§ 3. It was a subject of much and earnest debate in the Convention that formed the Constitution, whether this department should be placed in the hands of one, or in the hands of several. No subject was more thoroughly discussed in that body. It was maintained that energy would be most likely to be secured by unity of executive, and that wisdom would be most likely to be secured by a plurality; and that the latter would be most likely to command the confidence of the people. § 4. As the executive prerogative is limited to the faithful execution of the laws after they shall have been duly enacted and promulgated, it was doubtless most judicious that the executive power should be vested in a single individual. It gives a stronger sense of personal responsibility. No discretion is submitted to the executive officer as to the wisdom or expediency of the law. What has once been declared to be law, under all the cautious forms of deliberation prescribed by the Constitution, ought to receive prompt obedience.1 ART. II.. -TERM. He shall hold his office during the term of four years. 53. § 1. This was a subject on which there was a great variety of opinion in the Convention. There were those who favored the proposition that the Executive should hold his office for life, or during good behavior. At one stage of the proceedings, seven years was fixed as the duration of the term. The term of four years was finally fixed upon as a compromise; for there were members in favor of one year, others in favor of two, and others three years. § 2. The term of four years is intermediate between the term of office of the Senate and that of the House of Representatives. In the course of one presidential term, the House is, or may be, twice recomposed, and two-thirds of the Senate changed or re-elected.2 The executive term should not be so short as to be constantly changing from one incumbent to another, giving the government no opportunity to test by experience the policy of its measures; nor, on the other hand, should it be so long as to allow an obstinate 2 Story on the Const., § 1,438. 1 Kent's Comm., Lect. 13. and corrupt Executive, should the country unfortunately be cursed with one, to bring on wide-spread mischief and disaster. § 3. The Presidential term commences on the fourth day of March next after the President's election; and in case of his death, removal, or resignation, during his term, the person who succeeds to the duties of the office serves the unexpired portion of the term only. ART. III.- ELIGIBILITY. 1. He must have attained to the age of thirty-five years. 2. Must have resided within the United States fourteen years. 3. He shall be a natural-born citizen; or, 4. A citizen of the United States at the time of the adop tion of the Constitution. 56. (See appendix D.) § 1. The age required was regarded as necessary to give the candidate for this office sufficient time to demonstrate his character, and to enable his fellow-citizens to judge of his fitness for the high position of chief executive of a great nation. The mental faculties are usually in full vigor at this age; and opportunities must have been afforded for long public service, and for varied and large experience in the public councils. § 2. Fourteen years' residence in the United States is intended not only to give opportunity for an extensive acquaintance on the part of his fellow-citizens with the candidate for this office, but also to furnish him with the requisite knowledge of the wants and institutions of the country. Besides, it may be presumed that a citizen whose residence has been chiefly abroad may not only be deficient in affection for his own country, but may have become partial to the institutions of other countries with which he has long been familiar. § 3. The Constitution requires that the President shall be a natural-born citizen of the United States, or a citizen at the time of the adoption of the Constitution. This is an important restriction, when we consider the sacredness of the trust committed to the charge of the Executive. It will be useless for ambitious foreigners to intrigue for the office, as this qualification of birth cuts off all those inducements from abroad, to corruption, negotiation, and war, which have frequently and fatally harassed the elective monarchies of other countries.1 § 4. But, through the bloody struggle of the American Revolution, our fathers were greatly assisted by the aid of many citizens who were natives of other countries. They had espoused our cause, fought and bled in our interests, had become naturalized citizens, and had proved their attachments to our institutions beyond all doubt. It would have been ungenerous and ungrateful to have excluded this class of citizens from all possibility of attaining to any office, however exalted, under a government which they had sacrificed so much to establish. Hence this saving clause of the Constitution, that, if a person was a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of that instrument, he became eligible to the Presidency. But, by the lapse of time, this clause has become practically obsolete. § 5. The President is eligible to re-election without limitation: thus far, however, there has never been a second re-election. In the Constitutional Convention, there was a strong feeling in favor of a provision prohibiting a re-election; but this gave way when it was decided to limit the term to four years. ART. IV. -ELECTION. 1.- ELECTORS. 1st. Each State shall appoint electors of President and Vice-President in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct. 2d. The number of electors shall equal the number of senators and representatives to which the State may be entitled in Congress. 54. § 1. In the Convention that formed the Constitution, the original scheme for electing the President was by the two houses of Congress, or by the National Legislature, whether that should be composed of one or two houses. This plan was adopted by eight States for to two against it. Afterwards it was voted by six States against three, one being divided, to choose the President by electors to be appointed by the several States. 1 Kent's Comm., Lect. 18. § 2. It was then decided, by eight States to two, that the electors should be appointed by the legislatures of the several States. After this, the plan of electing the President by Congress was restored by a vote of seven States against four. Subsequently it was again changed to the mode of electing by electors, by a vote of nine States against two. Leaving it to the legislature to direct as to the manner of appointing electors was carried by a vote of ten States against one. 1 § 3. The election of the electors of President and Vice-President, with a single exception, is now confided to the people of the several States. Thus the sense of the people operates in the choice of the Chief Magistrate with much more certainty than it would were the choice of electors confided to a pre-existing body. The immediate election of the President and Vice-President is committed to men chosen for that specific purpose. A small number of persons selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to so complicated an investigation. We have seen in Chap. VII., Part II., of this work, that no senator, representative, or other person holding a place of trust or profit under the United States, can be an elector of President and Vice-President. 2 § 4. The number of electors corresponds with the number of senators and representatives to which the States are respectively entitled in Congress. Thus each State has about the same influence in the election of President and Vice-President that it has in the national councils. 2. PROCEEDINGS OF ELECTORS. 1st. They shall meet in their respective States. 2d. They shall vote by ballot for President and Vice-President of the United States, at least one of whom shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves. 3d. They shall name in their ballots, 1st. The person voted for as President; and, 1 In South Carolina, electors are elected by the State legislature. 4th. They shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for, 1st. As President; 2d. As Vice-President; and the number of votes for each. 5th. The electors shall sign and certify the lists. 6th. They shall transmit the lists sealed to the seat of government of the United States. 7th. The lists shall be directed to the President of the Senate. 94. § 5. This matter of the meeting of the electors in their respective States is a mere matter of form. No discussion of the merits of the candidates for President and Vice-President takes place; and, indeed, none is expected. The electors are chosen wholly with reference to particular persons who have been put in nomination at a convention called for that purpose; and the electors are pledged to vote for these nominees, and are in no sense at liberty to vote otherwise. The object of appointing electors was, by the authors of the Constitution, to give opportunity for deliberation, and for cautiously analyzing the characters of candidates for these high trusts; but this object has been wholly defeated by the practices of the political parties arrayed against each other. § 6. Hence the meeting of the electors, as before stated, is a mere matter of form. Nothing is left to the electors but to cast their votes according to previous pledges; and any exercise of an independent judgment would be treated as political usurpation, dishonorable to the individual, and a fraud on his constituents.1 § 7. Congress, it will be remembered, has the power to determine when the States shall choose the electors, and to appoint the day on which they shall give their votes; which day must be the same throughout the United States. March 1, 1792, the year of Gen. Washington's second election, Congress passed an act on this subject, declaring that the electors shall be appointed within thirty-four days preceding the first Wednesday in December of each year when electors were to be appointed. This act did not specify the day on which they should be appointed. It specified the day, however, for 1 Story on Const., § 1,463. |