CON<;KI:SS 



417 



establishment of religion, or prohibiting tin- fiee 



i-e thereof, or abridging the '' I" 1 " "' s pe.-ch 



.i uf tin- pie, or ili-iivin^ tin- right (if tin- people 

 pcaci-ahly to aaaemble, ana t<i petition thego\.-ni 

 mi-lit for a redress of grievances. Congress cannot 

 -n.ict any law tlmt will render tin- people in-cciire 

 in thi-ir persons, houses, papers, ami ellects from 

 nm easonable searches ami sei/.un-s; or MlthoriM 

 an\ warrants to issue but upon probftblfl can-c 

 apported liy <>atli or affirmation, particularly 

 describing the place to be searched, and the persons 

 or things to he seized. Congress has no power to 

 take from a person accused of crime his right to 

 a -peedy ami public trial, by an impartial jury of 

 tin- state or district wherein the crime was com- 

 mit tt-d ; or his right to be informed of the nature 

 ami cause of the accusation, to l>e confronted with 

 tin- witnesses against him, and t<> have compulsory 



)>rocess for obtaining witnesses in his favour; or 

 iis right to be defended by counsel. It cannot 

 enact a law requiring excessive bail, imposing 

 excessive fines, or inflicting cruel and unusual 

 punishments. 



Xi-tiate. The senate is composed of two senators 

 from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof 

 for a term of six years, so arranged that one-third 

 of all the senators shall go out every two years. 

 No person is eligible for the office of senator unless 

 he is thirty years of age, has been a citizen of the 

 United States nine years, and is an inhabitant of 

 the state for which he is chosen. The senate is 

 presided over by the vice-president of the United 

 States, but in case that officer is acting president 

 of the United States, or is unable to preside, the 

 senate elects a presiding officer pro tempore. It 

 chooses all its other officers. The senate has the 

 sole power to try impeachments presented by the 

 House of Representatives, and when sitting in 

 that capacity the senators are sworn or affirmed. 

 Should the president of the United States be on 

 trial, the chief-justice of the Supreme Court of the 

 United States presides, and two-thirds of the 

 senate may convict, upon which judgment of 

 removal from office and disqualification to hold any 

 office of honour, trust, or profit under the United 

 States may be pronounced. 



House of Representatives. The House of Repre- 

 sentatives is composed of members chosen every 

 second year by the people of the several states. 

 It elects a Speaker to preside over its deliberations, 

 and all its other officers. No person can be a re- 

 presentative in congress who has not attained the 

 age of twenty -five years and been seven years a 

 citizen of the United States, and he must be an 

 inhabitant of the state in which he is chosen. 



The representatives are apportioned* among the 

 several states according to the numlter of their 

 inhabitants respectively, counting the whole num- 

 ber of persons in each state, excluding Indians not 

 taxed. But when the right to vote at any election 

 for the choice of electors for president and vice- 

 president of the United States, representatives in 

 congress, the executive ami judicial officers of a 

 state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is 

 denied lo any of the male inhabitants of such state, 

 being twenty-one years of age and citi/ens of the 

 United States, or is in any way abridged, except 

 for participation in reln-llion or other crime, by con- 

 stitutional provision the basis of representation is 

 reduced in the proportion which the numler of 

 such male citizens hears to the whole number of 

 male citi/ens twenty one years of age in Mich 

 state. The first article of the United btfttes Con- 

 stitution provides that there shall not be more than 

 one representative to every 30,000 inhabitants ; but 

 the increase in population necessitated an increase 

 in the unit of population, to prevent the House 

 from becoming unwieldy, and the reapportionment 

 131 



after tin- . .-n-n-of 1900 gave 194, (MX) inhabitant* OH 

 the unit, or '*M<5 nii-mln-i - in ,-ill. Kach organi/ed 

 territory sends one delegate to the Hou-c of Kepre- 

 sentativeH ; he may debate, but cannot vote. 



The House of Representatives has the sole power 

 of impeachment of the executive and judicial 

 officers of the Tinted States, and must present the 

 charges on which it resin to the senate for trial. 

 Kadi house is judge of the election-, n-turn-, and 

 qualifications of its own meml>ers, and a majority 

 constitute a quorum to do business ; but a lenn 

 number may adjourn from day to day, and may 

 be authorised to compel the attendance of absent 

 members. 



Each house determines the rules of its own pro- 

 cedure, and may punish its meml>ers for disorderly 

 behaviour, and also may compel the attendance of 

 \\itnesses before its committees, and indict punish- 

 ment for contempt of its authority. 



Each house must keep a journal of its proceed- 

 ings, and must publish the same (excepting such 

 parts as may in their judgment require secrecy), 

 and at the desire of one-fifth of the membra 

 present, the yeas and nays of the members voting 

 on any question must be entered on the journal. 

 But neither house, during the session of congress, 

 without the consent of the other, can adjourn for 

 more than three days, nor to any other place than 

 that in which the two houses shall be sitting. 



No senator or representative may be appointed 

 to any civil office under the authority of the United 

 States which shall have been created during the 

 time for which he was elected, and no person hold- 

 ing any office under the United States can, during 

 his continuance in office, be a member of either 

 house of congress. 



Members of congress are privileged from arrest, 

 except for treason, felony, and breach of the peace, 

 during their attendance upon tl>eir public duties. 



Two-thirds of the senators present must concur 

 in any treaty which may be made, and in all 

 appointments by the president of ambassadors, or 

 other public ministers and consuls, judges of the 

 Supreme Court of the United States, and such 

 other officers whose appointments are not other- 

 wise provided for. 



By the amendments to the Constitution of the 

 1'nited States, abolishing slavery, guaranteeing 

 civil rights, the validity of the public debt of the 

 United States, and forbidding the denial or abridg- 

 ment of the United States citizen's right to vote on 

 account of race, colour, or previous condition of 

 servitude, congress is empowered to enforce these 

 provisions by appropriate legislation. 



When any person, having taken an oath to 

 support the constitution of the United States, as 

 an executive or judicial officer of the United States 

 or of any state, or as a member of congress or state 

 legislature, is, by article xiv. of the United States 

 constitution, ineligible to the position of senator 

 or representative, or elector of president and vice- 

 president of the United States, or to any office, 

 civil or military, under the government of the 

 United States, from having engaged in insurrec- 

 tion or rebellion against the same, congress is 

 empowered to remove this disability by a two- 

 thirds vote of both houses. 



ACTS OF CONGRESS are the legislative enactments 

 of the two houses of congress. Bills may originate in 

 either house (except Kills for raising revenue, which 

 must originate in the House of Representatives ), and 

 !> introduced by any memlier. and may he amended 

 in either house. They are usually referred to the 

 appropriate standing committee for examination 

 and report ; and are read a first, second, and third 

 time In-fore Iteing put upon their final passage, 

 being subject to modification r amendment and 

 discussion, according to the rules in each house. 



