This morning, David Brearley, chairman of the Committee on Postponed Parts, made a second partial report. This time, the list of proposals is not only detailed, it is lengthy.
The first two proposals were agreed to without dissent. The first provides that “the Legislature shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare.” The second adds “and with the Indian tribes” to the legislature’s power to “regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States.”
The third recommendation concerns the impeachment process but was further postponed “in order to decide previously on the mode of electing the President.” The fourth clause “was accordingly taken up” - the method of choosing the President and creation of the office of Vice President. It provided that the President shall hold his office for four years, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, and elected in the following manner: “each State shall appoint in such manner as its Legislature may direct, a number of electors equal to the whole number of Senators and members of the House of Representatives, to which the State may be entitled in their respective States.” The Electors will meet in their respective States and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves. The results of their balloting shall be certified and transmitted to the President of the Senate.
The Senate shall open and count the ballots. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, “if such number be a majority of that of the electors.” If more than one receives a majority of votes and there is a tie vote, the Senate “shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President.” The person with the second highest number of votes shall be Vice President. If there is a tie vote for Vice President, in like manner the Senate shall decide.
The Committee also proposed that “no person except a natural born citizen or a citizen of the United States at the time of adoption of this Constitution shall be eligible to the office of President…nor shall any person be elected to that office, who shall be under the age of thirty-five years, and who has not been in the whole, at least fourteen years a resident within the United States.”
The Vice President “shall be ex officio President of the Senate, except when they sit to try the impeachment of the President.” In that case, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court shall preside. The Senate shall choose a President pro tempore which shall preside in the absence of the Vice President. Finally, the Vice President shall have a vote in the Senate only when the Senate “be equally divided.”
The report proposes the President, “by and with the advice and consent of the Senate,” make treaties and nominate ambassadors, other public ministers, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States “whose appointments are not otherwise herein provided for.” Treaties will require a two-thirds vote of the Senate. The President may also “require the opinion in writing of the principal officers in each of the Executive Departments upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices.”
Finally, the President shall be removed from office “on impeachment by the House of Representatives, and conviction by the Senate, for treason, or bribery, and in case of his removal as aforesaid, death, absence, resignation or inability to discharge the powers or duties of his office; the Vice President shall exercise those powers and duties until another President be chosen, or until the inability of the President be removed.”
These proposals were a blend of ideas already suggested and original concepts such as a vice president. The number of electors for each State being equal to the number of its members of Congress appealed to the large States as well as slave States. Small State delegates were attracted to the Senate’s role of electing the President and Vice President if the Electors fail to do so. The Committee tried to steer a middle course as well as offer a coherent set of recommendations, but dissent and disagreement were inevitable. Nathaniel Gorham was the first to speak, disapproving “of making the next highest office after the President, the Vice President, without referring the decision to the Senate in case the next highest should have less than a majority of votes.” As it stood now, he continued, “a very obscure man with very few votes may arrive at that appointment.” James Madison shared his concerns.
Rather than taking an immediate position on the issue, Edmund Randolph and Charles Pinckney wisely asked “for a particular explanation and discussion of the reasons” for the Committee’s recommendation. Gouverneur Morris, a member of the Committee, responded. The most important reason, and one with which many delegates agreed, was to avoid “the danger of intrigue and faction if the appointment should be made by the legislature.” In addition, it reinforces the independence of the President and avoids conflict of interest if the legislature were to both appoint the President while empowered to impeach him. Furthermore, the electors would vote at the same time throughout the United States, “at so great a distance from each other, the great evil of cabal was avoided.”
Pinckney then listed objections to the proposal. Ultimately, “it threw the whole appointment in fact into the hands of the Senate,” he began, “and the electors will be strangers to the several candidates and unable to decide on their comparative merits.” Moreover, the President’s eligibility to reelection “will endanger the public liberty.”
Further consideration of the report was postponed, “that each member might take a copy of the remainder of it.” After considerable debate, and no decisions, the Convention adjourned.