for legislative purposes, at 12 o'clock noon; if the calendar day of same falls on Sunday, then the succeeding day; consequently the duration of each Congress expires by law on the 4th day of March of each alternate odd year.

Congress may be convened at any time, when not in session, by proclamation of the President, "on extraordinary occasions" (see page 146). He has no power to adjourn it, or to prorogue Congress, except in case of disagreement. No President has ever had occasion to adjourn Congress.

An Act of Congress may control the acts of the State legislature as to place, time, and manner of elections; except as to place of choosing Senators, in which the State legislature remains supreme.

Executive sessions, for the consideration of certain communications from the President, are held with closed doors, and the record kept in a separate journal, which is not published.

From the organization of the Senate, March 4, 1789, until December session in 1794, its sessions were all held with closed doors, except during the discussion in February, 1794, of the right of Albert Gallatin, as Senator from Pennsylvania, to a seat, when it was insisted he was an alien and ineligible. No reports of the debates of Congress prior to 1799 have been preserved.

When considering treaties and nominations, the sessions are with closed doors.

One of the rules of the House provides for secret sessions to consider confidential communications. There is no instance in which the House has excluded the public from its debates.

The Territories are represented in the House of Representatives by a delegate elected by the Territory; he has the right of debate, but no vote, not being recognized by the Constitution. His admission to the floor is by statute. Territorial legislation is subject to Congressional control, their courts are provided for, the judges being appointed by the President of the United States, and confirmed by the Senate, and over which the Supreme Court of the United States has appellate jurisdiction. (See "Constitution," on the Porto Rico decision, in "Political Vocabulary.")

When the rules of the two Houses of Congress conflict, the House of Representatives rules are of greater authority than those of the Senate in determining the parliamentary law of the country, but of no authority in any other assembly.

THE SENATE, or "upper house" of Congress, consists of two Senators

from every State, regardless of size or population of the State, chosen by the respective State legislatures for a term of six years, in such a way that one-third of the whole body of the Senate goes out of office every two years; so that there is never a complete alteration of its membership at one time, but at all times members in the Senate familiar with the legislation, under which plan it is less liable to the effects of political excitement than the House. It is regarded as a permanent body; continual and perpetual in existence.

There is never a new Senate.

When the first Senate was organized, ten States were represented. May 14, 1789, they were divided into three classes; one of six members, the other two of seven each. The members of each class then drew lots, the class drawing number one to serve two years, number two to serve four years, and number three, six years. The classes were so arranged that no two Senators from one State fell in the same class. As the other three States sent Senators, they were assigned by lot in the same way, a blank being so used as to keep the classes even. As the terms of the classes expired, then successors were elected for six full years. Senators from new States are assigned by lot in the presence of the Senate so as to keep the three classes nearly even.

The Act of Congress, 1866, provides that in every State each branch of the legislature shall first vote separately, and viva voce, for Senator. These votes are declared in joint Assembly on the following day, and if no candidate has received a majority vote of each House, both Houses in joint Assembly elect a Senator by ballot. If a vacancy occurs in the Senate, when the legislature of the State interested is not in session, it may be filled by appointment of the Governor, until the legislature next meets, when a Senator is chosen for the unexpired term. If a legislature fails to elect, having had an opportunity, the Governor cannot fill the vacancy: so decided by the first regular session 51st Congress, in the cases of Montana, Wyoming, and Washington.

The Vice-President of the United States acts as Chairman of the Senate (Constitution, Art. 1, Sec. 3), his only function. He appoints no committees, has no vote (unless in the case of an equal division), he decides no questions of order, this being within the authority of the Senate; he is not, strictly speaking, a member of the Senate.

The Senate elects of its members a President pro tempore, to cover an absence of the Vice-President, as in the event of sickness, death, or succession to the Presidency. The President pro tempore votes on all questions. His office is held at the pleasure of the Senate. When there is no Vice-President, the President pro tempore of the Senate receives the salary of the Vice-President.

The Senate has three functions:

Legislative. To pass bills, which alone with the action of the House of Representatives become acts of Congress, on the assent of the President or passage over his veto.

Executive. To approve or disapprove the President's nominations of Federal officers, including judges, ministers of State, and ambassadors, and by a two-thirds majority of members present, treaties presented by the President (if less than two-thirds approve, the treaty fails).

The Senate may amend a treaty and return it amended to the President; there is no law to prevent the Senate proposing a draft of a treaty to the President and requesting him to prepare one. (See "President.")

Judicial. Sit as a court for the trial of impeachments prepared by the House of Representatives.

Senate bills do not die by effluxion of time.

Senate Standing Committees and their chairmen are chosen by ballot, and appointed for two years, or the Congressional period. Select Committees last one session.

Bills after the first and second readings go to a Standing Committee, who examine and amend it, reporting it back to the Senate.

A Senator must be thirty years of age, nine years a citizen of the United States, and at the time of his election a resident within the State for which he is chosen.

