LECTURE II. Implied powers. necessarily, from its nature. It is the government of all; its powers are delegated by all; it represents all, and acts for all. Though any one State may be willing to control its operations, no State is willing to allow others to control them. The nation, on those subjects on which it can act, must necessarily bind its component parts." "We admit, as all must admit, that the powers of the Government are limited, and that its limits are not to be transcended. But we think the sound construction of the Constitution must allow to the national legislature that discretion, with respect to the means by which the powers it confers are to be carried into execution, which will enable that body to perform the high duties assigned to it in the manner most beneficial to the people. Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the Constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the Constitution, are constitutional."1 In Hepburn v. Griswold, Chief Justice Chase, referring to these words of Chief Justice Marshall, said: "The rule for determining whether a legislative enactment can be supported as an exercise of an implied power, was stated by Chief Justice Marshall, speaking for the whole court in the case of McCulloch v. The State of Maryland, and the statement then made has ever since been accepted as a correct exposition 1 McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, 405, 421. of the Constitution. His words were these: LECTURE II. 'Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the Implied powers. scope of the Constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the Constitution, are constitutional.' And, in another part of the same opinion, the practical application of this rule was thus illustrated. Should Con gress, in the execution of its powers, adopt measures which are prohibited by the Constitution, or should Congress, under the pretext of executing its powers, pass laws for the accomplishment of objects not intrusted to the Government, it would be the painful duty of this tribunal, should a case requiring such a decision come before it, to say that such an act was not the law of the land. But where the law is not prohibited, and is truly calculated to effect any of the objects intrusted to the Government, to undertake here to inquire the degree of its necessity, would be to pass the line which circumscribes the judicial department, and tread on legislative ground.' "It must be taken, then, as finally settled, so far as judicial decisions can settle anything, that the words, 'all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution,' powers expressly granted, or vested, have, in the Constitution, a sense equivalent to that of the words, laws, not absolutely necessary, indeed, but appropriate, plainly adapted to constitutional and legitimate ends; laws not prohibited, but consistent with LECTURE II. Implied powers. the letter and spirit of the Constitution; laws 1 Hepburn v. Griswold, 8 Wall. 603, 614, 615. III. THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF THE GOVERNMENT.1 CONSTITUTION, ARTICLE II, SECTION 1. The execu- LECTURE IIL tive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the VicePresident, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows: 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 an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector. The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; - The President of the Senate shall, in presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; 1 This is Lecture II of the Lectures delivered before the classes of the University Law School. LECTURE III. The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.1 The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States. 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 thirtyfive Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. In Case of the Removal of the President from 1 This paragraph contains the text of the Twelfth Amendment, which was a substitution for the original clause in the Constitution, and came into force in 1804. |