170. The person having the requisite number of votes for President, is declared to be elected to that office. But if no person have such number, then, from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives are immediately by ballot to choose the President.

171. In thus choosing the President, the votes are taken by States; the representation from each State having one vote. A quorum for this purpose consists of a member or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States is necessary to a choice.

172. Although the Constitution directs the choice in this case to be made immediately by the House of Representatives, yet the amendment expressly declares their choice to be valid if made before the fourth day of March following the day on which the electoral votes are counted and the result declared.

173. In case no choice of President be made by the House of Representives, within the period limited for that purpose, the Vice President acts as President, as in the case of the death, or constitutional disability of the President.

174. The person found to have the requisite number of votes, upon the counting of the same in the presence of both Houses of Congress, is declared to be Vice President; but if no person have such number, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate choose the Vice President: a quorum for that purpose consists of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole is necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President, is eligible to that of Vice President.

175. The Constitution, as amended, does not prescribe the time and place, when and where the Senate is to choose the Vice President in case no choice be made by the electors; but from analogy to the provision and practice in regard to the President, it is presumed that the Senate may elect by themselves at their ordinary place of meeting, and at any time previous to the ensuing fourth of March.

176. Congress has by Law provided that the term of four years, for which the President and Vice President are elected, shall commence on the fourth day of March next succeeding the day on which the votes of the electors are given; and the amendment of the Constitution adopts the same day as the limitation of the period within which the House of Representatives, in case of no choice by the electors, are to elect the President.

177. The effect, therefore, of this amendment, is to render the provisions of the Act of Congress relative to the times appointed for the several duties enjoined by the Constitution, and the amendment in regard to the election of President and Vice President, as fundamental and permanent as the Constitution itself.

178. The appointment of an extraordinary per son as Vice President of the United States, and ex officio President of the Senate, is recommended principally by two considerations: the first is, that to secure at all times a definite resolution of the Senate, it is necessary that the President of that body should have a casting vote; and to take a Senator from his seat as such, and place him in that of the presiding officer, would, in regard to the State he represents, be to exchange a constant, for a contingent, vote.

179. The other consideration is, that as the Vice President may occasionally become a substitute for the President in the supreme executive office, all the reasons which recommend the mode of election prescribed in the first instance for the one, apply with great, if not with equal force, to the other.

180. The powers and duties of the President devolve on the Vice President, not only when no choice is made of a President either by the electors or the House of Representatives, but also in case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge his duties; and Congress are authorized to provide by Law for the case of a vacancy in both offices.

181. In pursuance of this power, Congress has declared, that in the event of such vacancies, the President of the Senate pro tempore, and, in case there should be no President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, should act as President of the United States until the vacancy should be supplied.

182. The evidence of a refusal to accept, or of a resignation of the office of President or Vice President, is declared by the same law to be a declaration in writing filed in the office of the Secretary of State..

183. As it may become a question who would be the person to succeed if the office of President should devolve on the Speaker, after the Congress for which he was chosen has expired, it is usual for the Vice President to withdraw from the Senate previously to the adjournment of the session, in order to afford an opportunity to that body to choose a President pro tempore.

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184. But if the President pro tempore of the Senate should die, during a casual vacancy in the offices of President and Vice President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives then extinct, would probably be deemed the person upon whom the office was intended to devolve.

185. If the Vice President succeed to the office of President, he continues in it until the expiration of the term for which the President was elected, unless a temporary disability of the President be sooner removed; and if both offices be vacant, it is by law made the duty of the Secretary of State to take measures for the election of a President. But, from a defect in the amendment, a Vice President, as the Constitution now stands, cannot be elected until the regular period,

186. The term of four years, for which the President and Vice President are elected, was intended to be long enough to render the Executive Magistrate firm and independent in the discharge of his trust, and to give stability to his system of administration; and short enough to retain him under a due sense of his dependence on public approbation.

187. A practice which has prevailed from the commencement of the Government, for the President to decline a second re-election, seems now to be permanently established, and to have acquired the force of a legal precedent; and it has, in effect, limited the period of service to eight years, subject to an intermediate re-election.

188. The support of the President is secured by a provision of the Constitution, which declares that he shall at stated times receive for his services a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor

diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected.

189. This provision was obviously intended to strengthen and preserve the proper independence and energy of the Executive department; but the President cannot receive any other emolument from the United States, or from any of the States.

190. In pursuing the examination of the Executive department,

II. The powers and duties of the President, are next to be considered.

191. The first power vested in the President, connects him with the Legislature in the exercise, to a certain extent, of Legislative powers, as a security for his own independence, and a check upon that most pow erful branch of the Government; and it consists in the qualified negative he possesses upon the acts of Congress.

192. Every act, order, resolution, or vote, to which the concurrence of the two houses of Congress is necessary, (except on the question of their adjournment,) must be presented to the President, and must be approved by him before it can take effect, unless, after being disapproved by him, it be again passed by two thirds of both Houses.

193. Without this power the Executive department would be unable to sustain itself against the propensity of the Legislature to encroach upon the rights, and absorb the powers, of the weaker branches of the Government.

194. The President might gradually be stripped of his authority by successive concurrent resolutions