Vice-governor

“ Is the superior in contemplation a king, I must consider him as God's Vicegerent, cloathed with unlimited power, his will the supreme law, and not accountable for his actions, let them be what they may, to any tribunal upon earth. Is the superior a plantation governor? He must be viewed, not only as the most excellent representation of majesty, but as a viceroy in his department, and quoad provincial administration, to all intents and purposes, vested with all the prerogatives that were ever exercised by the most absolute prince in Great Britain. ”

“ He cannot take the command of the forces in person, without the consent of the Congress, or of a majority of two-thirds in the Council of State. When thus employed, the Vice-President takes charge of the Government.
2. He cannot deprive any one of liberty; but in cases where the interest of the Federation requires it, he may arrest any individual, placing him, within a term of forty-eight hours, at the disposal of the competent tribunal. ”

“ Executive power is vested in a president and vice-president elected for periods of four years by a direct vote of the people. (Under the constitution of 1884 the official terms of these two officers were not wholly synchronous, the vice-president’s term beginning with the president’s third year.) ”

“ Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That, in the States lately declared in rebellion against the United States, the President shall, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint for each a provisional governor, with pay and emoluments not exceeding those of a brigadier-general of volunteers, who shall be charged with the civil administration of such State, until a State government therein shall be recognized as hereinafter provided. ”

“ The office of Vice President, apart from the right of succession which it carries, is not of much importance. In selecting their candidates for the office the two leading political parties have usually given very little thought to the problem of getting the most capable man. ”

“ To that benign and healing hand of Providence I trust, in humble hope of the good which it always brings forth out of evil. In upwards of half a century this is the first instance of a Vice-President being called to act as President of the United States, and brings to the test that provision of the constitution which places in the executive chair a man never thought of for it by anybody. ”

“ The appointment of an extraordinary person, as Vice-President, has been objected to as superfluous, if not mischievous. It has been alleged, that it would have been preferable to have authorized the Senate to elect out of their own body an officer answering that description. ”

“ Indifference, stupidity, party-spirit, and religious dissension, nearly always thwart the efforts of the promoters. It is thought good policy to select as president some local notability; probably not distinguished for wisdom, but whose donation or prestige more than counterbalances his defect in this respect. Vice-presidents are chosen with the same view: a clergyman or two; some neighbouring squires, if they can be had; an ex-mayor; several aldermen; half a dozen manufacturers and wealthy tradesmen ”

“ Usually a new Viceroy and Governor-General is, on landing in India, really new in every sense. The European officers, the Native Princes, Chiefs and people, are strangers to him as he is personally unknown to them. Yet he has great power and wide influence, not only over individuals, but also over large classes and masses, and his personality will for a term of years affect the conduct of the executive and the course of legislation. Consequently when he comes, public expectation is on the tiptoe, and the public gaze is strained to discover what manner of man he may be. ”

“ They shall annually choose a President, who shall preside in council in the absence of the governor, and who, in case of his office becoming vacant by death or otherwise, shall have authority to exercise all his functions, till a new appointment be made, as he shall also in any interval during which the governor shall declare himself unable to attend to the duties of his office. ”

“ MY DEAR GOVERNOR:—It was ordered by the franchises of destiny that you become the chief executive of a state in which the telling of tales brightened the hunter's camp-fire and cheered the lonely pioneer's cabin before our people learned the uses of ink; and the supreme fitness of this lies in the fact that you are yourself the best of story-tellers and entitled, for your excellence in this particular, as well as for weightier reasons, to sit at the head of the table in that commonwealth to which we are both bound by many and dear ties. ”

“ From the duties attached to his office, the Vice President of the United States, and President of the senate, though not a member of the legislature, was classed, in the public mind, with that department not less than with the executive. Elected by the whole people of America in common with the President, he could not fail to be taken from the most distinguished citizens, and to add to the dignity of the body over which he presided. ”

“ The former is in fact but a modification of the original sovereign power, residing in the people of the several States.' It seems, then, that this most important modification is in fact a modification. 'Accommodated is when a man is, as they say, accommodated, or when a man is being—whereby he may be thought to be accommodated.' 'But,' continues the Vice-President, 'the original sovereign power residing in the people of the several States, though modified, is not delegated. ”

“ The President and Secretary of State, and in case of disagreement, the Vice-President shall appoint all civil officers, but shall not have power to remove any officer. All removals shall be the result of a fair trial, whether civil or military. ”

“ The governor of a State (in some of the States) is chosen, not directly by the people, but by those who are chosen by the people, for the purpose of performing, among other duties, that of electing a governor. Is the government of the State, on that account, not a popular government? This government, Sir, is the independent offspring of the popular will. It is not the creature of State legislatures ”

“ Certainly the past goes to show that popular choice has on the whole been safer than selected choice could ever have been, for the Presidents chosen by the people have been successful, while those brought forward by politicians have been failures. Another illuminating fact is that the Vice President is always the choice of the politicians, the people taking little interest in the selection of that official ”

“ Inability of the first vice-president to assume the office opens the way for the second vice-president, who becomes acting president until a successor is chosen, The vice-presidents cannot be candidates for the presidency during their occupancy of the supreme executive office, nor can the ministers of state, nor the general-in-chief of the army, while in the exercise of their official duties. ”

