counted? election ? list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, And and the votes shall then be counted; the person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the If no highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately by ballot the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken How do the by States, the representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall If the not choose a President, whenever the right of choice refuse to shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. 168. The original read as follows: States vote? House choose? 172. section ? "[3.] The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote What was by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an in- the repealed habitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said House shall in like manner choose the When do the electors meet and vote? If the electors do a Vice President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice-President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice-President." The electors shall meet on the first Wednesday in December, by act 1st March, 1792. 1 Stat. 239. Before the first Wednesday in January, by the same act. On the second Wednesday in February, by the same act. In the election of 1864, the votes of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee for President were given, but not counted. Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas, did not vote in this election. On a motion to discharge a defendant arrested upon a capias ad respondendum, by a marshal appointed by the President de facto, of the United States, the court will not decide the question whether he has been duly elected to that office. Peyton v. Brent, 3 Cr. C. C. 424. If ever the tranquillity of this nation is to be disturbed and its liberties endangered by a struggle for power it will be upon the subject of the choice of a President. 1 Kent's Com. 274. If there be four candidates and two of them have an equal number of votes, the Constitution makes no provision. Story's Const. § 1471. [2.] The person having the greatest number of not choose Votes as Vice-President shall be the Vice-President, if President? such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have a majority, 12th Amend. then from the two highest numbers on the list the Senate shall choose the Vice-President: a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. What are the qualifi 168a. There has, thus far, been no necessity for the Senate to exercise this power. For a list of Vice-Presidents see note 17. [3.] But no person constitutionally ineligible to the cations of office of President shall be eligible to that of Vicedent? President of the United States. Vice-Presi 12th Amend. 1686. For commentaries on this amendment see 1 Kent's Com. 260, 262; Rawle on the Const. ch. 5, pp. 54, 55; Story's Const. § 1468–1473. power of [3.] The Congress may determine the time of choos- What is the ing the electors, and the day on which they shall give Congress their votes; which day shall be the same throughout time of the United States. as to the election? 168c. On the Tuesday next after the first Monday in Novem- When to be ber; by act 23d January, 1845. 5 Stat. 721. On the first Wednesday in December; by act 1st March, 1792.. 1 Stat. 239. All the States now choose the electors by the people. See Story's Const. § 1475, 1476. held? the qualifi President? [4.] No person except a natural born citizen, or a What are citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption cations for of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that 18, 19, 35. office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-220-222. five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States. 274. 169. "A NATURAL BORN CITIZEN."-Not made by law or other- Who are wise, but born. And this class is the large majority; in fact the eligible? mass of our citizens; all others are exceptions specially provided for by law. As they become citizens, by birth, so they remain citizens during their natural lives, unless, by their own voluntary act, they expatriate themselves and become citizens or subjects of another nation. For we have no law (as the French have) to decitizenize a citizen who has become such either by the natural process of birth or the legal process of adoption. AttorneyGeneral Bates on Citizenship, 29th November, 1862, p. 8. 93. The Constitution does not make the citizens (it is, in fact, made Does the Constitution by them). It only intends and recognizes such of them as are make the natural, home-born, and provides for the naturalization of such of citizens? them as are alien, foreign-born, making the latter, as far as nature will allow, like the former. Id. We have no middle class or denizens. (1 Sharswood's Bl. Com. 374.) Id. 9. But AttorneyGeneral Legaré thought there might be. (4 Opin. 147.) Id. The example of a Roman citizen and St. Paul's case and claim thereto cited. Id. Paul's is a leading case of the "Jus Romanum;" it is analagous to our own; it establishes the great protective rights of the citizen, but, like our own national Constitution, it is silent about his powers. Id. 12. 279. born? “NATURAL BORN CITIZEN " recognizes and reaffirms the universal Define principle common to all nations, and as old as political society, that natural the people born in a country do constitute the nation, and, as indi- 220. viduals, are natural members of the body politic. Bates on Citizenship, p. 12. Every person born in the country is, at the moment of birth, prima facie a citizen. Id. What does Nativity furnishes the rule, both of duty and of right, as between nativity the individual and the government. (2 Kent's Com. Part 4, Lect. imply ? Who be sides natu ral born are 274. 85, 19. 220. 46. 952-263. How is the Constitution to be interpreted? 