instance in which all the appliances of science and all the fixed rules of succession were found scarcely sufficient to prevent the rage of party, and the struggles of personal ambition, from putting the state in jeopardy.[328] With us, should such a calamity ever happen, there must be a similar effort to meet it as nearly as possible upon the principles of the Constitution, and consequently there must be a similar strain on the Constitution itself. In order to make still further provision for the succession, Congress were authorized to declare by law what officer should act as President, in case of the removal, death, resignation, or inability of both the President and the Vice-President, until the disability should be removed, or a new President should be elected. The mode of choosing the electors was, as we have seen, left to the legislatures of the States. Uniformity, in this respect, was not essential to the success of this plan for the appointment of the executive, and it was important to leave to the people of the States all the freedom of action that would be consistent with the free working of the Constitution. But it was necessary that the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they were to give their votes, should be prescribed for all the States alike. These particulars were, therefore, placed under the direction of Congress, with the single restriction, that the day of voting in the electoral colleges should be the same throughout the United States. In order to make the electors a distinct and independent body of persons, appointed for the sole function of choosing the President and Vice-President, it was provided further, that no senator or representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.[329] The electors were required to meet in their respective States, and to vote by ballot for two persons, one of whom at least should not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves. Having made a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes given for each, they were to sign and certify it, and to transmit it sealed to the seat of government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate, who, in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives, was to open all the certificates, and the votes were then to be counted.