§ 1. The Vice-President, elected simultaneously with the President, shall take the place of the latter in case of temporary disability, and shall succeed him in case of vacancy in the Presidency.

§ 2. In case of disability of the Vice-President, or vacancy of his office, the following shall be called in the order named, to fill the Presidency: The vice-president of the Senate, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, the president of the Federal Supreme Court. § 3. The following are the essential conditions of eligibility to the Presidency or Vice-Presidency of the Republic:

1. To be a native of Brazil.

2. To enjoy the exercise of political rights.

3. To be Over 35 years of age.

ART. 42. If the vacancy in the Presidency or Vice-Presidency occurs, for any cause whatever, before two years of the presidential term have elapsed, a new election shall be held.

1

ART. 43. The President shall hold his office for four years, and shall not be reelected for the succeeding presidential term.

§ 1. The Vice-President who may have filled the Presidency during the last year of the presidential term shall not be eligible to the Presidency for the succeeding term.

§ 2. The President shall cease to exercise his powers, without fail, on the same day on which his presidential term expires, and the newly elected President shall at once succeed him.

§ 3. In case of the disability or failure of the latter to enter upon the discharge of his duties, the succession shall be effected in accordance with §§ 1 and 2 of Article 41.

§ 4. The first presidential term shall expire on 15 November 1894. ART. 44. On taking possession of his office, the President, before Congress, or if that body is not in session, before the Federal Supreme Court, shall make the following affirmation:

I promise to maintain and execute the federal Constitution with perfect loyalty, to promote the general welfare of the Republic, to observe its laws, and to uphold the Union, its integrity and independence.

ART. 45. The President and Vice-President shall not leave the national territory without the permission of the Congress, under penalty of loss of office.

ART. 46. The President and Vice-President shall receive the salary fixed by the Congress in the preceding presidential term.

CHAPTER II.-ELECTION OF PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT.

ART. 47. The President and Vice-President of the Republic shall be elected by direct suffrage 2 of the nation and by an absolute majority of votes.

1 The governmental draft proposed six years.

2 The governmental draft proposed two degrees of suffrage. Article 1 of the Transitory Provisions provided for the election of the first President.

§ 1. The election shall be held on the first day of March of the last year of the presidential term, and the examination of the votes received in the respective election districts shall be made in the federal capital and in the capitals of the States. Congress shall count the votes in its first meeting of the same year, with whatever number of members may be present.

§ 2. In case no one of the candidates shall have received an absolute majority of votes, Congress shall elect, by a majority vote of those present, one of the two persons who have obtained the greatest number of votes in the direct election.

In case of tie the candidate of greatest age shall be considered elected.

§ 3. The process of election and counting of votes shall be regulated by ordinary law.

§ 4. The relatives, whether by blood or affinity, within the first and second degrees, of the President or Vice-President who is in the exercise of his powers at the time of the election, or was so six months before, shall be ineligible to the offices of President and Vice-President.

CHAPTER III.-THE POWERS OF THE EXECUTIVE.

ART. 48. To the President of the Republic belongs the exclusive right:

1. To sanction, promulgate and make public the laws and resolutions of the Congress; to issue decrees, instructions and regulations for their faithful execution.

2. To appoint and dismiss at will the ministers of State.

3. To exercise, or to designate one who shall exercise supreme command over the land and naval forces of the United States of Brazil when called to arms for the internal or external defense of the Union.

4. To govern the army and navy and to distribute their respective forces, in accordance with the federal laws and the needs of the national government.

5. To dispose of the civil and military offices of a federal character, under the restrictions specified in the Constitution.

6. To remit and commute penalties for crimes subject to federal jurisdiction, except in the cases mentioned in Article 34, No. 28, and Article 52, § 2.

7. To declare war and to make peace, under the provisions of Article 34, No. 11.

8. To declare war at once in cases of foreign invasion or aggression.

9. To present an annual statement to the National Congress of the condition of the country, indicating pressing measures and re

forms. by means of a message, which he shall send to the secretary of the Senate on the day of the opening of the legislative session. 10. To convoke the Congress in extraordinary session.

11. To appoint the federal judges upon nomination by the Supreme Court.

12. To appoint the members of the Federal Supreme Court and diplomatic ministers, with the approval of the Senate.

In the absence of the Congress, he may appoint them temporarily until acted upon by the Senate.

13. To appoint all other members of the diplomatic corps and consular agents.

14. To maintain relations with foreign Powers.

15. To declare directly, or through his responsible agents, a state of siege at any point of the national territory, in case of foreign aggression or serious internal disturbance (Article 6, No. 3; Article 34, No. 21; and Article 80).

16. To enter into international negotiations, to conclude agreements, conventions and treaties, always with the restriction that they are to be referred to the Congress, and to approve those made by the States in conformity with Article 65, submitting them, at the time. of their execution, to the authority of the Congress.

