12 



LIBRARY OF READY REFERENCE. 



of members elected every second year by the 

 vote of citizens who, according to the laws of 

 their respective States, are qualified to vote. 

 In general such voters are all male citizens 

 over twenty-one years of age. Neither race 

 nor color affects the right of citizens. The 

 franchise is not absolutely universal ; residence 

 for at least one year in most States (in Rhode 

 Island and Kentucky two years, in Michigan 

 and Maine three months) is necessary, in 

 some States the payment of taxes, in others 

 registration. On the other hand, many of 

 the Western States admit to the franchise 

 unnaturalized persons who have formally de- 

 clared their intention to become citizens. Un- 

 taxed Indians are excluded from the franchise, 

 in most States convicts, in some States duel- 

 ists and fraudulent voters ; in Massachusetts 

 voters are required to be able to read Eng- 

 lish, and in Mississippi and South Carolina 

 there are also educational restrictions. Colo- 

 rado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming admit .wo- 

 men to the franchise on equal terms with men. 

 The number of members to which each State 

 is entitled is determined by the census taken 

 every ten years. By the Apportionment Act 

 consequent on the census of 1890, the number 

 of representatives was 357, distributed as fol- 

 lows : 



Alabama 



Arkansas 



California 



Colorado 



Connecticut 



Delaware 



Florida 



Georgia 



Idaho 



Illinois 



Indiana 



Iowa 



Kansas 



Kentucky 



Louisiana 



Maine 



Maryland 



Massachusetts 



Michigan 



Minnesota 



Mississippi 



Missouri 



Montana 



Nebraska 



On the basis of the last census there is one 

 representative to every 173,900 inhabitants. 

 The popular vote for President in 1896 was 

 about 14,000,000, or nearly one in five of the 

 entire population. In 1890 there were in the 

 United States 16,940,311 males of voting age 

 21 years and over, including unnaturalized 

 foreigners. 



The next apportionment will be based upon 

 the Federal census of 1900, the results of which 

 census will be reported to the Congress assem- 

 bling the first Monday in December of that 

 year, the Congress passing an apportionment 

 act providing the requisite number of repre- 



t 

 a 



8 



34 

 9 

 1 



21 

 2 

 30 

 2 

 7 

 2 



10 



13 

 1 

 2 



10 

 2 

 4 



10 

 1 



357 



sentatives from each State, and notifying the 

 respective States of this action. Each State 

 will then rearrange its congressional districts 

 for the next election, which will take place 

 in November, 1902, and the apportionment 

 then established in accordance with the next 

 enumeration will hold for ten years. The 

 apportionment at the various censuses lias 

 been as follows : 



According to the terms of the Constitution, 

 representatives must not be less than twenty, 

 five years of age, must have been citizens oi 

 the United States for seven years, and be resi- 

 dents in the States from which they are chosen. 

 In addition to the representatives from the 

 States, the House admits a "delegate" from 

 each organized Territory, who has the right 

 to speak on any subject and to make motions, 

 but not to vote. The delegates are elected in 

 the same manner as the representatives. 



Each of the two houses of Congress is made 

 by the Constitution the "judge of the elec- 

 tions, returns, and qualifications of its own 

 members" ; and each of the houses may, with 

 the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member. 



The Congress of the United States has the 

 power to propose alterations in the Constitu- 

 tion, by the 5th article of the same. The 

 article orders that the Congress, whenever two 

 thirds of both" houses shall deem it necessary, 

 shall propose amendments to the Constitution, 

 or, on the application of the Legislatures of 

 two thirds of all the States, shall call a con- 

 vention for proposing the amendments, which 

 in either case shall be valid to all intents and 

 purposes as part of the Constitution when 

 ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of 

 the several States, or by conventions in three 

 fourths thereof, as the one or other mode of 

 ratification may be proposed by Congress. 



Slavery was abolished throughout the whole 

 of the United States by the Thirteenth Amend- 

 ment of the Constitution, adopted Dec. 18, 

 1865. The vast change in the political and 

 social organization of the Republic made by 



