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 to that description. But two considerations seem to justify the ideas of the convention in this respect. One is, that to secure at all times the possibility of a definite resolution of the body, it is necessary that the president should have only a casting vote. And to take the senator of any state from his seat as senator, to place him in that of president of the senate, would be to exchange, in regard to the state from which he came, a constant for a contingent vote. 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. It is remarkable, that, in this, as in most other instances^ the objection which is made, would lie against the constitution of this state. We have a lieutenant-governor, chosen by the people at large, who presides in the senate, and is the constitutional substitute for the governor in casualties similar to those which would authorize the vice-president to exercise the authorities, and discharge the duties of the president.
PUBLIUS.
No. LXIX.
BY ALEXANDER HAMILTON.
The same view continued, with a comparison between the president and the king of Great Britain, on the one hand, and the governor of New York, on the other.
I proceed now to trace the real characters of the proposed executive, as they are marked out in the plan of the convention. This will serve to place in a strong light the unfairness of the representations which have been made in regard to it.
