§ 254. It is the duty of the government to execute the Constitution; and there can be no doubt of the adequacy of their power to do it, in whatever form its prevention may be attempted. "The general government, though limited as to its objects, is supreme with respect to those objects. This principle is a part of the Constitution; and if there be any who deny its necessity, none can deny its authority. To this supreme government ample powers are confided; and, if it were possible to doubt the great purposes for which they were so confided, the people of the United States have declared that they were given in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity.'

§ 255. The words "chosen" and "choosing," as applied to the subject, seem to imply the suffrages of individual electors; and the word "legislature," to indicate the several act of each House, as in legislative action. But the usage in different States has varied from this in both respects, and Congress has never interfered to produce uniformity, either as to time or manner; and the Senate have never rejected a member on account of the mode of his appointment by the State legislature, though they have done so on

1 Per Marshall, C. J., for the Court, in Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. R., 264.

account of the time of the election having been too long before the occurrence of the vacancy it was intended to supply. They have also settled, in a recent New-Jersey case, that, where the two Houses go into convention for the election of a Senator, without any statute directing the mode of election, the convention themselves cannot elect by less than a majority of the votes cast. They have now (1866), however, passed a statute on the subject, prescribing the mode of proceeding in the election of a Senator.

CHAPTER XVIII.

LEGISLATIVE POWERS. - SPECIAL.

§ 256. WHAT kind of regulations for holding elections are to be prescribed in section 4, under the name of the "times, places, and manner' thereof? The terms themselves seem naturally to imply, that they relate to the circumstances attending the election, and not to the fact of there being one, or the right of the people to participate in it. Regulations extending beyond this could only be justified by the necessity of the case, to supply omissions in the Constitution, without which the right itself could not be exercised. The mode, then, of exercising the elective franchise; the preliminary rules, limitations, and qualifications, as to the manner of asserting and using the right,—are the legitimate province of these regulations and they can prescribe these only in accordance with what the Constitution has done, and in the particulars which it has left to be thus supplied.

§ 257. The times. This, standing by itself and construed alone, would include not only an

authority to prescribe the year, the month, the day, and the hour, but the frequency, - whether once a month or a year, or once in ten years, &c. But this clause is only a part of the Constitution; and, when it authorizes times to be prescribed aliunde, out of itself, it must be understood to mean in harmony and consistency with its own express provisions. By giving an authority to regulate the times, it does not give an authority to repeal or violate any provision of its own, or reject all times, with the election itself, and the right of the people to hold it. Of course, all that can be done under this authority is to regulate the times in conformity to the constitutional provisions elsewhere made. What provisions of the Constitution affect and restrain the power that would otherwise be included in this, regarding the times of holding elections? By the 2d section, Representatives shall be "chosen every second year;" and, by the 3d section, Senators shall be chosen for six years." So the authority for prescribing the "times," in the 4th section, must be restricted within these limits. The elections, under this section, could not be held either annually or triennially for Representatives, nor biennially or septennially for Senators.

§ 258. In regard to "places," the authority on its face is equally absolute and unconditional; though, as the Representatives must be chosen by the people of the several States," and the person chosen must be "an inhabitant

of that State in which he shall be chosen," it is implied that the election must be within the bounds and jurisdiction of the State. It was, however, objected to this clause, when before the Conventions, that the elections for Georgia might be required to be held on the Mohawk. This is a specimen of the unreasonableness of some of the objections to the Constitution. The Senators, being chosen exclusively by the State legislatures, must of course be chosen where the legislature is. So far, the authority in regard to places is therefore qualified by other provisions.

§ 259. The "manner of holding elections," ex vi termini, includes every thing else, requiring to be provided for, in order to hold successfully an election for the purposes specified; and would include the "times" and "places" also, if they had not been particularly mentioned under separate heads. Whenever it is decided that an election shall be held for a particular purpose, and the matter is left there without other directions, only that the "manner of holding" it shall be prescribed by other authority, it necessarily follows that that other authority must make all the regulations requisite for accomplishing the purposes of the election. The manner of holding elections" is the same thing as the mode of accomplishing elections, or, in other words, of executing that part of the Constitution which requires certain officers to be designated by elections. This includes many circum