Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/117

UNITED STATES

Government.—The form of government of the United States is based on the Constitution of Sept. 17, 1787, to which 10 amendments were added Dec. 15, 1791; an 11th amendment, Jan. 8, 1798; a 12th amend e ment, Sept. 25, 1804; a 13th amendment, Dec. 18, 1865; a 14th amendment, July 28, 1868; a 15th amendment March 30, 1870; a 16th amendment, Feb. 13, 1913; a 17th amendment, May 31, 1913; an 18th amendment, Jan. 16, 1920, a 19th amendment, Aug. 26, 1920. By the Constitution the government of the nation is intrusted to three separate authorities, the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judiciary. The executive power is vested in a President, who holds his office during the term of four years, and is elected, together with a Vice-President chosen for the same term, in the mode prescribed as follows: “Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of senators and representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress; but no senator or representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.” The Constitution enacts that “the Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes, which day shall be the same throughout the United States”; and further, that “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 the age of 35 years, and been 14 years a resident within the United States.” The President is commander-in-chief of the army and navy and of the militia in the service of the Union. He has the power of a veto on all laws passed by Congress; but, notwithstanding his veto, any bill may become a law on its being afterward passed by each House of Congress by a two-thirds vote. The Vice-President is ex officio President of the Senate. The presidential succession is fixed by chapter 4 of the acts of the 49th Congress, 1st session. In case of the removal, death, resignation, or inability of both the President and Vice-President, then the Secretary of State shall act as President till the disability of the President or Vice-President is removed or a President is elected. If there be no Secretary of State, then the Secretary of the Treasury will act; and the remainder of the order of succession is: Secretary of War, Attorney-General, Postmaster-General, Secretary of the Navy, and Secretary of the Interior (the office of Secretary of Agriculture was created after the passage of the act ). The acting President must, on taking office, convene Congress, if not at the time in session, in extraordinary session, giving 20 days' notice. This act applies only to such Cabinet officers as shall have 