“ If the Governor of each Presidency were to have in his Council some of the officials of his Government, some of the non- official Europeans resident in the Presidency, and two or three at least of the intelligent Natives of the Presidency in whom the people would have some confidence, you would have begun that which will be of inestimable value hereafter—you would have begun to unite the government with the governed ”

“ Among the questions which have been the topic of recent debate in the halls of Congress none are of greater gravity than those relating to the ascertainment of the vote for Presidential electors and the intendment of the Constitution in its provisions for devolving Executive functions upon the Vice-President when the President suffers from inability to discharge the powers and duties of his office. ”

“ The man voted for as Vice-president will be selected without any decisive view to his qualifications to administer the government. The office will generally be carried into the market to be exchanged for the votes of some large States for President ”

“ Indeed, the value of the principle of concentrating power in the hands of a chief officer, under the name of governor, or of some equivalent term, is recognized by its adoption in large institutions of every sort in the country. ”

“ The demands of party leaders were made subordinate to public interests. He promoted the passage of a good civil service law. All bills passed by the legislature were subjected to the governor’s laborious personal scrutiny, and the veto power was used without fear or favour. ”

“ In the present exigency of American affairs, when, by an act of Parliament, we are put out of the royal protection, and consequently discharged from our allegiance, and it has become necessary to assume government for our immediate security, the governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary, treasurer, commissary, attorney-general, should be chosen by joint ballot of both houses. ”

“ Suppose him to aim at the president's chair, or vice-president's, at the next election—or at the office of war, foreign or domestic affairs, will he not naturally be tempted to make use of his whole patronage, his whole influence, in advising to appointments, both with president and senators, to get such persons nominated, as wall exert themselves in elections of president, vice-president, senators, and house of representatives, to increase his interests, and promote his views? ”

“ Once admit, what the Vice-President fully recognises, and what no man in his senses can deny, that the General Government, call it agency or what you will, is a real Government;—that the instrument from which it derives its power is a real Constitution or social compact, and the argument is brought to a close ”

“ The other consideration is, that as the Vice-President may occasionally become a substitute for the President, in the supreme Executive magistracy, all the reasons which recommend the mode of election prescribed for the one, apply with great if not with equal force, to the manner of appointing the other. ”

“ Our governor is obliged to return, after a given period, to a private station. It is so in most of the states. This President will be elected time after time: he will be continued in office for life. If we wish to change him, the great powers in Europe will not allow us. ”

“ In case the President of the Senate is prevented from performing his/her duties for health reason, or for assuming his/her functions as Head of State ad interim or as Regent, or for being on mission abroad, a Vice-President shall replace him/her. ”

“ The subject in dispute is which shall have the honour of hanging the vice-president. I have not now the leisure to state the various pretensions of the parties, with the arguments on either side; nor is it yet known that the vice-president has made his election, though a paper received this morning asserts, but without authority, that he had determined in favour of the New-York tribunals. You shall have due notice of the time and place. Whenever it may be, you may rely on a great concourse of company, much gayety, and many rare sights; such as the lion, the elephant, &c. ”

“ Whether a Governor of this State avails himself of the ascendant he must necessarily have, in this delicate and important part of the administration, to prefer to offices men who are best qualified for them, or whether he prostitutes that advantage to the advancement of persons whose chief merit is their implicit devotion to his will, and to the support of a despicable and dangerous system of personal influence, are questions which, unfortunately for the community, can only be the subjects of speculation and conjecture. ”

“ To Sir Charles Wood.
Simla: May 6, 1863.
In a general way, I must say that I am inclined to give a preference, in disposing of these high offices, to persons who have served in the offices of the Supreme Government or in the Governor-General's Legislative Council. I would not, of course, exclude men of proved and eminent qualities because they had been employed only in the Provinces or minor Presidencies; but my impression is that the work is lighter, and that reputations are more easily won, in the service of the minor than in that of the Supreme Government. ”

“ But, in practice and in fact, a wise Governor, though he is an appointive officer of the central government, does not often put himself in opposition to public opinion, unless it be a case of the greatest importance ”

“ Answer. No Vice-President was ever made President by the people. It is natural to resent the accident that gave the Vice-President the place. They regard the Vice-President as children do a stepmother. ”

“ Emperor’s private treasurer; Vice-Minister of Interior for many years; rose through influence of his cousin, but not loyal to latter’s memory; cannot be influenced except through fear or favor.” (4) “A self-made man who might better have let out the job; has courage, and is unmercifully, cruel and oppressive; is the most ignorant official in high office during twenty years.” Yet this low-born and ignorant fellow had almost absolute control of the Emperor and of the country’s finances for several years. ”

“ We have, I think, fallen on the happiest of all modes of constituting the executive, that of easing and aiding our President, by permitting him to choose Secretaries of State, of finance, of war, and of the navy, with whom he may advise, either separately or all together, and remedy their divisions by adopting or controlling their opinions at his discretion; this saves the nation from the evils of a divided will, and secures to it a steady march in the systematic course which the president may have adopted for that of his administration. ”

“ The executive powers shall be exercised by a Governor, who shall be chosen by joint ballot of both houses of assembly, and when chosen shall remain in office five years, and be ineligible a second time. During his term he shall hold no other office or emolument under this state, or any other state or power whatsoever. By executive powers, we mean no reference to those powers exercised under our former government by the crown as of its prerogative, nor that these shall be the standard of what may or may not be deemed the rightful powers of the governor. ”