25; 1 Bl. Com. ch. 10, p. 365; 7 Coke's Rep. and (Calvin's Case, 11 State Trials, 70) Doe v. Jones, 4 Term. 300; Shanks v. Dupont, 3 Pet. 246; Horace Binney, 2 Am. Law Reporter, 193.) Bates on Citizenship, p. 12. 170. "OR A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES AT THE TIME OF THE ADOPTION OF THIS CONSTITUTION."-The declaration of independence of 1776, invested all those persons with the privilege of citizenship who resided in the country at the time, and who adhered to the interests of the colonies. (Ingliss v. The Sailors' Snug Harbor, 3 Pet. 99, 121.) United States v. Ritchie, 17 How. 540; Paschal's Annotated Digest, note 350, p. 209. There can be few of the class of the foreign born, such as Alexander Hamilton, who are now surviving, who are eligible to the presidency. Considering the ages of all such, no person of foreign birth can now ever be President of the United States under this Constitution. (See Story's Const. § 1479; Journals of Convention, 267, 325, 361.)` Still, in this case, as in the qualifications of senators and representatives in Congress, the question is not so clear as to who are "natural born citizens of the United States." Are the ante-nati of the Republic of Texas, for example, “natural born citizens of the United States?" They were born upon what is now soil of the United States; but they were not "citizens at the moment of their births." About the post nati there can be no doubt; but, according to the principles of Calvin's case, which was so learnedly and quaintly discussed, none of the ante-nati of our acquired territories have now the full status of citizenship; and certainly they are no other than adopted or naturalized citizens, in contradistinction to "natural born citizens." See Calvin's Case, 11 State Trials, 70 et seq. And here, again, the language of this clause has to be construed in connection with other clauses and the general understanding of mankind. For there is nothing in this clause to indicate sex unless it be the word "PRESIDENT." Our advocates for equal Woman's Rights" might consider this a very narrow definition; and they might even urge that the pronoun "he," in other clauses, does not protect woman from the severest criminal statutes nor would it deprive woman of the guaranties accorded to him and "himself," standing for the antecedent of "person" in the Vth and VIth amendments. The claims of males to be alone entitled to be "Senators" and Representatives," is believed to rest alone upon the masculinity of the word, the single "he," and the common sense and understanding of men. These remarks are not made in any speculative or hypercritical spirit, but to impress upon the reader the necessity of applying the same common-sense tests to this Constitution as to all other instruments. That is, not to construe it alone by the very technicalities of the words in a single member of a sentence; but to apply to it the same rules of interpretation which we apply to all other instruments, laws, and statutes. That is to construe it by its language, nature, reason, and spirit, objects and intention, and the interpretations of contemporaneous history, having an eye to the old law, the mischief and the remedy. See Story's Const. chapters three, four, and five, and voluminous references. 171. "WHO SHALL NOT HAVE ATTAINED THE AGE OF THIRTY What does YEARS."-This is a limitation upon the people themselves. If all the age fix? of the nation speak with one united voice, they cannot constitutionally make any man President who happens to be under thirtyfive. Bates on Citizenship, p. 18. "FOURTEEN YEARS' RESIDENCE."-By "residence" is to be understood, not an absolute inhabitancy within the United States during the whole period; but such an inhabitancy as includes a permanent domicile in the United States. Story's Const. § 1479. vacancy in then be comes President? 36. [5.] In case of the removal of the President from If there be a office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to dis- the Presi charge the powers and duties of the said office, the deny, who same shall devolve on the Vice-President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. 239. 172. The following is the act of Congress for filling vacancies: Act of "Sec. 8. In case of removal, death, resignation, or inability both March 1, of the President and Vice-President of the United States, the 1792, 1 St. President of the Senate pro tempore, and in case there shall be no 38, 26. President of the Senate, then the Speaker of the House of Repre- If in the sentatives, for the time being, shall act as President of the Vice-PresiUnited States until the disability be removed or a President shall dency? be elected. new "9. Whenever the offices of the President and Vice-President When shall shall both become vacant, the Secretary of State shall forthwith there be a cause a notification thereof to be made to the executive of every election? State, and shall also cause the same to be published in at least one of the newspapers printed in each State, specifying that electors of the President of the United States shall be appointed or chosen in the several States within thirty-four days preceding the first Wednesday in December then next ensuing: Provided, there shall be the space of two months between the date of such notification and the said first Wednesday in December; and if the term for which the President and Vice-President last in office were elected, shall not expire on the third day of March next ensuing, then the Secretary of State shall specify in the notification that the electors shall be appointed or chosen within thirty-four days preceding the first Wednesday in December in the year next ensuing; within which time the electors shall accordingly be appointed or chosen, and the electors shall meet and give their votes on the said first |