I have long been convinced that the Federal Constitution should be amended with reference to the election of these two officers. The votes for each should be confined to each office independent of the other. _The election should never go to the House of Representatives_, especially as political honesty is constantly deteriorating. The history of all time shows clearly, that as a government grows older corruption increases until it finally dissolves the state. Let the President be elected for four years and until another shall be elected in his place and let this be done directly by the PEOPLE. Reckless party management would then be stripped of half its horrors. Better pay the expense of two elections than have one unworthy incumbent in the Presidential Chair. The following extract from the Inaugural Address of Mr. Jefferson should be committed by every man and boy in our country--the principles would then be better understood and perhaps more generally exemplified in practice. "Equal and exact justice to all men of whatever state or persuasion--religious or political--peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations--entangling alliances with none--the support of the state governments in all their rights as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies--the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigor as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad--a zealous care of the right of election by the people--a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution when peaceable remedies are unprovided--absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of Republics from which there is no appeal but to force--the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism--a well disciplined militia our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war till regulars may relieve them--the supremacy of the civil over the military authority--economy in public expenses that labor may be lightly burthened--the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith--encouragement of agriculture and of commerce as its handmaid--the diffusion of information and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of public reason--freedom of religion, freedom of the press and freedom of the person under the protection of the _habeas corpus_ and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touch stone by which to try the service of those we trust and should we wander from them in moments of error or alarm, let us hasten to retrace our