pear. If the Houses differ, the vote of the State is lost. This throws the responsibility for the settlement of disputed elections within a State back upon the State itself. If a State does not settle its own dispute it runs the risk of losing its vote. It must settle its dispute in accordance with a law passed before the electors are chosen, and the decision must be made at least six days before the meeting of the electors. Congress can then not subvert the decision so reached, except in the cases described. Unfairness may be done in the State; but, as Mr. Bryce says, "unfairness is better than uncertainty," in such a case.' Both the President and the Vice-President must be native-born citizens of the United States, thirty-five years of age, and have been for at least fourteen years Qualifications residents within the United States. "Citizens of the President. This was of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution" were made eligible. inserted in the Constitution out of regard for the great men like Hamilton and Wilson and others who, though not natives, had with patriotism and self-sacrifice aided in establishing our independence and in making our Constitution. "Native born" is interpreted to mean born within the jurisdiction of the United States. This may be on American vessels while in foreign ports, or in American embassies and consulates, all of which, by the principle of ex-territoriality, are considered as within the United States and under the jurisdiction of our laws. Therefore children born to our ambassadors, consuls, and The bill proposed by Senator Morton, of Indiana, in 1875, provided that a concurrent vote of both Houses should be required to throw out a disputed return. In case of double returns from a State, that one should be counted which the two Houses, voting separately, decided to be the right one. In case the Houses failed to agree, the vote of the State was lost. The Democrats could have seated Tilden under this in 1876, as the votes of the four disputed States could not have been counted. See Stanwood's History of the Presidency, pp. 452-456. See, also, Burgess, Political Science, vol. ii., chap. iii., for a full and able discussion of the law of 1887. naval officers while abroad are eligible to the offices of President and Vice-President. The same is true of children born to American citizens while travelling or sojourning in foreign countries. An American does not lose his citizenship by travelling or by a temporary residence abroad. The full rights of citizenship descend to the children, whether born at home or abroad. On the other hand, children born in America to foreign representatives, "extra-territorial persons," would not be eligible. Whether a natural-born citizen who afterwards became a naturalized citizen of another country would be eligible to the Presidency is a question. He probably would not be, as the President must be a citizen as well as native-born. "The President is the representative of the interests of the country against foreign countries. His entire interests should be with his own country." "The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensation, which shall neither be increased Salary of the nor diminished during the period for which he President. shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States" or from any State. The salary, originally $25,000, is now $75,000 a year, together with the use of the White House, and $25,000 a year as an allowance for travelling expenses. The Exempt The person of the President is inviolable. "He cannot be arrested, or restrained of his personal liberty by anybody for anything, not even for the comPresident is mission of murder. He is responsible only to from Legal the Senate by impeachment. During his impeachment trial he cannot be arrested, or in any manner restrained, nor forced to appear in person before the tribunal, nor to give testimony, nor be deprived of any of his powers as President. Such are the postulates of political science which the Constitution im Process. Burgess, Political Science and Constitutional Law, vol. ii., p. 242. plies. It is impossible to make the supreme executive head of the government subject to process without ultimately destroying all power to execute process, i. e., without disorganizing the Government. It is impossible to make the executive head of the Government of the United States subject to process without destroying the unity of the executive power, without placing a part of the power to execute the laws under the control of some other person than the President; and this the Constitution forbids, in that it vests the whole executive power in the President. It is impossible to execute any process upon the President of the United States should he resist it, for the Constitution makes the whole machinery of execution subject ultimately to his command. Moreover, the Constitution vests in the President the unlimited power of pardon, except for impeachment. He could, therefore, if made subject to the ordinary process of law, free himself by pardoning himself.1 This exemption from process of the Courts is only temporary, the right of prosecution is only suspended. Upon his retirement or removal from office, the exPresident becomes immediately liable to prosecution and punishment for every crime committed while in office. The President is removable only by impeachment. Incase of his removal by impeachment, or in case of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the duties and The Vicepowers of his office, the Vice-President becomes President. The Vice-President is chosen in the same way as the President, and his qualifications are the same. President. The Vice-President has but two functions, -to preside over the Senate and, in the constitutional emergency, to succeed to the Presidency. He does not ap- Functions of point the committees; they are elected by the Senate. He is not a member of the Senate, and cannot vote except to give a casting vote in case of a tie. Politically, the office of Vice-President is of but little importance, and it has been said that to elect a capable man to the Vice-Presidency is merely to retire him into "harmless and innocuous obscurity." The party conventions in making nominations to this office generally use the place to placate a defeated faction in the contest for the presidential nomination, or to bring on to the ticket a representative of a certain section of the country other than that of the presidential nominee. The ability and public record of the nominee are not duly considered, and the result is that obscure and second-rate men are apt to be nominated for Vice-President.' The office is an important one in its possibility, and no man that the party and the country are not willing to have for President should ever be named for Vice-President. Five times in our history the President has died in office, and the VicePresident has succeeded to his place. Tyler took the elder Harrison's place in 1841; Fill 1 Burgess, Political Science, vol. ii., pp. 245-246. the VicePresident. Vice Presidents Succeeding to the To more succeeded to Taylor in 1850, Johnson to Presidency. Lincoln in 1865, Arthur to Garfield in 1881, and Roosevelt to McKinley in 1901. In each of two cases, of Tyler and Johnson, -the succeeding Vice-President seriously disappointed and disrupted his party. "Tylerize or to "Johnsonize" is to desert the party that elevated one to his office. But this should not be understood to mean that Tyler and Johnson were political apostates, that they had deserted their principles. Tyler had never been a Whig, nor Johnson a Republican. The Whigs, without publishing a platform of principles, took up Tyler in 1840, because he had broken with Jackson and the regular Democrats. Tyler was a representative of the extreme States' rights Democracy of the South who had resigned his Senatorship rather than obey the instructions of the Virginia legislature to support Jackson. The Whigs wished to attach the Tylerites to the support of Harrison. "Translated into the terms of the politics of continental Europe, the Whig ticket represented a union of the right and the extreme left against the centre." In 1864, the Republicans put Johnson, a Democratic Unionist of the South on their ticket, in order to make their party a national-union party, to avoid the charge of sectionalism, and to draw Middle-State support. When these two men came to the chief office they inevitably disappointed the main body of the men who had elected them. Party tickets are not now so incongruous. Yet even in late years it has been thought "good politics" to go so far in bidding for support or in placating a de. feated faction as to place upon the ticket for Vice-President a candidate who on public policies and in political tendencies differs very materially from his party chief. When party managers nominate a Vice-President, they must be ready for the utmost possible. The men who defeated General Grant and nominated Garfield did not expect to make Mr. Conkling's first lieutenant (Arthur) President of the United States. If Mr. Cleveland had died, either Mr. Hendricks or Mr. Stevenson would have reversed his financial policy. The political bosses, Mr. Quay and Mr. Platt, who planned to shelve Mr. Roosevelt by placing him where he could not circumvent their schemes did not know what fate had in store. President Roosevelt stood in complete party and public accord with his predecessor, and he announced that he would carry out the policies of Mr. McKinley, yet Roosevelt belonged to a different school of politics and had quite different plans of administration. His nomination to the Vice-Presidency exemplifies very fully his own characterization of the office: * See Bryce, vol. i., p. 300. |