To: The People of the United States, December 27, 2024.
Article II
Article II allows me to do whatever I want . . . Donald Trump
No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause; because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity . . . James Madison[1]
Political power, then, I take to be a right of making laws with penalties of death, and consequently all less penalties, for the regulating and preserving of property, and of employing the force of the community in the execution of such laws, and in the defense of the commonwealth from foreign injury, and all this only for the public good, . . . John Locke[2]
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Article II of the Nation’s blueprint for government, the United States Constitution, outlines the prerogatives permitted to a standing President duly elected by the people to serve the Constitutionally mandated term of four years. For to serve as the Nation’s Chief Executive, the Founders certainly did not want a Julius Caesar, Oliver Cromwell or worse on the heels of the ratification of the Constitution, a Napoleon Bonaparte, Benito Mussolini or Adolf Hitler. Especially since the autocratic George III, King of England and leader of the globe’s greatest empire, had recently been evicted from “the unanimous thirteen united States of America.”[3] And since this was so, having a dictator was not an option for Americans seeking instead a functioning system of representative government.
To provide a clearer understanding of Article II, it has been rostered here for the uninitiated; though it would seem that any who are born here and who are not fluent with the founding documents of this Nation are hardly competent enough to take part in its system of elections, since their role as political decision-makers can surely be called into question; leaving them, therefore, unqualified for the cherished position that many in this world would salivate to enjoy, “Ruler of the Nation.”
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Article II
SECTION I: The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during a term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, 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 two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state as themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each; which list 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 the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said House shall in like manner choose the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by the States, the Representation from each State having on 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. In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall chose from them by ballot the Vice President.
The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall have 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 that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.
In case of removal of the President from office, or his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation or inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.
The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services, a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them.
Before he enters on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation:–“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
SECTION 2: The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties at their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.
He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senate present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.
The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.
SECTION 3: He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States.
SECTION 4: The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
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When reading the Constitution, one is immediately struck by Article I. It is an outline of legislative power, which is, and not by accident, comprised of more pages than Article II for the Chief Executive and Article III pertaining to the Judicial Branch. Not a surprise when one understands that this is where power was supposed to reside. Representatives and Senators elected by the citizenry, to be that firewall within the system of Checks and Balances. Congress, then, was to be more equal than the other two branches because, since the members of said chambers are, again, elected by the People; for it is here in Congress that Bills emerge, to become Law once the President affixes his signature.[4]
Under the American Republic (and not a Democracy, to which the term itself appears nowhere in the Constitution) the President does not declare war, Congress does. The President does not raise the money for the army and navy, Congress does. The President can sign a treaty, but the Senate ratifies same. It is Congress that has the power of impeachment, not the President. Congress has the power “to lay and collect taxes;” Congress has the power to borrow money “on the credit of the United States;” it is Congress that makes sure that no monies are withdrawn from the treasury unless by appropriations made by law. “No title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States. And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without consent of the Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince or foreign State.” Such is the terminology found in the United States Constitution.
It would certainly behoove the citizenry to do more than merely reference this Blueprint for Representative Government; or, do more than merely reacquaint themselves with the mechanisms of Republican Government; but, rather digest same intellectually so as to become proficient with such concepts as, Rule of Law and Consent of the Governed. Thereby enabling such a citizenry to be the judges of those candidates who seek the highest single elected office in Liberty’s Land, and wise enough to consign to the political pasture those of the unsuited, the unfit, the unskilled and by any stretch unqualified to earn that coveted moniker of, Chief Executive of the United States of America for that Constitutionally mandated term of four years.
Endnotes
[1] See page 59, “The Federalist No. 10,” by James Madison, The Federalist.
[2] See pages 2 and 3, Chapter 1, “Introduction,” Second Treatise, On Civil Government, by John Locke.
[3] Such is the paraphrasing of the title of a document popularly referred to as, “The Declaration of Independence;” but what should be actually referred to as “The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America.”
[4] “In all cases whilst the government subsists, the legislative is the supreme power; for what can give laws to another must needs be superior to him, and since the legislative is no otherwise legislative of the society but by the right it has to make laws for all the parts and for every member of the society, prescribing rules to their actions, and giving power of execution where they are transgressed, the legislative must needs be the supreme, and all other powers in any members or parts of the society derived from and subordinate to it.” See page 125, Chapter XIII, “Of the Subordination of the Powers of the Commonwealth,” by John Locke.
Bibliography
Hamilton, Alexander and Jay, John and Madison, John, The Federalist, Edited and Introduction by Jacob E. Cooke, Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, Connecticut, 1961.
