ORGANIZATION OF THE HOUSE.

473

of meeting had a precedent in the constitution of South Carolina. It was a month later than the time for the meeting of the old Congress.

In the article on the organization of the House, the Committee made important changes. Its members should be chosen by electors having the same qualifications in the States as electors of the most numerous branch of the assembly.2 In addition to being twenty-five years of age, a representative at the time of his election must be a resident of the State in which he was chosen and a citizen of the United States for three years. The number of representatives should be apportioned in the ratio of one for every forty thousand inhabitants. A new clause was added; that the House should have the sole right of impeachment and should choose its Speaker and other officers, a careful compliance with most of the State constitutions."

1 Constitution, 1776, Article XI; for the time of meeting of the assembly in other States as fixed by their constitutions see the note post, Vol. III, p. 480.

2 Section one of the fourth Article of the committee's report embodied in the Constitution, Article I, Section 2, Clause 1.

3 Embodied in the Constitution, Article I, Section 2, Clause 2. 4 Modified later, see Constitution, Article I, Section 2, Clause 3.

5 On choosing the speaker. New Jersey, 1776, Article V; Pennsylvania, 1776, Section 10; Delaware, 1776, Article V; Maryland, 1776, Article XXIV; North Carolina, 1776, Article X; South Carolina, 1776, Article IX and 1778, Article XVIII; New York, 1777, Article IX; Vermont, 1777, Article IX, 1786, Article XII; Massachusetts, 1780, Part I, Chapter 1, Section 3, X. Albany Plan, 1754, Carson 2, p. 469; Galloway's Plan, 1774, Id., 499; British Constitution, also a precedent. The power of impeachment was vested in the Lower Branch of the legislature of the British Constitution; Pennsylvania, 1776, Section 22; Delaware, 1776, Article XXIII; Virginia, 1776, Section 15; South Carolina, 1778, Article XXIII; Georgia, 1777, Article LXIX; Vermont, 1777, Article XX, 1786, Article XXI; New York, 1777, Article XXXIII (twothirds required to agree to an impeachment); Massachusetts, 1780, Part I, Section 3, Chapter 1, VI; New Hampshire, 1784.

474

ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS.

Vacancies in the House should be supplied through writs of election from the executive authority of the State in which they occurred.1 Vacancies in the Senate should be filled by the governor until the next meeting of the State legislature. Several administrative details were added. Immediately after the first election of Senators, they should be divided, by lot, as nearly as possible into three classes; the seats of the first, to be vacated at the expiration of the second year; of the second, at the expiration of the fourth; and of the third, at the expiration of the sixth.3 A Senator should be a citizen of the United States four years at the time of his election, and a resident of the State from which he was chosen. The Senate should choose its own President and other officers,-a provision originating with the Committee but evidently suggested from the State constitutions.5

4

With the Committee also originated the administrative details, that the time, place and manner of holding elections of members of either House should be prescribed by the assemblies, but might be altered by Congress." In accordance with its instructions, the Committee reported a clause, giving Congress authority to establish such property qualifications for its members, in each House, as might seem expedient. Doubtless the various requirements of the States prevented the Committee from choosing those in force in any, and led it to leave the matter with Con

1 Compare Constitution, Article I, Section 2, Clause 4.

2 Compare Constitution, Article I, Section 2, Clause 4 and Id., Section 3, Clause 2.

3 Compare Constitution, Article I, Section 3, Clause 2.

4 Compare Constitution, Article I, Section 3, Clause 3.

5 Maryland, 1776, Article XXIV; South Carolina, 1776, Article IX; Massachusetts, 1780, Part I, Chapter 1, Section 2, VII; New Hampshire, 1784.

• Compare Constitution, Article I, Section 4.

PRECEDENTS FROM STATE CONSTITUTIONS.

475

gress. A majority in each House was declared a quorum to do business, but a smaller number might adjourn from day to day.1

From the State constitutions were taken the provisions that each House should be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members,2 who, in all cases, except treason, felony and a breach of the peace, should be privileged from arrest during their attendance in Congress and in going to or returning from it;3 and, that outside of the legislature, they should not be impeached or questioned for whatever they might utter in the freedom of speech or debate within it. Each House should determine its rules of procedure,-might punish a member for disorder, and if necessary, expel him." Both House and Senate should keep a journal and publish it from time to time; the yeas and nays to be entered on any question at the desire of one-fifth of the members of either

1 Compare Constitution, Article I, Section 5, Clause 1. Vermont Constitution, 1777, Article IX, two-thirds of all H. R. made a quorum; 1786, Article IX, a majority of the House of Representatives made a quorum, except to raise a State tax, which required two-thirds, as in 1777.

