A Brief History of the United States

by Joel Dorman Steele

CLAUSE 4. No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years resident within the United States.

CLAUSE 5. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the 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.

[Footnote: Section 10. Three clauses now follow enumerating the powers denied to the several States. What prohibition was made with regard to treaties? Letters of marque and reprisal? Coinage of money? Issuing bills of credit (bills to circulate as money)? Making any other legal tender than gold or silver? A bill of attainder? An ex-post-facto law? The impairing of contracts? Titles of nobility? Imposts? Keeping troops? Making peace or war?

ARTICLE II.-SECTION 1. In whom is the executive power vested? (Note—The executive power is that of executing the laws.) How long is the President's term of office? The Vice President's? Who are the presidential electors? How many are there from each state? Who are ineligible to the office? Describe the method of electing a President, as originally directed by the Constitution. (Note.—This has been superseded by the XIIth Amendment.) What power has Congress over the electors? What are the necessary qualifications for the office of President? In case of a vacancy, who would become President? (Note.—In case of a vacancy in the office of both President and Vice-President, the president pro tempore of the Senate, and in case of a vacancy in that office, then the speaker of the House would act as President. The electors are now chosen on "the Tuesday next after the first Monday in the last November" of each presidential term of office. The electors meet to cast their ballots, generally at the capital of each state, on "the first Wednesday in the last December" of each presidential term of office. When the plan of choosing electors was originally adopted it was intended to choose good men who should themselves select the President, but it soon came about that the electors were pledged to their respective candidates before their own election. The President's salary is $50,000 per year, together with the use of the White House.) Can the salary of a President be changed during his term of office? Can he receive any other emolument from the national or any state government? Repeat the President's oath of office.]

CLAUSE 6. The President 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, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them.

CLAUSE 7. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation:—"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

SECTION II.

CLAUSE 1. The President shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices; and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

CLAUSE 2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law; but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

CLAUSE 3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.