Time of Election.

255. Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same throughout the United States.

256. By an Act of Congress, passed in 1845, the electors are required to be chosen in each state on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November. By a previous Act, passed March 1, 1792, the electors are directed to 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 Vice-President. They are then to make and sign their certificates of all the votes by them given, and to seal up the same, certifying on each that a list of the votes of such state for President and Vice-President is contained therein; and

for President; and if no person have a majority, then, from the five highest on the list, the said House shall in like manner choose 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. In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be Vice-President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice-President.

appoint a person to take charge of and deliver one of the certificates to the President of the Senate, at the seat of government, before the first Wednesday of the next ensuing January; another of the certificates is to be forwarded forthwith by the Post-office to the President of the Senate at the seat of government; and the third is to be delivered to the judge of the district in which the electors assembled.

257. The President of the Senate, on the second Wednesday in February succeeding every meeting of the electors, in the presence of both Houses of Congress, opens all the certificates, and the votes are then counted and the result declared. It will be observed that the Constitution does not determine how questions which may arise as to the regularity and authenticity of the returns of the electoral votes, or the right of the persons who gave the votes, or the manner or circumstances in which they ought to be counted, shall be decided. In the absence of any rule as to the jurisdiction or mode of proceeding in such cases, a partisan majority in Congress, as has been justly remarked, may always have the power to defeat the will of the people in the count, or to precipitate civil war. It is provided by law, that the term of four years, for which a President and Vice-President shall be chosen, 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.

Qualifications for President.

258. No person, except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, is eligible to the office of President; neither is any person eligible to that office who has not attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States.

259. Were foreigners or naturalized citizens eligible to the office of President, foreign powers might have an opportunity to intermeddle in our affairs. They might aid by money or other influences in elevating to the Presidency men of foreign birth and predilections, and the interests of the country be thus put in jeopardy. The exception in favor of such persons of foreign birth as were citizens of the United States at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, is now practically extinct. The distinguished patriots who had so faithfully served their adopted country during the revolutionary struggle, and out of respect and gratitude to whom this exception was introduced into the Constitution, have all passed away. No one, therefore, but a natural born citizen can now be elected to the office of President.

260. In respect to the qualification of age, it will be observed that the Constitution has established a gradation, as it were, in the legislative and executive

departments. A Representative must be twenty-five, a Senator thirty, and the President thirty-five. Without adverting to the relative importance of the duties confided to each, and which may require a higher qualification, in point of age, in the case of the President than is required in the case of a Representative or Senator, it may be remarked that it will rarely happen that the people of all the states will have had an opportunity to become familiar with the character, capacity, and principles of a citizen of any one state before he has attained the age of thirty-five; or that he will have acquired that experience, knowledge, gravity of character, and solidity of judgment that ought to distinguish a President of the United States.

261. By fixing the qualification, too, at thirty-five; an opportunity is afforded for previous service in both branches of Congress, where the future candidate may acquire experience in public affairs, and at the same time become known to his countrymen. By requiring, also, a previous residence of fourteen years within the United States, he will be likely to have formed habits of attachment to his country and devotion to its institutions. The residence contemplated by the Constitution, however, does not exclude persons who are temporarily abroad in the public service, or on their private affairs.

Disability of the President.

262. 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 devolves on the Vice-President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed or a President be elected.

263. In pursuance of the constitutional provision, Congress have provided that in case of the removal, death, resignation, or inability of the President and Vice-President, the President of the Senate pro tempore, and in case there shall be no President of the Senate, then the Speaker of the House of Representatives, for the time being, shall act as President, until the disability be removed or a President shall be elected.

264. When the Vice-President succeeds to the office of President, upon the removal, death, or resignation of the latter, he discharges its duties until the close of the term for which the President was elected. But when he succeeds to the office upon the inability of the President, he discharges its powers and duties