and poverty are widely diffused, and standing armies are necessary to preserve the stability of the government. The state of society and of property in this country, and our moral and political habits, have enabled us to adopt the republican principle, and to maintain it hitherto with illustrious success. It remains to be seen, whether the checks which the constitution has provided against the dangerous propensities of our system, will ultimately prove effectual. The election of a supreme executive magistrate for a whole nation, affects so many interests, addresses itself so strongly to popular passions, and holds out such powerful temptations to ambition, that it necessarily becomes a strong trial to public virtue, and even hazardous to the public tranquillity. The constitution, from an enlightened view of all the difficulties that attend the subject, has not thought it safe or prudent to refer the election of a President directly and immediately to the people; but it has confided the power to a small body of electors, appointed in each state, under the direction of the legislature; and to close the opportunity as much as possible against negotiation, intrigue, and corruption, it has declared that Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall vote, and that the day of election shall be the same in every state. (a) This security has been still further extended by the Act of Congress (b) directing the electors to be appointed in each state within thirty-four days of the day of election.

The constitution (c) directs that the number of electors in each state shall be equal to the whole number of senators and representatives which the state is entitled to send to Congress; and, according to the apportionment of Congress

* in 1832, the President was to be elected by a majority of *276 294 electors; and in 1844, the number of electors was reduced to 275. (d) And to prevent the person in office, at the time

(a) Art 2, sec. 1. By the Act of Congress of January 23d, 1845, c. 1, an uniform time for holding elections for electors of President and Vice-President in all the states was prescribed. It was to be on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November of the year in which they are to be appointed.

(b) Act of 1st March, 1792.

(c) Art. 2, sec. 1.

(d) This arose from the enlargement of the ratio of representation from 47,700 to

of the election, from having any improper influence on his reelection, by his ordinary agency in the government, it is provided, that no member of Congress, nor any person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be an elector; and the constitution has in no other respects defined the qualifications of the electors. (a) These electors meet in their respective states, at a place appointed by the legislature thereof, on the first Wednesday in December in every fourth year succeeding the last election, and vote by ballot for President and VicePresident, (for this last officer is elected in the same manner and for the same period as the President,) and one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with the electors. They name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots, the person voted for as VicePresident; and they make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they sign, and certify, and transmit, sealed, to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The Act of Congress of 1st of March, 1792, sec. 2, directs, that the certificate of the votes shall be delivered to the President of the Senate before the first Wednesday of January next ensuing the election. The President of the Senate, on the second Wednesday in February succeeding every meeting of the elec tors, in the presence of both houses of Congress, opens all the certificates, and the votes are then to be counted. The constitution does not expressly declare by whom the votes are to be counted and the result declared. In the case of questionable votes, and a closely contested election, this power may be allimportant; and, I presume, in the absence of all legislative

provision on the subject, that the President of the Senate * 277 counts the votes, and * determines the result, and that the two houses are present only as spectators, to witness the fairness and accuracy of the transaction, and to act only if no

70,680 persons, for a member of the House of Representatives; by which provision the number of the House was reduced from 242 to 223 members. Act of Congress of June 25th, 1842, c. 47.

(a) Art. 2, sec. 1.

choice be made by the electors. (a) The House of Representatives, in such case, are to choose immediately, though the constitution holds their choice to be valid, if made before the fourth day of March following. And in the cases of the elections in 1801 and 1824, as no choice was made, the House of Representatives retired and voted, and the Senate were admitted to be present as spectators. The person having the greatest number of votes of the electors for President, is President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; but if no person have such a majority, then, from the persons having the highest number, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote. A quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. If the House of Representatives shall not choose a President, whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. (b)

The person having the greatest number of votes as VicePresident, is Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have a majority, then, from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two thirds of the whole number of sena

(a) In determining the result of the election for President in 1841, it was declared, by joint resolution of the two houses of Congress, that one person be appointed teller on the part of the Senate, and two on the part of the House of Representatives, who were, in the presence of the two houses, to make a list of the votes as they should be declared, and the result declared to the President of the Senate, who was to be the presiding officer, and to announce to the two houses the state of the vote and the persons elected. The Vice-President, in that case, broke the seals of the envelopes of the votes, and delivered the same over to the tellers to be counted. The tellers having read, counted, and made duplicate lists of the votes, they were delivered over to the Vice-President, and read, and he then declared the result, and dissolved the joint meeting of the two houses.

(b) Amendments to the Constitution, art. 12.

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tors, and a majority of the whole number is necessary to a choice; and no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President, shall be eligible to that of VicePresident of the United States. (a) The constitution does not specifically prescribe when or where the Senate is to choose a Vice-President, if no choice be made by the electors; and, I presume, the Senate may elect by themselves, at any time before the fourth day of March following.

The President and Vice-President are equally to be chosen for the same term of four years; (b) and it is provided by law, (c) that the term shall, in all cases, commence on the fourth day of March next succeeding the day on which the votes of the electors shall have been given.

In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the office, the same devolve on the Vice-President; and except in cases in which the President is enabled to reassume the office, the Vice-President acts as President during the remainder of the term for which the President was elected. Congress are authorized to provide by law for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the President and VicePresident, declaring what officer should then act as President; and the officer so designated is to act until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected, and who is in that case to be elected on the first Wednesday of the ensuing December, if time will admit of it, and if not, then on the same day in the ensuing year. (d) In pursuance of this constitutional provision, the Act of Congress of March 1st, 1792, sec. 9, declared, that in case of a vacancy in the office, both of President and VicePresident, the President of the Senate pro tempore, and in case there should be no President of the Senate, then the Speaker of the House of Representatives for the time being, should act as President until the vacancy was supplied. The evidence of a refusal to accept, or of a resignation of the office of President

(a) Amendments to the Constitution, art. 12.

(b) Constitution, art. 2, sec. 1.

(c) Act of Congress, March 1, 1792.

(d) Constitution, art. 2, sec. 1. Act of Congress, March 1, 1792.

and Vice-President is declared, by the same Act of Congress, sec. 11, to be a declaration in writing, filed in the office of the Secretary of State. And if the office should, by the course of events, devolve on the Speaker, after the Congress for which the last Speaker was chosen had expired, and before the next meeting of Congress, it might be a question who is to serve, and whether the Speaker of the House of Representatives, *279 then extinct, could be deemed the person intended.

The mode of electing the President appears to be well calculated to secure a discreet choice, and to avoid all those evils which the partisans of monarchy have described, and the experience of other nations and past ages have too clearly shown to be the consequence of popular elections. Had the choice of President been referred at once, and directly, to the people at large, as one single community, there might have been reason to apprehend, and such no doubt was the sense of the convention, that it would have produced too violent a contest, and have been trying the experiment on too extended a scale for the public virtue, tranquillity, and happiness. Had we imitated the practice of most of the southern states, in respect to their state executives, and referred the choice of the President to Congress, this would have rendered him too dependent upon the immediate authors of his elevation, to comport with the requisite energy of his own department; and it would have laid him under temptation to indulge in improper intrigue, or to form a dangerous coalition with the legislative body, in order to secure his continuance in office. All elections by the representative body are peculiarly liable to produce combinations for sinister purposes. The constitution has avoided all these objections, by confiding the power of election to a small number of select individuals in each state, chosen only a few days before the election, and solely for that purpose. This would seem, prima facie, to be as wise a provision as the wisdom of man

*

could have devised, to avoid all opportunity for foreign *280 or domestic intrigue. These electors assemble in separate and distantly detached bodies, and they are constituted in a manner best calculated to preserve them free from all inducements to disorder, bias, or corruption. There is no other mode of appointing the chief magistrate, under all the circumstances