2 Compare Constitution Id. See New Jersey constitution, 1776, Article V; Delaware, 1776, Article V; Maryland, 1776, Article IX; North Carolina, 1776, Article X; New York, 1777, Article IX; Massachusetts, 1780, Part I, Chapter 1, Section 2, IV (Senate) Section 3, X (House).

3 Compare Constitution, Article I, Section 6, Clause 1; they were exempt in the same manner by the Articles of Confederation, V, but the immediate precedent for the committee's report was the constitution of Massachusetts, 1780, Part I, Chapter 1, Section 3, X, XI.

4 Compare Constitution, Article I, Section 6, Clause 1.

5 Compare Constitution, Article I, Section 5, Clause 2. It followed the British precedent and the constitution of Delaware, 1776, Article V; Maryland, 1776, Articles X, XXI and XXIV; Massachusetts, 1780, Part I, Chapter 2, Section 3, X-XI; New Hampshire, 1784.

branch.1 Neither House should adjourn, without the consent of the other, for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two Houses were sitting, but this regulation did not extend to the Senate when sitting as a court of impeachment. The Committee provided that the compensation of senators and representatives should be paid by the States. The style of enacting laws should be: "By the House of Representatives and by the Senate of the United States in Congress assembled."4

The executive power, which had presented so many difficulties, was made to conform in many details to the precedents established by the State constitutions. Every bill which had passed the House and Senate should, before it became a law, be presented to the President of the United States for his approval: the Committee suggesting the clause. If he approved, he should sign the bill; if not, he, like the governor of South Carolina,5 should return it to

1 Compare Constitution, Article I, Section 5, Clause 3. Taken from the constitution of New York, 1777, Article XV, requiring both Houses to keep a journal; see also Delaware, 1776, Article VII; the Council was required to keep a journal by the constitution of Pennsylvania, Section 20; North Carolina, 1776, Article XIV; Vermont, 1777, Article XVIII, 1786, Article XI. Monthly publication of the journal, excepting secret matters, was required by the Articles of Confederation, IX. The yeas and nays must be entered on the journal at the request of any delegate, by the same article. Entry of the vote could be required by one-third the members present, by the constitution of Vermont, 1777, Article XIII, 1786, Article XIV.

2 Compare Constitution, Article I, Section 5, Clause 4.

3 Compare Constitution, Article I, Section 6, Clause 1.

4 The form now used is "Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled."

Constitution, 1776, Article VII, the veto power vests in the Crown; the assent of the President-General to the acts of the Grand Council was proposed in the Albany Plan of Union, 1754; Carson, II, 470.

THE TITLE, "PRESIDENT.”

477

gether with his objections, to the House in which it originated, which should enter them at large on its journal and proceed to reconsider the bill. If, notwithstanding the objections of the President, two-thirds of that House should agree to pass it, the bill, together with the objections, should be sent to the other House and if approved there, in like manner, it should become a law. In all such cases the votes of both Houses should be determined by yeas and nays and the names be entered on the journals. If a bill should not be returned by the President within seven days after its presentation to him, it should become a law, unless by adjournment Congress should prevent its return; in which case it should not be a law. This elaborate detail the Committee took almost word for word from the constitution of Massachusetts.2

The title "President" may be said to be the oldest in use in America for an executive officer, for it may be found in the first Virginia charter of 1606; it was used as a distinctive name in the first charters of Massachusetts1 and Georgia; in the grant of New Hampshire to John Mason, in 1629; in the New Hampshire commission fifty years later; as the title of the chief executive in five States, and as that of the presiding officer of the Congress of the Confederation."

1 Compare Constitution, Article I, Section 7, Clause 2.

2 1780, Chapter I, Section 1, Article II. The governor of Massachusetts must return the bill within five days or it becomes a law without his signature. By the New York constitution, 1777, Article III, bills were sent to the Council of Revision consisting of the Governor, the Chancellor and the Supreme Court judges or any two of them.

8 Also of 1609 and 1611.

4 1620.

1622.

• Pennsylvania, 1776, Sections 1 and 3; Delaware, 1776, Article VII; New Jersey, 1776, Article VI (the Governor was President of the Council); New Hampshire, 1784.

7 Article IX.