on the list. The votes of the house were to be taken not individually, but by states, the representatives from each state having one vote. A quorum to consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states was necessary for a choice.

The mode of proceeding was somewhat different as to the vice president. After the choice of the president, the person having the greatest number of votes was to be vice president. If there remained two or more who had an equal number of votes, the senate and not the house, were to choose from them by ballot the vice president, and as it is not directed that in this respect they shall vote by states, it follows that they vote individually as in ordinary cases.

Such was the original plan of the constitution, but it has been usefully altered by providing that the ballots of the electors shall be separately given for president and vice president, and that the vice president shall be elected, as in the case of the president, by a majority of the whole number of electors appointed.

The number of candidates out of whom the selection is to be made by the house of representatives, is reduced from five to three. The senate in respect to vice president is confined to the two highest in votes.

In regard to the final choice of the president, it was deemed expedient that the house of representatives should vote by states, because there would always be reason to suppose that if the people at large were much divided in opinion, their immediate representatives would be incapable of coming to a decision, and no other mode of removing the difficulty occurred than in this manner to refer it to the states. In the senate, where the representation is equal, the same inconvenience

was not to be apprehended, and by reducing the ultimate candidates to a smaller number, those who represented states in which the votes had been lost, would be much less influenced, even if such influence existed at all.

Another benefit also resulted from it. By the first mode of proceeding the senate was restrained from acting until the house of representatives had made their selection, which if parties ran high, might be considerably delayed;—by the amendment, the senate may proceed to choose a vice president immediately on receiving the returns of the votes. If under the old mode, the house of representatives did not choose a president before the fourth day of March next ensuing, the vice president then in office was to act as president. So that although the public confidence might have been wholly withdrawn from him, he would become president in effect, whereas on the present plan, if no president is elected by the house of representatives, the vice president who will fill the office, will have the fresh suffrages of the people.

So far therefore as relates to this part of the plan for choosing the president and vice president, the arrangement seems now settled as judiciously as the nature of our constitution will admit, although one difficulty not provided for, may possibly some day occur. If more than three of those highest in votes for president, or than two of those voted for as vice president should be equal in number of votes, it is not directed how the selection shall be made. In the original text it is declared, that the votes of the house of representatives and the senate shall be by ballot, and so it still continues as to the house of representatives, but it is not directed in the amendment,

how the votes of the senate shall be given. It is probable, however, that a vote by ballot would be adopted.

At present, (1824,) the electors are chosen by the people in seventeen out of the twenty-four states, either by a general ticket, or in districts fixed by the legislature. In the remaining seven, the legislature has reserved to itself the power of appointing them. The former mode seems most congenial with the nature of our government, and the popular current now sets so strongly in favour of it, that the practice will probably become general.

Vacancies in the office of president are provided for. "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, it shall devolve "on the vice president," and congress shall have power to provide for the concurrent vacancies of both.

This power has been executed by authorizing the president pro tempore of the senate to perform those functions. The president pro tempore of the senate is chosen by the senate during the absence of the vice president, or when he executes the office of president, and it has become usual for the vice president to retire from the senate a few days before the close of the session, in order that a president pro tempore may be chosen, to be ready to act on emergencies. If however there should happen to be vacancies in all these three respects, the speaker of the house of representatives is next empowered to assume the office of president, and beyond this no provision is made.

If the vice president succeeds to the office of president, he continues in it till the expiration of the time for which the president was elected, but if both those offices are vacant, it becomes the duty of the secre

tary of state to take measures for the election of a president. (11)

Notification is to be given, as well to the executive of each state as in one at least of the public newspapers printed in each state, that electors of a president shall be appointed or chosen within thirty-four days next preceding the first Wednesday in the ensuing December, unless there shall not be two months between the date of the notification and the first Wednesday in the ensuing December, in which case the election shall be postponed till the ensuing year. But if the term of the office of the president and vice president would have expired on the third of March next following such vacancies, no extra election is necessary, as the regular election will then take place on the same day which the secretary of state is otherwise directed to notify.

For the office of both president and vice president is fixed to commence on the fourth of March in each year, and the regular election takes place on the first Wednesday of the preceding December.

Under these multiplied provisions, no inconvenience can be apprehended. It can scarcely ever happen that there shall be at one and the same time no president, vice president, pro tempore president of the senate, and speaker of the house of representatives.

In respect to the original choice by electors, an observation may be indulged.

It was supposed that the election of these two high officers would be committed to men not likely to be swayed by party or personal bias, who would act un

(11) See the act of March 3, 1817. The effect of the last amendment has not been adverted to by congress, as the law now stands a vice president cannot be elected till the regular period.

der no combination with others and be subject neither to intimidation nor corruption. It was asserted that the choice of several to form an intermediate body of electors, would be much less apt to convulse the community with extraordinary movements, than the choice of one who was himself to be the final object of their wishes. (12)

Whether ferments and commotions would accompany a general election by the whole body of the people, and whether such a mode of election could be conveniently practised in reference to the ratio of representatives prescribed in the constitution, is yet to be ascertained, but experience has fully convinced us, that the electors do not assemble in their several states for a free exercise of their own judgments, but for the purpose of electing the particular candidate who happens to be preferred by the predominant political party. In some instances the principles on which they are chosen are so far forgotten, that the electors publicly pledge themselves to vote for a particular individual, and thus the whole foundation of this elaborate system is destroyed. Another innovation has also been introduced. Members of congress, entrusted only with the power of ordinary legislation, have frequently formed themselves into a regular body at the seat of government, and undertaken to point out to the people certain persons as proper objects of their choice. Although the mild and plausible garb of recommendation is alone assumed, yet its effect is known and felt to have been often great and sometimes irresistible.

If the constitution, as originally proposed, had contained a direct provision that the president and vice president should be chosen by a majority of the two

(12) Fed. No. 8.