By the frame of government under which we live, this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief; and have, with equal wisdom, provided for the return of that little into their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space of four years.[354] 135. Of checks on the Executive there are three: concerning his election; concerning his powers, or office, and concerning his removal from office. He is elected by a few persons, technically called “electors.”[355] Each State appointing as its Legislature may direct as many “electors” as the whole number of its Senators and Representatives to which it is entitled in Congress. Popular election of these “electors” is, in constitutional law, their appointment by the State legislatures. The so-called popular vote is unknown to the Constitution.[356] The method of deciding disputed presidential elections, provided in the Constitution, was modified by adoption of the Twelfth Amendment in 1804. The Amendment means that if the decision is not made by the presidential electors by a certain time, the election shall go to the House of Representatives, in case of the President; and to the Senate, in case of the Vice-President. The vote in the House is by States; the Senators represent States. Thus the States, at a critical time, become the check on the United States in the selection of President and Vice-President. That the President (and by implication, the Vice-President) must be native-born American citizens is a constitutional limitation of candidacy. 136. Of limitation of executive powers, the exception of the pardoning power in cases of impeachment, and of command of the State militia save when called into the actual service of the United States[357] are specified,—or, as commonly stated in legal language,—“expressed,” not “implied.” So too is the limitation of the President’s appointing power during recess of the Senate,—the appointee’s commission expiring “at the end of the next session.”[358] What limitations of executive power are implied in the Constitution is largely a matter of political interpretation. The practical question here is of confusion of functions, or offices. Thus the Executive may not exercise legislative or judicial functions. This conforms to the theory of separation of governmental functions expressed or implied in every American constitution. Yet Congress may impose duties upon the President which are essentially legislative, as, for example, by empowering him to suspend, by proclamation, the collection of duties on articles from a nation which, by reciprocity, has suspended collection of duties on certain imports from the United States. Does the President in such a case transcend executive office?