OCR Text |
Show j f WHO WOULD SUCCEED. I I s");e the death of Vice-President IIn- I ' " i dricks there has been much discussion ; i j as t0 e elected President of 1 4 j . tne Senate, and this discussion, and the i ' apprehension consequent thereon, arises from the fact that the President of the .. ; Senate would be President of the United States in case of the death of President Cleveland. The Constitution savs : ff The Congress may by law provide for the j I : ense o' removal, death, resignation, or in- ! : i . ability both of the President and Vice-Presi dent, declaring what offioer shall then act i ; .v as President; a-nd Buch offioer shall act aooordingly, until the disability be removed ' ! or a President shall be eleoted. , ; . , In accordance with this power Con- j Bress, as early as 1792, made provision r v for the contingency contemplated iu the ! Constitution by passing an act, which act . I now constitutes nee. 146 of the Revised j Statutes of the United States. It is in . ' ' , these words : t ' In case of removal, death, resignation, or 'J inability of both the President and Vioe- , . President of the United States, the Presi- 1 dent of the SenatejOr, if there is none, then I the Speaker of the House of Representatives I for the lime being, shall act as President I i until the disability is removed or a President J elected. 'j According to the New York Tribune, r Mr Wm. M. Evarts holds this law to be ? J unconstitutional, and reports him as fol- : - lows: "It has always been lay ; opinion that the ' ! present law was unconstitutional, and I so contended in the impeachment trial of Presi dent Johnson. In the first place, the Con-i; Con-i; stitution does not give to Congress the power to declare who shall be in the line of sucoes-sion, sucoes-sion, but only what offioer shall fill1 the . vacancy, and, moreover, if forbids members " 5 of Congress from holding any offioe under the Government. But of course there was a great deal of uncertainty about the mat- ter when it was under disoussion originally.' ;j- These views are interesting owing to ' ;. i . i the deference which is always paid to the views of Mr. Evarts on all constitutional questions. His being in the Senate lends an additional interest to them. Mr. Evarts is also understood as favoring the succession - to the Presidency from the Secretary of State" down-through the Cabinet. If such provision is made, and his views on the present law are correct, then the proposition to admit the various Secretaries to the floor of the House, and to participate in the debates and doings of the House, the same as a Member of Congress, is precluded at once. There is unnecessary alarm among many over possible contingencies."" .We haven't the least -doubt in the world but that Mr. Cleveland will live to conduct his own Administration, and in all prob- ability conduct a second Administration to a successful and glorious close, and then be succeeded by another Democratic President Long live Grover Cleveland. ! |