CONGRESS, UNITED STATES 



to be referred to the Committee on the Judi- 

 ciary. Such has been the practice of this Gov- 

 ernment from the beginning. Great questions 

 of constitutional law, questions concerning tho 

 relations of tlie Union to tho States and tho 

 to tho Union, and above all, and without 

 any exception, all questions relating to repre- 

 sentation in this body, to its membership, have 

 always boon referred to the Judiciary Com- 

 mit!' 



' The Judiciary Committee is constituted for 

 ry purpose of considering such questions, 

 and for no other purpose. From its very or- 

 ganization, the Senate designs to make that com- 

 mittee its constitutional adviser not that its 

 opinions are to be conclusive or controlling on 

 the vote of any member of this body, like the 

 opinion of the bench of judges in tho House of 

 Lords; but its members are chosen in consid- 

 eration of their high professional ability, their 

 long experience, and well-known standing as 

 jurists, in order that their report upon constitu- 

 tional questions may be entitled to the highest 

 consideration. 



"Mr. President, there is nothing in the history 

 of the Senate, there is nothing in the constitu- 

 tion of this committee, which would send these 

 great constitutional questions for advisement 

 and consideration to any other committee than 

 the Committee on the Judiciary. To place 

 their consideration in the hands of a commit- 

 tee which is beyond the control of the Senate, 

 is to distrust ourselves; and to vote to send 

 their consideration to any other committee is 

 equivalent to a vote of want of confidence in 

 the Judiciary Committee. 



" But, sir, I object to this resolution in the 

 first place, because npon these great questions 

 which are to go to the joint committee the 

 Senate does not stand upon an equality with 

 tho House. This resolution provides that, of 

 tho joint committee of fifteen, nine shall be 

 appointed by the House of Representatives, 

 six only by the Senate, giving to the House 

 portion of the committee a majority of three. 

 We all know that in joint committees the mem- 

 bers vote, not as the representatives of the two 

 Houses, but per capita. The vote of a mem- 

 ber of the committee from the House weighs 

 precisely the same as the vote of a member of 

 the committee from the Senate ; so that to all 

 intents and purposes, if wo pass this concurrent 

 resolution, which wo cannot repeal but by tho 

 concurrence of the other House, wo place tl-o 

 consideration of these grave questions in tho 

 hands of a committee which we cannot control, 

 and in which we have no equal voice. 



" Mr. President, another objection to the reso- 

 lution as it came from the House, and a strong 

 reason why I favor the amendment proposed 

 by tho Senator from Rhode Island, is that tho 

 resolution in its terms reaches even beyond 

 the present Congress. Sir, have you carefully 

 studied this language, which would seem almost 

 to have been employed for tho purpose rather 

 of disguising its hidden meaning than of giving 



full utterance to the truth? The resolution 

 provides that, in case this committee shall for 

 any reason make no report, or if for any reason 

 Congress, which includes both Houses, shall 

 not take final action thereon, tho restrictive 

 clause goes into effect as a law, and what is its 

 provision ? It provides by law that, in the hap- 

 pening of that contingency, that failure to act, 

 no one of tho eleven States of the United States 

 shall send a Representative to either House of 

 Congress. It would be binding on the Senate 

 until repealed, beyond the present Congress; 

 it would bind us in the next Congress and bind 

 us in the Congress after that. It would be of 

 perpetual binding obligation forever until re- 

 pealed by act of Congress. 



u Sir, what would have been thought of the 

 joint resolution raising the Committee on the 

 Conduct of the War if there had been contained 

 in it a provision similar to this, which the Sen- 

 ator from Rhode Island moves to strike out, 

 and which the Senator from Michigan insists 

 shall be retained, and upon which he calls the 

 yeas and nays of the Senate ? Suppose that in 

 that joint resolution there had been a provision 

 declaring that until the joint Committee on the 

 Conduct of the War should make their final 

 report, and Congress should take final action 

 thereon, neither House of Congress should take 

 any action on the subject of carrying on the war, 

 and that every paper relating to that subject 

 should bo referred to that committee without 

 debate ? Monstrous as such a proposition would 

 have been, it might perhaps have been within 

 the purview of the Constitution for us to adopt 

 it; but on the subject of representation in this 

 body, it is not within our constitutional power to 

 delegate our power to any other body, or to any 

 committee which we ourselves do not control. 



u Mr. President, I believe that under the Con- 

 stitution, upon all subjects of legislation but 

 one, the two Houses are equal and coordinate 

 branches of Congress. That one relates to their 

 representation in the bodies, to their member- 

 ship, that which constitutes their existence, 

 which is essential to their life and their inde- 

 pendence. That is confided to each House, and 

 to each House alone, to act for itself. It judges 

 for itself upon the elections, returns, and quali- 

 fications of its members. It judges, it admits, 

 it punishes, it expels. It cannot share that re- 

 sponsibility with any other department of the 

 Government. It can no more share it with the 

 other House than it can share it with the Su- 

 preme Court or with the President. It is a 

 matter over which its jurisdiction is exclusive 

 of e,very other jurisdiction. It is a matter in 

 which its decisions, right or wrong, are abso- 

 lute and without appeal. Sir, in my opinion 

 the Senate of the United States cannot give to 

 a committee beyond its control this question 

 of the representation in this body, without a 

 lo*s of its self-respect, its dignity, its inde- 

 pendence ; without an abandonment of its con- 

 stitutional duty and a surrender of its constitu- 

 tional powers. 



