Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/286

 278 diversity of opinion; and various propositions were submitted of the most opposite character. The Federalist has remarked, that there is hardly any part of the system, the arrangement of which could have been attended with greater difficulty; and none, which has been inveighed against with less candor, or criticized with less judgment.

§ 1406. The first clause of the first section of the second article is as follows: "The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years; and together with the Vice-President, chosen for the same term, be chosen as follows."

§ 1407. Under the confederation there was no national executive. The whole powers of the national government were vested in a congress, consisting of a single body; and that body was authorized to appoint a committee of the states, composed of one delegate from every state, to sit in the recess, and to delegate to them such of their own powers, not requiring the consent of nine states, as nine states should consent to. This want of a national executive was deemed a fatal defect in the confederation.

§ 1408. In the convention, there does not seem to have been any objection to the establishment of a national executive. But upon the question, whether it should consist of a single person, the affirmative was carried by a vote of seven states against three. The term of service was at first fixed at seven years, by a vote of five states against four, one being divided. The term was afterwards altered to four years, upon the report of a