Why Does America Have an Electoral College? | America's Written Constitution

The usual answers for the Electoral College are that the framers distrusted democracy, or that they were balancing large states against small. Akhil Reed Amar argues the data fit a third explanation: slavery. This lecture reads Article II's eligibility rules as democratic rather than restrictive. There is no property qualification for the presidency and no religious test anywhere in federal office, at a time when most state constitutions had both. Amar shows how pro-immigrant the document otherwise was, with seven foreign-born framers, a third of the early Supreme Court, and four of the first six Treasury secretaries, and argues that the natural-born citizen clause was aimed at foreign aristocrats buying an election, not at immigrants. The age-35 rule gets the same treatment: an anti-dynastic guard against another William Pitt the Younger, prime minister at 24 on his father's name. He then turns to the Electoral College, showing that large states win it almost every time and that the Three-Fifths Clause was built into it, which is why Virginia outvoted a more populous Pennsylvania. The lecture closes by reading the 1796 Washington family portrait, where the general's uniform, the globe, the enslaved Billy Lee, and the absent heir each carry part of Article II. Chapters: 00:00 A presidency stronger than any governorship 02:19 No property qualification, no religious test 03:53 The natural-born citizen rule 05:24 How pro-immigrant the document was 06:56 What the clause was actually guarding against 07:57 Why 35, and who William Pitt the Younger was 10:32 Washington, Jefferson, and the missing heir 15:16 The Electoral College and the Three-Fifths Clause 19:22 Reading the Washington family portrait Learning objectives: After watching, you'll be able to: - Identify the qualifications Article II imposes and the ones it pointedly omits - Explain the natural-born citizen clause as an anti-aristocratic rather than anti-immigrant rule - Justify the age-35 requirement on egalitarian grounds - Assess the claim that the Electoral College was a pro-slavery accommodation - Interpret the 1796 Washington family portrait as a summary of the founding presidency 📺 Watch the full playlist on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCq6-l8oFuvk 🎓 Enroll on Coursera for assessments and a certificate: https://www.coursera.org/learn/written-constitution 🌐 Explore more learning opportunities on Yale Online: https://online.yale.edu/courses/americas-written-constitution