CHAPTER XXV.

THE ADMINISTRATIVE OR EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT.

1. The President and his Term of Office.

The execu

tive power of the United States is vested in one man, whose title is the President of the United States of America. It is better to place the responsibility in one man for the administration of the laws, as by this, unity and strength of government and quickness of action are obtained. A Vice-President is also chosen to act as successor in the office of President, should an emergency arise. Both President and Vice-President serve for a term of four years. They may be reëlected any number of times, according to the Constitution, but the uniform practice of the people has been to elect no man more than twice, thus giving him at most eight years of office. (U. S. Const. Art. II., Sec. 1, Par. 1.)

2. Qualifications for President. - The President must be a natural-born citizen of the country, thirty-five years of age, and a resident within the United States for fourteen years before his election. For so distinguished an office high qualifications and intimate knowledge of the country are necessary. The Vice-President must have the same qualifications, as he may become President. (U. S. Const. Art. II., Sec. 1, Par. 5; Amend't Art. XII.)

3. The Vice-President. This officer is elected at the same time as the President, for the same term and with the same qualifications. He has no other duty than to act as President of the Senate. In case of the removal of the President from office, or his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of his office, these powers and duties fall upon the VicePresident. Two Presidents have died in office from disease, and two have been killed by assassins. In these four cases the Vice-President in office at the time became President. (U. S. Const. Art. I., Sec. 3, Par. 4; Art. II., Sec. 1, Par. 6.) William Henry Harrison died in 1841, and John Tyler became President; Zachary Taylor died in 1850, and Millard Fillmore became President; Abraham Lincoln was killed in 1865, and Andrew Johnson became President; and James A. Garfield was killed in 1881, and Chester A. Arthur became President.

4. Presidential Electors. The President is not elected by the people directly, but by Electors chosen for that especial purpose. The plan was probably borrowed from Maryland, in which State the Senate was chosen by such a body, at the time when the Federal Constitution was adopted. Each State chooses a number of Electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in Congress. Thus Maryland has eight Electors. No Senator, nor Representative, nor any person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector. This was intended to secure the choice of President from undue interference of

Federal officers.

(U. S. Const. Art. II., Sec. 1, Par. 2.) Each State may decide for itself how it will choose the Electors, and in the early days of the country some were chosen by the State Legislatures, some by the people voting in districts, and some on general ticket, every voter casting a vote for the whole number of Electors to which his State was entitled. At present the laws are the same in all the States, and the last method is everywhere used. Electors are chosen at the November election in every year whose number can be divided by four. Each party nominates a full electoral ticket, and the men nominated are pledged to vote, if elected, for the candidates nominated for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency at the National Convention of that party. Congress has power to determine the time of choosing electors, and in 1845 selected the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. (U. S. Const. Art. II., Sec. 1, Par. 4.)

The

5. Election of President and Vice-President. theory of the Constitution is that the Electors meet, deliberate, and select the best man to be President. The fact of the matter is that they merely register the decision of the National Convention of the party to which they belong. Consequently, the electoral system merely amounts to a system of choosing by vote of the States, each State casting a vote, proportional to its representation in Congress, for the candidate of that party which obtains a plurality of votes at the general election. So true is this, that we always speak of a President being elected at the November election, although legally no one then votes for any candidate for

President at all, and the President is not chosen for some time afterwards. The method of election according to Constitution, as amended by the Twelfth Amendment, is as follows: The electors meet at the capitals of their respective States on a day fixed by Congress, at present the second Monday in January, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President. One of those voted for shall not be an inhabitant of the same State as themselves. Separate ballots are cast for two officers, so as to make clear who is intended to be chosen as President and as Vice-president. These meetings of electors are called electoral colleges. The ballots are counted and lists made of all persons voted for. These lists are signed and certified by the electors and sent sealed to Washington City, directed to the President of the Senate. He opens all these certificates in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, and the votes are then counted. This takes place on the second Wednesday of February. The person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, if he have a majority of the whole number of Electors chosen. If no one has such a majority, the House of Representatives must choose immediately, by ballot, the President from the persons, not exceeding three in number, having the highest number of votes for President. In this ballot the House of Representatives votes by States, the delegation from each State casting one vote, according as the majority of that delegation decides, and a majority of the States is necessary to a choice. A quorum for the purpose of this ballot is composed of members from two-thirds

of the States.

If the House of Representatives shall not choose a President when the choice has fallen to them, before the next fourth of March, the person chosen as Vice-President shall act as President. The House of Representatives has chosen two Presidents Thomas Jefferson in 1801, and John Quincy Adams in 1825. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, if that be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, shall be the Vice-President. If no person has such a majority, then the Senate chooses the Vice-President from the two highest numbers on the list. A majority of the whole Senate must agree, in order to an election, and two-thirds of the whole number of Senators must be present in order to make a quorum.

6. The Twelfth Amendment. This was passed to correct a difficulty in the original Constitution, by which no provision was made for indicating who was to be chosen by the electors as President, and who VicePresident. The Electors voted for two persons as President, according to the original plan. The one who had the highest number of votes was President, and the one who came next Vice-President. This was

apt to have one or two bad results. It might make the President and Vice-President members of two opposing political parties, causing a lack of harmony in the administration and a change of policy if the President died, or it might lead to two men of the same party having exactly the same vote for President. The latter happened in 1800, when the same number of electoral votes was cast for Thomas Jefferson and Aaron