Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/24

 ii UNITED STATES

same term, in the mode prescribed as follows: "Each State shall ai)point, 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 practice is that in every State the electors allotted to the State are chosen by direct vote of the citizens on a general ticket, on the system known in France as scrutin de liste. The Constitution enacts that "the Congress may determine the time of choosing the elec- tors, 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 citi- zen 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 a resident within the United States."

Executive

The President is commander-in-chief of the army and navy, and of the militia in the service of the Union. The Vice- President is ex-officio President of the Senate ; and in case of the death or resignation of the President, he becomes the President for the remainder of the term. The elections for President and Vice-President are at present held in all the States on Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, every leap-year ; and on the 4th of March following, the new President-elect assumes office.

By a law approved Jan. 19, 1886, in case of removal, death, resignation, or inability of both the President and Vice-Presi- dent, the Secretary of State, and after him, in the order of the establishment of their departments, other members of the Cabi- net, shall act as President until the disability of the President is removed, or a President shall be elected. On the death of a Vice-President the duties of the office fall to the President pro tempore of the Senate, who receives the salary of the Vice- President. The party in the majority usually elects a Presi- dent pi'o tempore at the beginning of each term of Congress, or reorganization of the Senate, who acts as President of the Senate whenever the Vice-President is absent.