CHAPTER IV.-MINISTERS OF STATE.

ART. 49. The President of the Republic is assisted by the ministers of State, agents of his confidence, who shall countersign his acts, and each of whom shall preside over one of the ministries into which the federal administration is divided.1

ART. 50. The ministers of State shall not exercise any other public employment or function, nor shall they be elected President or VicePresident of the Union, deputy or senator.

SOLE §. Any deputy or senator who shall accept the position of minister of State shall lose his seat and a new election shall at once be held, in which he shall be ineligible.

ART. 51. The ministers of State shall not appear at the meetings of the Congress and shall communicate with that body only in writing or personally by means of conferences with the committees of the houses.

The annual reports of the ministers shall be addressed to the President of the Republic and distributed to all the members of Congress. ART. 52. The ministers of State are not responsible to the Congress or to the courts for advice given to the President of the Republic.

§ 1. They are responsible, however, for their acts, if these constitute crimes defined by law.

1 The Law of 30 October 1891 (No. 23) created 7 ministries. Later reduced to 6, they were again (1909) restored to 7.

§ 2. For ordinary offenses and in cases of impeachment they shall be prosecuted and tried by the Federal Supreme Court, and for those committed jointly with the President of the Republic, by the authority competent to pass judgment on the latter.

CHAPTER V. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PRESIDENT.

ART. 53. The President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil. after the Chamber of Deputies shall have decided that he should be tried on charges made against him, shall be brought to trial and judgment before the Federal Supreme Court in cases of ordinary crimes, and before the Senate in cases of impeachment.

SOLE §. After it has been decided that the President shall be tried, he shall be suspended from the exercise of his functions.

ART. 54. Acts for which the President of the Republic may be impeached are those which are directed against:

1. The political existence of the Union.

2. The Constitution and the form of the federal government. 3. The free exercise of political powers.

4. The legal enjoyment and exercise of political or individual rights.

5. The internal security of the country.

6. The honesty of the administration.

7. The constitutional custody and use of public funds.

8. The appropriations voted by Congress.

§ 1. These offenses shall be defined by a special law.1

§ 2. Another law shall regulate the mode of accusation, procedure and judgment.2

§ 3. Both of these laws shall be enacted in the first session of the first Congress.

SECTION III. THE JUDICIAL POWER.

ART. 55. The judicial power of the Union shall be vested in a Federal Supreme Court, sitting in the capital of the Republic, and in as many inferior federal judges and courts, distributed through the country, as the Congress shall create.

ART. 56. The Federal Supreme Court shall be composed of 15 justices, appointed under the provisions of Article 48, No. 12, from among the citizens of notable learning and reputation, eligible tc the Senate.

ART. 57. The federal justices shall hold office for life, being removable only by judicial sentence.

§ 1. Their salaries shall be fixed by law and can not be diminished.

1 Law of 7 January 1892 (No. 27).

2 Law of 8 January 1892 (No. 30).

§ 2. The Senate shall try the impeachments of the members of the Federal Supreme Court and the Federal Supreme Court those of the lower federal judges.

ART. 58. The federal courts shall choose their presidents from among their own members, and shall organize their respective clerical

corps.

§ 1. In these corps the appointment and dismissal of the respective clerks, as well as the filling of the judicial offices in the judicial districts, shall belong to the presidents of the respective courts.

§ 2. The President of the Republic shall appoint, from among the members of the Federal Supreme Court, the Attorney-General of the Republic, whose attributions shall be defined by law.

ART. 59. The Federal Supreme Court shall have power:

I. To try with original and exclusive jurisdiction:

a. The President of the Republic for ordinary crimes, and the ministers of State in the cases specified in Article 52.

b. The diplomatic ministers for ordinary crimes and in cases of impeachment.

c. Questions and conflicts between the Union and the States, or between the States one with another.

d. Suits and claims between foreign nations and the Union, or between foreign nations and the States.

e. Conflicts between the federal judges or courts one with another, or between them and those of the States, as also conflicts of the judges and courts of one State with the judges and courts of another State.

II. To decide, on appeal, questions passed upon by the inferior federal judges and courts, as well as those mentioned in § 1 of the present article and in Article 60.

III. To review decided cases under the provisions of Article 81. § 1. An appeal to the Federal Supreme Court can be taken against decisions rendered in the last instance, by the courts of the State:

a. When the validity or application of the federal laws or treaties is called in question and the decision of the State court shall be against the same.

b. When the validity of laws or acts of the governments of the States in opposition to the Constitution or to the federal laws is contested and the State court shall have decided in favor of the validity of the acts or laws in question.

§ 2. In the cases which involve the application of the laws of the States, the federal court shall consult the jurisprudence of the local tribunals, and, vice versa, the State court shall consult that of the federal tribunals, when the interpretation of the laws of the Union is involved.