that body has a concurrent agency with the President.
But last, the first and second clauses of the third section of the first
article, not only obviate all possibility of doubt, but destroy the
pretext of misconception. The former provides, that "the Senate of the
United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen
BY THE LEGISLATURE THEREOF for six years"; and the latter directs, that,
"if vacancies in that body should happen by resignation or otherwise,
DURING THE RECESS OF THE LEGISLATURE OF ANY STATE, the Executive
THEREOF may make temporary appointments until the NEXT MEETING OF THE
LEGISLATURE, which shall then fill such vacancies." Here is an express
power given, in clear and unambiguous terms, to the State Executives,
to fill casual vacancies in the Senate, by temporary appointments; which
not only invalidates the supposition, that the clause before considered
could have been intended to confer that power upon the President of the
United States, but proves that this supposition, destitute as it is even
of the merit of plausibility, must have originated in an intention
to deceive the people, too palpable to be obscured by sophistry, too
atrocious to be palliated by hypocrisy.

I have taken the pains to select this instance of misrepresentation, and
to place it in a clear and strong light, as an unequivocal proof of the
unwarrantable arts which are practiced to prevent a fair and impartial
judgment of the real merits of the Constitution submitted to the
consideration of the people. Nor have I scrupled, in so flagrant a case,
to allow myself a severity of animadversion little congenial with the
general spirit of these papers. I hesitate not to submit it to the
decision of any candid and honest adversary of the proposed government,
whether language can furnish epithets of too much asperity, for so
shameless and so prostitute an attempt to impose on the citizens of
America.

PUBLIUS

1. See CATO, No. V.

2. Article I, section 3, clause 1.

FEDERALIST No. 68

The Mode of Electing the President

From The Independent Journal. Wednesday, March 12, 1788.

HAMILTON

To the People of the State of New York:

THE mode of appointment of the Chief Magistrate of the United States
is almost the only part of the system, of any consequence, which has
escaped without severe censure, or which has received the slightest mark
of approbation from its opponents. The most plausible of these, who ha