At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the debates over the best method of electing the executive branch were subordinate to other discussions about executive power. In fact, as contentious as the Electoral College is today, the actual issue of electing the president was mostly considered a settled matter during the first month of the convention. Both the Virginia and New Jersey plans, which differed so greatly on the legislative branch, were in unison over the election of the executive. Specifically, the executive—whatever that would be—would be chosen by the legislature. Had it not been for the insistence of three men in particular—Elbridge Gerry, James Wilson, and Alexander Hamilton—it is questionable whether we would even be having a discussion of the Electoral College today. Other framers would grow more prominent in this debate as it ensued.
During the first month of the convention, the committee of the whole poured over the broad strokes of the new government. Questions about the executive were less contentious than those about the legislative but discussions did center around a few primary concerns: how many executives, how long would they serve, could they serve again, who should they be, and can they be removed? The question of “who chooses them” did not take precedence but that is not to say that it avoided discussion altogether.
By May 29, the discussion in the committee of the whole had finally reached the questions concerning the executive and the judiciary branches. Even if the executive branch had not roused quite the same furor that the legislative had, it was the question that spoke to the nature of the new terms of confederation that the convention had hoped to achieve. Perhaps it would have been less prickly to have had an executive council drawn from the states, but the bulk of the opinion leaned toward a unified executive. For states that had maintained a large degree of independence under the confederation government, a unified executive vested in a single person represented a massive shift in the nature of the government. The frequently-underestimated Charles Pinckney of South Carolina and Delaware’s George Reed were the expositors of this supreme executive.