certificate of their vote in triplicate, and attach to each copy a copy of the certified list of their names.  One copy must be delivered by a messenger to the president of the Senate at the federal capital before the first Wednesday in January; the second is sent to the same officer through the mail; the third is to be deposited with the federal judge of the district in which the electors meet.  If by the first Wednesday in January the certificate has not been received at the federal capital, the secretary of state is to send a messenger to the district judge and obtain the copy deposited with him.  The interval of a month was allowed to get the returns in, for those were not the days of railroad and telegraph.  The messengers were allowed twenty-five cents a mile, and were subject to a fine of a thousand dollars for neglect of duty.  On the second Wednesday in February, Congress is required to be in session, and the votes received are counted and the result declared.[12]

[Footnote 12:  See note on p. 278.]

[Sidenote:  The twelfth amendment (1804).] At first the electoral votes did not state whether the candidates named in them were candidates for the presidency or for the vice-presidency.  Each elector simply wrote down two names, only one of which could be the name of a citizen of his own state.  In the official count the candidate who had the largest number of votes, provided they were a majority of the whole number, was declared president, and the candidate who had the next to the largest number was declared vice-president.  The natural result of this was seen in the first contested election in 1796, which made Adams president, and his antagonist vice-president.  In the next election in 1800 it gave to Jefferson and his colleague Burr exactly the same number of votes.  In such a case the House of Representatives must elect, and such intrigues followed for the purpose of defeating Jefferson that the country was brought to the verge of civil war.  It thus became necessary to change the method.  By the twelfth amendment to the constitution, declared in force in 1804, the present method was adopted.  The electors make separate ballots for president and for vice-president.  In the official count the votes for president are first inspected.  If no candidate has a majority, then the House of Representatives must immediately choose the president from the three names highest on the list.  In this choice the house votes by states, each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose must consist of at least one member from two thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states is necessary for a choice.  Then if no candidate for the vice-presidency has a majority, the Senate makes its choice from the two names highest on the list; a quorum for the purpose consists of two thirds of the whole number of senators, and a majority of the whole number is necessary to a choice.  Since this amendment was made there has been one instance of an election of the president by the House of Representatives,—­that of John Quincy Adams in 1825; and there has been one instance of an election of the vice-president by the Senate,—­that of Richard Mentor Johnson in 1837.