crown to the trustees of Dartmouth college before the revolution, has been declared to be a contract within the meaning of the constitution. The supreme court held that the college was a private corporation; and that the act of the legislature of New Hampshire, materially altering the charter without the consent of the corporation, was a law impairing the obligation of a contract, and was therefore unconstitutional and void.

"No state shall, without the consent of the congress, lay any impost duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws; and the nett produce of all duties and imposts laid by any state on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the congress. No state shall, without the consent of congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another state, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay."

[The objects of the several restrictions in the above clause of the constitution, may be learned by reference to those chapters, on "the powers of congress," in which these subjects are treated of]

all laws prohibited which impair the obligation of contractsWhat power has a state legislature as to corporations?

CHAPTER XXIV.

Executive Power-President's Term of Office-Mode of Election-Qualifications.

"THE executive power shall be vested in a president of the United States of America."

The object of the executive department is the execution of the laws; and to ensure promptitude, decision, and force, in the administration of this department, the executive authority is limited to a single person. Experience had convinced the framers of the constitution of the inefficiency and weakness of a compound executive. The project of executive councils had been tried, and abandoned, and single executives were created. Unity increases not only the efficacy, but the responsibility of the executive power. As every act can be traced and brought home upon the proper agent, there will be less temptation to de part from duty, and greater solicitude for reputation, than when there are partners to share the public censure, or to divide the public confidence.

When a law has been duly made and promulgated, it is the duty of the executive officer to see that it be faithfully executed. It is not for him to deliberate and decide upon the wisdom or expediency of a law, after it has passed through all the forms of deliberation prescribed in the constitution. It should then receive prompt obedience, until repealed by the legislature, or pronounced by the judicial department to be repugnant to the constitution.

In what officer is the executive power vested? What is the object of this department? What particular quality is essential to this department? Why? What is the duty of the president re

The president shall hold his office during the term of four years, and shall be elected with the vice president, who is chosen for the same term.

for

It is provided by law, that the term of four years which a president and vice president shall be elected, shall, in all cases, commence on the fourth day of March, next succceeding the day on which the votes of the electors shall have been given. This day was probably fixed upon for the commencement of the presidential term, because the term for which the house of representatives and one third of the senate are elected, expires on the third day of March, in every second year; and the term of each new congress consequently begins on the fourth of March.

The term for which the president is elected, is deemed sufficiently long for the purpose of making him feel firm and independent in the discharge of his duties, and to give stability to his administration; and yet short enough to place him under a due sense of dependence upon the public approbation. The president may be re-elected after the expiration of the term for which he was elected; but no one has yet consented to be a candidate for a third election.

For the election of president, " 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 any office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector."

specting the laws? For what term is the president elected? On what day of the vear does his term commence? In what manner are electors of president chosen? What number choose? What persons may not be chosen?

does each state What different

The manner of appointing electors is not uniform throughout the states. In some of the states, the electors are appointed by the legislature. In others, they are chosen by districts. By this mode, a number of electors, equal to the number of members of the house of representatives, to which a state is entitled, are chosen by the people in the same manner in which representatives are elected. These electors, so chosen, then meet, and choose the remaining two electors, corresponding with the number of senators to which the state is entitled in con

gress. Another mode, and that which prevails at present in a majority of the states, is by general ticket. According to this system, the names of a number of candidates, equal to the whole number of electors to be chosen, are placed on a single ballot; and such number of candidates are voted for by each voter throughout the state.

A person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, is rendered constitutionally ineligible as an elector, in order to prevent the person in office from having an improper influence in procuring his re-election, by his ordinary agency in the government. Persons thus holding offices under the government, whose continuance in such offices depends on the will of the executive, if chosen to be electors, would be tempted to vote for that candidate for president, whose favor they would be most likely to secure, without due regard to the fitness of such candidate.

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[For mode of election, see 12th article of amendments.] 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."

What persons are ineligi

modes of choosing electors are in use? ble as electors? Why are they disqualified? In what manner do the electors choose the president? When must the electors be cho

Congress has enacted, that the electors shall be chosen within thirty four days preceding the first Wednesday in December, in every fourth year succeeding the last election; and that, on the said first Wednesday in December, the electors shall meet at such place, in each state, as the legislature thereof shall have directed. The same act directs, that the electors in each state shall make and sign three certificates of all the votes by them given, and shall seal up the same. One of these certificates is directed to be sent by a person duly appointed by them for that pnrpose, to the president of the senate, at the seat of government, before the first day of January next ensuing. Another of these certificates is ordered to be forwarded, by the post office, also directed to the president of the senate; and the other certificate is to be delivered to the judge of the district in which the electors shall assemble. The day appointed for opening the certificates and counting the votes, is the second Wednesday in February succeeding the election.

[Two cases have occurred, under the constitution, in which the election has devolved on the house of representatives, the one in 1801, and the other in 1824.]

"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 to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States."

These restrictions are deemed essential to the safety of the government. As the president is required to be a na

sen? When do the electors meet to give their votes? What does he law further direct them to do? On what day are the votes counted? What ana tha mualificatiche required of a president?