duty of the Executives of the several States in certifying to the Secretary of State of the United States the appointment of such electors, and at copy of the Act supplementary thereto, approved October 19, 1888. Respectfully requesting that I be furnished with four copies of the certificate required by section 3 of the accompanying Act, for the greater convenience of the Department, I have the honor to be, Sir, His Excellency The Governor of Your obedient servant, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your certificate of the final ascertainment of the electors for President and Vice-President, appointed for the State of at the election held on the 3d day of November, 190, said certificate being under the seal of the State and dated 190 I have the honor to be, Sir, of His Excellency The Governor of Your obedient servant, They are then published in a newspaper in Washington, selected by the Secretary of State: To the Washington In pursuance of the provisions of the Act of Congress approved February 3, 1887, I transmit herewith for publication in your newspaper a certified copy of the final ascertainment of the electors for President and Vice-President, appointed in the State of at the election held therein on the 3d day of November, 1908, as certified to me by the Governor thereof. I am, Gentlemen, Your obedient servant, (For the Secretary of State) Chief Clerk. At the same time copies of the returns are sent to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate, the same form of letter being used in each case: DEPARTMENT OF STATE, To the Honorable Joseph G. Cannon, 190 Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith, in pursuance of the provisions of the Act of Congress approved February 3, 1887, and of the Act supplementary thereto, approved October 19, 1888, an authentic copy of the certificate of the final ascertainment of electors for President and VicePresident, appointed in the State of at the election held therein on the day of November, 190 as transmitted to me by the Governor of said State. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, The form of certification of the copies is as follows: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. DEPARTMENT OF STATE. To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting: In accordance with the provisions of the Act of Congress approved February 3, 1887, I certify that the following is a true copy of the certificate of the final ascertainment of the electors for President and VicePresident, appointed in the State of at the election held therein on the 3d day of November, 1908, as received by me from the Governor of the said State. IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I,.... Secretary of State of the United States, have hereunto subscribed my name and caused the seal of the Department of State to be affixed. DONE AT THE CITY OF WASHINGTON, this of .... day A. D. 190 and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and thirty-third. Some of the contingent duties imposed upon the Secretary of State by law with reference to the Presidential office he has never been called upon to exercise. Section 10 of the Act of March 1, 1792, provided: That whenever the offices of President and Vice-President shall both become vacant, the Secretary of State shall forthwith cause a notification thereof to be made to the Executive of every State, and shall also cause the same to be published in, at least, one of the newspapers printed in each State, specifying that electors of the President of the United States shall be appointed or chosen, in the several States, within thirty-four days preceding the first Wednesday in December, then next ensuing. But there must be two months interval between the date of the notification and the election. There has never been a vacancy in the office of President through the death of both the President and Vice-President. By the Act of January 19, 1886,7 the succession was vested in case of death, removal, resignation or inability of both President and Vice-President in the members of the cabinet successively, beginning with the Secretary of State, but no Secretary of State has yet been called upon to perform the duties of President. The Act of 1792 not only provided for the succession to the Presidency, but also for the means by which one elected to that office or to the Vice-Presidency might decline to serve and by which the holder of either office might resign. In the eleventh section it said:8 That the only evidence of a refusal to accept or of a resignation of, the office of President or Vice-President, shall be an instrument in writing declaring the same, and subscribed by the person refusing to accept, or resigning, as the case may be, and delivered into the office of the Secretary of State. The Act has only been invoked once- when John C. Calhoun resigned as Vice-President in 1832. He wrote Edward Livingston, the Secretary of State, the following letter (inadvertently giving the initial of his Christian name incorrectly): Sir, COLUMBIA, S. CAROLINA, 28th Decr., 1832. Having concluded to accept of a seat in the Senate, to which I have been elected by the Legislature of this State, I herewith resign the office. of Vice-President of the United States. Hon. H. Livingston." Very respectfully, Your ob sert The Secretary of State did not acknowledge the receipt of the letter, an omission doubtless due to oversight on his part. A mere acknowledgment would have exhausted his authority and duty. He 724 Stat., 1. 81 Stat., 241. Dept. of State, Miscl. Letters. could not accept or refuse the resignation, the Vice-President not being within his authority in any way. The omission to acknowledge the receipt of the resignation brought forth the following letter from Calhoun: Sir, BROWN'S HOTEL, 4th Jany. 1833. I forwarded to your Department on the 27th Decr. from Columbia, So. Carolina my resignation of the office of Vice-President of the United States, in conformity to the provisions of the Act of Congress in such cases. I wish you to inform me by the bearer whether it has been received. Yours respectfully, Hon. Ed. Livingston.10 The acknowledgment was doubtless sent by the bearer, but it is not of record in the Department. Not less important than the duties of the Department with reference to the Presidency are the duties which it must perform whenever an amendment is proposed to the Constitution of the United States. The first twelve amendments were proposed on June 8, 1789, by James Madison in the House of Representatives; 11 the Senate concurring September 25, on which day the two houses directed that the President transmit them to the Executives of the several States, which had ratified the Constitution, and to North Carolina and Rhode Island which had not yet done so.12 The Department of State had been established for ten days when the amendments were proposed; but the plan for their submission to the States had been completed before the Act creating the Department had been considered, so no agency of the Department was provided for. However, the second section of the organic act of the Department provided that whenever a bill, order, resolution, or vote of the Senate. and House should be approved by the President, he should send it 10 Dept. of State, Miscl. Letters. 11 Annals of Cong., Vol. 1, p. 424. 12 Annals of Cong., I, pp. 87, 88. to the Secretary of State. If it was passed by the Senate and House notwithstanding the President's disapproval it should be sent to the Secretary of State by the President of the Senate or Speaker of the House. The proposed constitutional amendments were independent of the President's approval or disapproval, but they seemed to fall within the general purpose of an Act, which was, moreover, entitled, "An Act to provide for the safe keeping of the Acts, Records and Seal, of the United States." The President, also, had already begun the practice of conducting such official correspondence as did not pertain to financial or military affairs, through the Department of State, and it naturally fell about that the proposed amendments were sent to the Governors of the States through the State Department and that the replies were sent to that Department by the President. The first ratification was that of Maryland, transmitted to the President by the Governor with the following letter: Sir, ANNAPOLIS, January 15th, 1790. I have the honor to enclose a copy of an Act of the Legislature of Maryland, to ratify certain Articles in addition to and amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America proposed by Congress to the Legislatures of the several States. I have the honor to be With the highest respect, Sir, J. E. HOWARD. His Excellency The President of the United States. This letter was endorsed in the Department: Transmitted to this office, by order of the President of the United States, Jany. 25th 1790.13 Most of the ratifications appear to have been sent to the Department from the President without accompanying note; but Vermont's Act was forwarded with the following: UNITED STATES, Jan uary 18th. 1792. T. Lear has the honor to transmit to the Secretary of State, an exemplified Copy of an Act of the Legislature of Vermont (which has been 13 Documentary History of the Constitution, II, 330. |