Albert Gallatin of Pennsylvania, elected in 1798, and James Shields of Illinois, in 1849, were disqualified by reason of an insufficient citizenship - the only cases in the history of Congress.

Salary, $5000 per year, with $125 per annum allowance for stationery and newspapers, and mileage at rate of twenty cents a mile for travel to and from Washington for every annual session. Deductions are made for absence without leave.

Mileage: 1789-1815, $6 for every necessary mile going to and from the Capitol; 18151817, no mileage; 1817-1865, $S for every twenty miles; 1865–1871, twenty cents per mile; 1871-1873, actual expenses of travel; 1873-, twenty cents per mile. In 1795 Senators received one dollar per day more than Representatives.

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, or "lower house," is composed of members chosen for two years by the people of each State, based on the population. (See Index, "Apportionment.")

Members of the House of Representatives are the only persons holding office under the United States government who derive their appointment directly from the people.

A Representative must be at least twenty-five years of age, seven years a citizen of the United States, and at time of election a resident within the State for which he is chosen.

REPRESENTATIVES-AT-LARGE. Since 1842, when it is impossible or difficult for the State legislature to district the State in time for an election, or when it is not desirable to do so, in the event of Congress allowing a State one or more additional Representatives under a new apportionment, they are elected for the whole State and designated as Representativesat-large.

The House chooses its Speaker and other officers from among its members. The Speaker is elected for two years, and has the right to vote on all questions; he is required to vote when his vote will decide the pending question, or when the vote is by ballot.

The Clerk of the last preceding House acts as a sort of temporary Chairman until a Speaker is chosen, members address him, and he decides questions of order.

The Speaker selects all members of each of the Standing Committees, including their chairmen.

Every member of the House is placed on some one of the Standing Committees as nominated by the Speaker, the Standing Committees sitting through two sessions. Select Committees and their chairmen last one session.

April, 1789 (First Congress), the House appointed committees by ballot; it was discontinued in January, 1790, under a rule: "All committees shall be appointed by the Speaker unless otherwise specially directed by the House," which rule has since been adopted by each successive Congress.

All measures are referred to the Standing Committees after the first and second reading, and their power over a Bill is unlimited. A majority of the members is considered a quorum. When there is a dispute as to proper committee for a reference of a measure it is decided by a vote of the House.

Committees can amend or extinguish a Bill by reporting adversely, or delaying it to near the close of sessions, or not report it at all.

He is the second political

Salary of the Speaker, $8000 per annum. figure in the United States, in rank standing next to the President and on a level with the justices of the Supreme Court.

The salary of a Representative is the same as a Senator (q.v.).

The House of Representatives, in theory, is purely legislative; it has no share in the executive functions of the Senate (q.v.). It has the exclusive right of initiating revenue bills (Constitution, Art. I., Sec. 7), impeaching officials, and choosing a President should there be no absolute majority of presidential electors for any one candidate.

The House does not regularly meet until a year has elapsed from the time when it was elected, except it be specially convoked by the President. A House elected in November, 1902, will not meet until December, 1903, unless called together by the President subsequent to March 4, 1903. The "old" House continues to sit for nearly four months after the election of members of the " new "House.

Bryce in his " American Commonwealth," says the origin of the Senate and House of Representatives is due partly to the fact that in some colonies there had existed a small Governor's Council" in addition to the popular representative body, and "partly to a natural disposition to imitate the mother country with its Lords and Commons, a disposition which manifested itself both in colonial days and when the revolting States were giving themselves new Constitutions, for up to 1776 some of the colonies had gone on with a legislature of one house only."

It is noted in the Constitution, Art. I., Sec. 6, that Senators and Representatives are "privileged from arrest during their attendance at the sessions of their respective houses." The original cause of this exemption (except for felonies during a session) was incident to the following circumstance :

The Hon. George Ferrars, a member of Parliament, being in attendance on the House, was taken in execution by a sheriff's officer for debt, and committed to the Compter prison, in March, 1542. The House dispatched their sergeant to require his release, which was resisted, and an affray taking place, his mace was broken. The House in a body repaired to the Lords to complain, when the contempt was adjudged to be very great, and the punishment of the offenders were referred to the Lower House. On another messenger being sent to the sheriff's by the Commons, they delivered up the Senator, and the civil magistrates and the creditor were committed to the Tower, the inferior officers to Newgate, and an act was passed releasing Mr. Ferrars from liability from debt. The king, Henry VIII, highly approved of all these proceedings, and the transaction became the basis of that rule of Parliament which exempts members from arrest. - Holinshed.

The only States that have tried to do with a single House are Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Vermont. Pennsylvania in 1790, after four years' experience, gave it up. Georgia tried it for twelve years, until 1789. Vermont after fifty years abolished it in 1836.

The " upper house is called the Senate in all States.

The "lower house" is the House of Delegates in Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia; the Assembly in California, Nevada, Florida, New York, and Wisconsin; the General Assembly in New Jersey; and the House of Representatives in the other States. The lower house was called the House of Commons by North Carolina prior to 1868. (See "Legislature," in "Political Vocabulary.")