd Tuesday of October you will obtain in most of the States the election of members of Congress upon that day: and what will be the effect of that? Congress can meet here one month earlier than it does now. At a short session, such as that in which we are now engaged this would be o