2.
- 2. Congress is the name of the legislative body of the United States,
composed of the senate and house of representatives. Const. U. S. art.
1,s. 1.
3. Congress is composed of two independent houses. 1. The senate and, 2. The house of representatives.
4.-
1. The senate is composed of two senators from each state, chosen by
the legislature thereof for six years, and each senator has one vote.
They represent the states rather than the people, as each state has its
equal voice and equal weight in the senate, witliout any regard to the
disparity of population, wealth or dimensions. The senate have been,
from the first formation of the government, divided into three classes;
and the rotation of the classes was originally determined by lots, and
the seats of one class are vacated at the end of the second year, and
one-third of the senate is chosen every second year. Const. U. S. art 1,
s. 3. This provision was borrowed from a similar one in some of the
state constitutions, of which Virginia gave the first example.
5.
The qualifications which the constitution requires of a senator, are,
that he should be thirty years of age, have been nine years a citizen of
the United States, and, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state
for which he shall be chosen. Art. 1, s. 3.
6.-2.
The house of representatives is composed of members chosen every second
year by the people of the several states, who are qualified electors of
the most numerous branch of the legislature of the state to which they
belong.
7.
No person can be a representative until he has attained the age of
twenty-five years, and has been seven years a citizen of the United
States, and is, at the time of his election, an inhabitant of the state
in which he is chosen. Const. U. S. art. 1, 2.
8.
The constitution requires that the representatives and direct taxes
shall be apportioned among the several states, which may be included
within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be
determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including
those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not
taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. Art. 1, s. 1.
9.
The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty
thousand, but each state shall have at least one representative. Ib.
10.
Having shown how congress is constituted, it is proposed here to
consider the privileges and powers of the two houses, both aggregately
and separately.
11.
Each house is made the judge of the election, returns, and
qualifications of its own members. Art. 1, s. 5. As each house acts in
these cases in a judicial character, its decisions, like the decisions
of any other court of justice, ought to be regulated by known principles
of law, and strictly adhered to, for the sake of uniformity and
certainty. A majority of each house shall constitute a quorum to do
business but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be
authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner,
and under such penalties, as, each may provide. Each house may determine
the rules of its proceedings; punish its members for disorderly
behaviour; and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member. Each
house is bound to keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to
time, publish the same, excepting such parts as may, in their judgment,
require secrecy; and to enter the yeas and nays on the journal, on any
question, at the desire of one-fifth of the members present. Art. 1, s.
5.
12.
The members of both houses are in all cases, except treason, felony,
and breach of the peace, privileged from arrest during their attendance
at the session of their respective houses, and in going to, and
returning from the same. Art. 1, s. 6.
13.
These privileges of the two houses are obviously necessary for their
preservation and character; And, what is still more important to the
freedom of deliberation, no member can be questioned in any other place
for any speech or debate in either house. lb.
14.
There is no express power given to either house to punish for
contempts, except when committed by their own members, but they have
such an implied power. 6 Wheat. R. 204. This power, however, extends no
further than imprisonment, and that will continue no farther than the
duration of the power that imprisons. The imprisonment will therefore
terminate with the adjournment or dissolution of congress.
15.
The house of representatives has the exclusive right of originating
bills for raising revenue, and this is the only privilege that house
enjoys in its legislative character, which is not shared equally with
the other; and even those bills are amendable by the senate in its
discretion. Art. 1, s. 7.
16.
The two houses are an entire and perfect check upon each other, in all
business appertaining to legislatiou and one of them cannot even
adjourn, during the session of congress, for more than three days,
without the consent of the either nor to any other place than that in
which the two houses shall be sitting. Art. 1, s. 5.
17.
The powers of congress extend generally to all subjects of a national
nature. Congress are authorized to provide for the common defence and
general welfare; and for that purpose, among other express grants, they
have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises; to
borrow money on the credit of the United States; to regulate commerce
with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the
Indians; 1 McLean R. 257; to establish all uniform rule of
naturalization, and uniform laws of bankruptcy throughout the United
States; to establish post offices and post roads; to promote the
progress of science and the useful arts, by securing for a limited time
to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective
writings and discoveries; to constitute tribunals inferior to the
supreme court; to define and punish piracies on the high seas, and
offences against the laws of nations; to declare war; to raise and
support armies; to provide and maintain a navy; to provide for the
calling forth of the militia; to exercise exclusive legislation over the
District of Columbia; and to give full efficacy to the powers contained
in the constitution.
18.
The rules of proceeding in each house are substantially the same; the
house of representatives choose their own speaker; the vice-president of
the United States is, ex officio, president of the senate, and gives
the casting vote when the members are equally divided. The proceedings
and discussions in the two houses are generally in public.
19.
The ordinary mode of passing laws is briefly this; one day's notice of a
motion for leave to bring in a bill, in cases of a general nature, is
required; every bill must have three readings before it is passed, and
these readings must be on different days; and no bill can be committed
and amended until it has been twice read. In the house of
representatives, bills, after being twice read, are committed to a
committee of the whole house, when a chairman is appointed by the
speaker to preside over the committee, when the speaker leaves the
chair, and takes a part in the debate as an ordinary member.
20.
When a bill has passed one house, it is transmitted, to tho other, and
goes through a similar form, though in the senate there is less
formality, and bills are often committed to a select committee, chosen
by ballot. If a bill be altered or amended in the house to which it is
transmitted, it is then returned to the house in which it orignated, and
if the two houses cannot agree, they appoint a committee to confer on
the subject See Conference.
21.
When a bill is engrossed, and has received the sanction of both houses,
it is sent to the president for his approbation. If he approves of the
bill, he signs it. If he does not, it is returned, with his objections,
to the house in which it originated, and that house enters the
objections at large on their journal, and proceeds to re-consider it.
If, after such re-consideration, two-thirds of the house agree to pass
the bill, it is sent, together with the objections, to the other house,
by which it is likewise re-considered, and if approved by two-thirds of
that house, it becomes a law. But in all such cases, the votes of both
houses are determined by yeas and nays; and the names of the persons
voting for and against the bill, are to be entered on the journal of
each house respectively.
22.
If any bill shall not be returned by the president within ten days
(Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same
shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the
congress, by their adjournment, prevent its return; in which case it
shall not be a law. Art. 1, s. 7. See House of Representatives;
President; Senate; Veto; Kent, Com. Lecture xi.; Rawle on the Const. ch.
ix.
CONGRESS,
med. juris. This name was anciently given in France, England, and other
countries, to the-indecent intercourse between married persons, in the
presence of witnesses appointed by the courts, in cases when the husband
or wife was charged by the other with impotence. Trebuchet, Jurisp. de
Med. 101 Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicales, art. Congres, by Marc.
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