ARTICLE XI.

The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign State.

Judicial Constructions. If the State be not necessarily a defendant, though its interests may be affected by the decision, the courts of the United States are bound to exercise jurisdiction. Lon. R. R. Co. v. Letson, 2 How. 550.

A State by becoming interested with others in a banking or trading corporation, or by owning all the capital stock, does not impart to that corporation any of its privileges or prerogatives. It lays down its sovereignty, so far as respects the transactions of the corporation. Bank of the United States v. Planters Bank of Ga. 9 Wheat. 904; Dorrington v. Bank of Alabama, 13 How. 12.

21

ARTICLE XII.

The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President; and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each; which lists 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 the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted; the person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately by bal

lot the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one 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. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.

The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have a majority, then, from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President: a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice.

But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President, shall be eligible to that of VicePresident of the United States.

By the Constitution, as originally adopted, each of the "electors" was required to vote for two persons, without

designating which of them it was intended should be President or which to be vice-president; and the candidate receiving the largest number of votes, being a majority of the whole number, was to be President, and the next highest, vice-president.

In the presidential election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr were the candidates of the republican party, and John Adams and C. C. Pinckney of the federal party. Jefferson and Burr received seventy-three votes each, and Mr. Adams sixty-five. No person had received the highest number of votes, and consequently the election devolved on the House of Representatives. Although there was not the slightest doubt as to which of the candidates was the actual choice of the people, when the House of Representatives proceeded to the election, eight States voted for Jefferson, six for Burr, and two were divided, and it was not until the thirty-fifth ballot that a choice was effected. This bold attempt by a party in the House of Representatives, to counteract and resist the clearly expressed will of the people, led to the adoption of this amendment.

NOTE. The time for the meeting of the electors is the first Wednesday in December - and the time for counting the votes is the second Wednesday in February. 1 Stat. 239.

CLOSING PROCEEDINGS

OF THE CONVENTION AND OF THE CongrESS.

In Convention, Monday, September 17, 1787.- Present: The States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Mr. Hamilton from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

Resolved, That the preceding Constitution be laid before the United States in Congress assembled, and that it is the opinion of this Convention that it should afterwards be submitted to a Convention of delegates, chosen in each State by the people thereof, under the recommendation of its legislature, for their assent and ratification; and that each Convention, assenting to and ratifying the same, should give notice thereof, to the United States in Congress assembled.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Convention, that as soon as the Conventions of nine States shall have ratified this Constitution, the United States in Congress assembled should fix a day on which electors should be appointed by the States which shall have ratified the same, and a day on which the electors should assemble to vote for the President, and the time and place for commencing proceedings under this Constitution. That after such publication the electors should be appointed, and the senators and representatives elected; that the electors should meet on the day fixed for the election of the President, and should transmit their votes certified, signed, sealed, and directed, as the Constitution requires, to the