CHAPTER V THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONGRESS, or the National Legislature, as we have CON seen, consists of two Houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate represents the States, the House represents the nation on the basis of population. This is the basic distinction between the two bodies. Hence, the House is called the popular branch of Congress.' The members of the House, or the Representatives, are chosen every second year by the people of the several States. Those may vote for Representatives who are qualified by their State laws to vote for the most numerous branch of their State legislature. Thus, the qualificaWho may tions for voters who elect the members of the Vote for Re National House are fixed by the laws of the presentatives? respective States. The suffrage is more restricted in some States than in others, but generally the States provide for manhood suffrage. However, they are left free to do as they please in the matter, except that no State, according to the Fifteenth Amendment, may deny the ་་ The members of the House are called Representatives, or Congressmen; the members of the Senate are called Senators. The word Congress" is sometimes applied merely to the lower House, as, "Mr. A. B. is a candidate for Congress." Though the Senate is a branch of Congress it is never designated by any other term than Senate, nor its members by any other term than Senators. But, constitutionally speaking, when it is said that Congress has certain powers, both Houses are included. Qualifications of Representatives. right of suffrage on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. It is also provided, by the Fourteenth Amendment, that if the right to vote for President or Representatives is denied to any of the male inhabitants of a State, being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, except for rebellion or crime, the basis of representation in that State shall be reduced in the proportion to the number to whom suffrage is denied.' In order to be a Representative a person is required: (1) to be twenty-five years old, (2) to have been seven years a citizen of the United States, and (3) to be, when elected, an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. It does not follow that any one who can be elected possessing these three qualifications must be seated by the House. A criminal anarchist, a leper, an insane person, would, obviously, be ineligible to take the oath of membership. The House has repeatedly asserted its right to exclude memberselect for treason or other infamous crime. In 1862, Congress imposed a test oath which disqualified thousands of American citizens, and this law remained in force for twenty years. Congress may impose disqualifications for reasons that appeal to the common judgment of mankind. It was on this principle of construction that Congress excluded Brigham H. Roberts, of Utah, as “a notorious, defiant, demoralizing, and audacious violator of State and Federal law relating to polygamy and its attendant crimes. 1 See p. 351. See Report of House Committee, January 20, 1900, in the Roberts case, 56th Congress, Ist Session, Report 85, Part I. When the clerk is proceeding to organize a House by administering the oath of office to the members-elect, if the first person offering himself should be objected to as a person unfit to take the oath, the House will consider itself as already organized for the purpose of determining whether such person shall be allowed to be sworn in, and all who hold certificates of election may vote on the question. presentatives. Size of the Representatives and direct taxes are apportioned among the various States according to their respective Apportion- numbers. This was in keeping with the idea ment of Re- that taxation and representation should go together. Therefore, after every decennial cenHouse. sus, Congress allots to each State so many members of the House. The State determines the districts within its own area for which the members shall be chosen. Formerly the States provided for popular elections in their own way. Some elected their members of Congress on a common ticket by the State at large, as we now elect the Presidential electors. On this plan, usually, the party that carried the State got all the Congressmen from that State, while the other party got none, though the State may have been very close politically. But, in 1842, a national law required that the Representatives should be elected by districts composed of contiguous territory. This law was the outcome of a notable The Organiza- contest in the House in 1839, which came up tion of the from the State of New Jersey, whose Con House. The New Jersey gressmen were then all elected on a common ticket. The question that arose was whether the Speaker should be elected before the settlement of the contested election cases from New Jersey; and, if so, whether the members whose seats were contested should have a right to participate in the election of the Speaker and the organization of the House. Every person holding a certificate, whose name is on the Clerk's roll (where it belongs by operation of law), is entitled to participate in the organization of the House, whether sworn in or not. The five Whig members from New Jersey who held certificates of election had their seats contested by their five Democratic opponents, and the Clerk of the preceding House, a Democrat, whose place it was to Note the exception just cited by the provision of the Fourteenth Amendment, p. 247. make up the roll of the new House, refused to place the names of the five Whigs on the list of those entitled to vote for Speaker. Without the New Jersey members there were in the House 119 Democrats and 118 Whigs. The Clerk did not presume to put the names of the contesting Democrats on the roll; but the omission of the Whig names would enable the Democrats to elect their Speaker, organize the House, secure a majority of the Committee on Credentials (the Judiciary Committee), and decide the contested seats in their own favor. When, in calling the roll of those entitled to vote in the organization of the House, the Clerk came to the State of New Jersey, he stated that on account of the contest from that State it would be passed until the House could properly decide who were entitled to sit from that State. This created tumult and disorder. The Clerk refused to put motions to the House. After four days of wrangling, John Quincy Adams, addressing the members as "fellowcitizens," appealed to them to discharge their solemn duty of organizing by proceeding with the roll, and in so doing they should call the members from New Jersey who held the certificates of election. "But who will put the question?" some one asked. "I will put the question myself," replied the "Old Man Eloquent." The Clerk was cried down; Adams was elected to the chair, and, under his control, the House proceeded with debate. On December 14, 1839, the House consented to vote for Speaker, refusing both delegations from New Jersey the right to participate in its organization. This was what the Democrats had contended for, but a group of Independent Democrats separated from the body of the party and joined the Whigs in electing Robert M. T. Hunter, an Independent, to the Speakership. The re- District Plan sult of this contest was the provision of the district plan for electing the Representatives. It was seen that the district plan of election would generally of Electing Represen tatives. Ratio of Rep prevent a State from sending a solid delegation to Congress, and that it would be a more popular form of election. In the beginning, the Constitution provided that the Representatives should not exceed one for every thirty thousand of the population. It was thought resentatives unwise to have a large membership. The first to Population. allotment of Representatives (made by agreement in the Constitutional Convention before the census of 1790 was taken) provided for 65 members, one for about every 61,000 of the population. One member for every 30,000 of the population would have given a House of 130 members. With the growth of population it has been found necessary to increase the membership of the House, though it is still small in comparison with the lower houses of European legislatures. The present House of Representatives consists of 386 members, and this gives one for every 194,000 of the population. The English House of Commons consists of 670 members,' the French Chamber of Deputies of 584, the German Reichstag of 397.3 Each State has, of course, at least one Representative, though its population may not be as much as the apportionment would require for the average congressional district. Nevada, with a population of 42,000 has one Congressman, while the average district should have 181,000. Though each State is allotted its share of Representatives, the districts within the States may vary greatly in population, owing to "gerrymandering" acts of the State legislatures. If after a new Apportionment Act following a census a Congressmen- State has received an increase in the number at-Large. of its Representatives and the State legislature fails to redistrict the State before the next congres 1 By the Act for the Redistribution of Seats, 1885. This is one for every 131,000 of the population. The members of the Reichstag are elected by a wide suffrage for a term of five years. |