The Second Article Of The Constitution Treats Of The Executive, And
Is Very Short.
It places the whole executive power in the hands of
the President, and explains with more detail the mode in which the
President shall be chosen than the manner after which the duties
shall be performed.
The first section states that the executive
shall be vested in a President, who shall hold his office for four
years. With him shall be chosen a Vice-President. I may here
explain that the Vice-President, as such, has no power either
political or administrative. He is, ex-officio, the Speaker of the
Senate; and should the President die, or be by other cause rendered
unable to act as President, the Vice-President becomes President
either for the remainder of the presidential term or for the period
of the President's temporary absence. Twice, since the Constitution
was written, the President has died and the Vice-President has taken
his place. No President has vacated his position, even for a
period, through any cause other than death.
Then come the rules under which the President and Vice-President
shall be elected - with reference to which there has been an
amendment of the Constitution subsequent to the fourth Presidential
election. This was found to be necessary by the circumstances of
the contest between John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Aaron Burr.
It was then found that the complications in the method of election
created by the original clause were all but unendurable, and the
Constitution was amended.
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