respective candidates, a "campaign" begins, the polling for electors takes place early in November, on the same day over the whole Union, and when the result is known the contest is over, because the subsequent meeting and voting of the electors in their several States is mere matter of form. So far, the method of choice by electors may seem to be merely a roundabout way of getting the judgment of the people. It is more than this. It has several singular consequences, unforseen by the framers of the Constitution. It has made the election virtually an election by States, for the present system of choosing electors by "general ticket" over the whole State causes the whole weight of a State to be thrown into the scale of one candidate, that candidate whose list of electors is carried in the given State. Hence in a presidential election, the struggle concentrates itself mainly in the doubtful States where the great parties are pretty equally divided, and hence also a man may be, and has been, elected President by a minority of popular votes. When such has been the fate of the plan of 1787, it need hardly be said that the ideal president, the great and good man above and outside party, whom the judicious and impartial electors were to choose, has not usually been secured. Nearly every president has been elected as a party leader by a party vote, and has felt bound to carry out the policy of the men who put him in power. Thus America has reproduced the English system of executive government by a party majority. In practice, the disadvantages of the American plan are less serious than might be expected, for the responsibility of a great office and the feeling that he represents the whole nation have tended to sober and control the President. Except as regards patronage, he has seldom acted as a mere tool of faction, or sought to base his administrative powers to the injury of his political adversaries. The Constitution prescribes no limit for the reeligibility of the President. He may go on being chosen for one four-year period after another for the term of his natural life. But tradition has supplied the place of law. Elected in 1789, Washington submitted to be reelected in 1792. But when he had served this second term he absolutely refused to serve a third, urging the risk to republican institutions of suffering the same man to continue constantly in office. Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Jackson obeyed the precedent, and did not seek, nor their friends for them, reelection after two terms, and no man has ever been so reelected. The Constitution requires for the choice of a President "a majority of the whole number of electors appointed." If no such majority is obtained by any candidate, i.e., if the votes of the electors are so scattered among different candidates, that out of the total number no one receives an absolute majority, the choice goes over to the House of Representatives, who are empowered to choose a President from among the three candidates who have received the largest number of electoral votes. In the House the vote is taken by States, a majority of all the States being necessary for a choice. As all the members of the House from a State have but one collective vote, it follows that if they are equally divided among themselves, e.g., if half the members from a given State are Democratic and half Republican, the vote of that State is lost. Supposing this to be the case in half the total number of States, or supposing the States so to scatter their votes that no candidate receives an absolute majority, then no President is chosen, and the Vice-President becomes President. In this mode of choice, the popular will may be still less recognized than it is by the method of voting through presidential electors, for if the twenty smaller States were, through their representatives in the House, to vote for candidate A, and the eighteen larger States for candidate B, A would be seated, though the population of the twenty smaller States is, of course, very much below that of the eighteen larger. The Constitution seems, though its language is not explicit, to have intended to leave the counting of the votes to the President of the Senate (the Vice-President of the United States); and in early days this officer superintended the count, and decided questions as to the admissibility of doubtful votes. However, Congress has, in virtue of its right to be present at the counting, assumed the further right of determining all questions which arise regarding the validity of electoral votes. This would be all very well were a decision by Congress always certain of attainment. But it often happens that one party has a majority in the Senate, another party in the House, and then, as the two Houses vote separately and each differently from the other, a deadlock results. These things point to a grave danger in the presidential system. The stake played for is so high that the temptation to fraud is immense; and as the ballots given for the electors by the people are received and counted by State authorities under State laws, an unscrupulous State faction has opportunities for fraud at its command. Congress not many years ago enacted a statute which to some extent meets the problem by providing that tribunals appointed in and by each State shall determine what electoral votes from State are legal votes; and that if the State has appointed no such tribunal, the two Houses of Congress shall determine which votes (in case of dou ble returns) are legal. If the Houses differ the vote of the State is lost. A President is removable during his term of office only by means of impeachment. In obedience to State precedents, it is by the House of Representaof the Supreme Court, the highest legal official of the Senate, sitting as a law court, with the Chief Justice ofthe Supreme Court, the highest legal official of the country, as presiding officer, that he is tried. A twothirds vote is necessary to conviction, the effect of which is simply to remove him from and disqualify him for office, leaving him "liable to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law." The impeachable offenses are "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors," an expression which some have held to cover only indictable offenses, while others extend it to include acts done in violation of official duty and against the interests of the nation. In case of the removal of a President by his impeachment, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge his duties, the Vice-President steps into his place. The Vice-President is chosen at the same time, by the same electors, and in the same manner as the President. His only functions are to preside in the Senate and to succeed the President. Failing both President and Vice-President, it was formerly provided by statute, not by the Constitution, that the presiding officer for the time being of the Senate should succeed to the presidency, and, failing him, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, To this plan there was the obvious objection that it might throw power into the hands of the party opposed to that to which the lately deceased President belonged; and it has therefore been (1886) enacted that on the death of a President the Secretary of State shall succeed, and after him other officers of the administration, in the order of their rank. CHAPTER V. PRESIDENTIAL POWERS AND DUTIES The powers and duties of the President as head of the Federal executive are the following: Command of Federal army and navy and of militia of several States when called into services of the United States. Power to make treaties, but with advice and consent of the Senate, i.e., consent of two thirds of senators present. Power to appoint ambassadors and consuls, Judges of Supreme Court, and all other higher Federal officers, but with advice and consent of Senate. Power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. Power to convene both Houses on extraordin ary occasions. Power to disagree with (i.e., to send back for re-consideration) any bill or resolution Duty to inform Congress of the state of the Duty to receive foreign ambassadors. Duty to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Duty to commission all the officers of the United States. These functions group themselves into four classes: Those which relate to foreign affairs. |