For nine months the struggle was wagered fiercely in the States, but the Federalists prevailed. In June, 1788, the ninth State ratified, and adoption was assured. Congress fixed the first Wednesday in January for the election of presidential electors, the first Wednesday in February for the meeting of the electors and election of the President, and the first Wednesday in March, 1789, for the inauguration of the President and the beginning of the new government. This last date fell upon the 4th of March, which date has from that time served as the day for the inauguration of our presidents. Owing to a delay in the assembling of the new Congress, Washington was not inaugurated, nor our present government instituted, until April 30, 1789.
Thus was founded our present government, which has stood the test of a century. When adopted there were thirteen States; now there are forty-four. The inhabited area was then the narrow strip between the Atlantic Ocean and the Allegheny Mountains, with a population of scarcely 3,000,000. Now the United States stretches 3,000 miles from ocean to ocean, and contains a population of over sixty millions.
CHAPTER VII.
Presidential Succession.
The provisions of the Constitution regarding the Presidential succession, in case of the death or resignation of both President and Vice-President, are: "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 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." (Article II, section 6.)
In pursuance of the power thus granted to it in the last half of this section, Congress in 1792 passed an act declaring that in case of the death, resignation, etc., of both the President and Vice-President, the succession should be first to the President of the Senate and then to the Speaker of the House.
This order was changed by the act of 1886, which provided that the succession to the presidency should be as follows:
1. President. 2. Vice-President. 3. Secretary of State. 4. Secretary of the Treasury. 5. Secretary of War. 6. Attorney-General. 7. Postmaster-General. 8. Secretary of the Navy. 9. Secretary of the Interior.
In all cases the remainder of the four-years' term shall be served out.
This act also regulated the counting of the votes of the electors by
Congress, and the determination of who were legally chosen electors.
Note.—The Constitution made no provision in case of a contested election, or when no one should be elected. Such a contingency seemed to have been overlooked in the framing of the Constitution.