Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 3 (of 16)United States. Congress
History
Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 3 (of 16)
United States. Congress
Law -- United States; United States -- Politics and government
_Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, two-thirds
of both Houses concurring_, That the following amendment be
proposed to the Legislatures of the several States as an
amendment to the constitution of the United States, which,
when ratified by three-fourths of the said Legislatures, shall
be valid to all intents and purposes, as a part of the said
constitution, viz:
In all future elections of President and Vice President, the
Electors shall name in their ballots the person voted for
as President, and, in distinct ballots, the person voted
for as Vice President, of whom one at least shall not be an
inhabitant of the same State with themselves. The person voted
for as President having a majority of the votes of all the
Electors appointed, shall be the President, and if no person
have such majority, then from the three highest on the list
of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives
shall choose the President in the manner directed by the
constitution. The person having the greatest number of votes
as Vice President, shall be Vice President; and in case of an
equal number of votes for two or more persons for the Vice
President, they being the highest on the list, the Senate shall
choose the Vice President from those having such equal number,
in the manner directed by the constitution; but no person
constitutionally ineligible to the office of President, shall
be eligible to that of the President of the United States.
Mr. BRADLEY did not approve of the amendment as it now stood; he could
not see why the Vice President should not be chosen by a majority,
as well as the President. He considered the possibility of the Vice
President becoming President by any casualty, as a good reason for both
being chosen by the same ratio of numbers. If it should be carried as the
amendment now stands, the office of Vice President would be hawked about
at market, and given as change for votes for the Presidency. And what
would be the effect?--that it might so happen that a citizen chosen only
for the office of Vice President, might by the death of the President,
though chosen only by a plurality, become President, and hold the office
for three years eleven months and thirty days. He did not approve of
many arguments which he had heard on the preceding day, and however
disposed to concur in the principle of designation for the two offices,
he could not give it his vote in the present shape. He would, in order to
render the report more congenial with his wishes, move to strike out the
following words beginning with the words _shall_, in the thirteenth line,
to _constitution_, in the eighteenth. The motion was seconded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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