Constitution Day

In awareness that this is Constitution Day---the Constitutional Convention finished its work on September 17, 1787---I reread Hamilton's Federalist #68 in which defends the so-called Electoral College.
Much talk and wailing these days about revoking our method of selecting the President. Perhaps it is time to do so. I leave it others to make the case.
One thing I have learned in studying history is that all history must understood in context. In the context of the Convention in 1787, the Electoral College made sense. Some historians say that the adoption of the EC had a racial motive in giving the slave states extra votes. It is certainly true that the slave states were given extra votes. Having not read the Farrand and Madison accounts of the Convention, I know of no direct evidence that this is the case, but it certainly might be true. I do not personally know the evidence enough to make a judgement.
The Constitutional Founders did not trust "the people." Certainly Alexander Hamilton did not. It made sense to them to have the voters choose presumably wise "electors" who would vote their consciences and arrive at a disinterested conclusion. Also, it was widely assumed that the decision in most cases would wind up in the House of Representatives anyway. Direct election did not make sense for not only not trusting "the people," but also the fact in that time with a country mostly rural and stretching from Georgia northward, possible candidates would not be widely known after George Washington.
Perhaps it is time to make changes, although I suspect the possibility of doing so is slim and none in the real world. With demographic changes you would think that Democrats would benefit from direct election, but things could always change. I recall after Bush beat Kerry in 2004 that some Democrats were talking about the Democrat candidate might need to win by carrying a plurality of states with enough electoral votes. Things can change and unexpectedly in politics.