CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



149 



Mr. Morton : u That is my impression ; hut 

 tlmt ease lias not occurred. I simply mean to 

 sav that \\ hate\ -IT may ho the effect of the act 

 of 17'. (1 J in tixing the term of the President pro 

 tempore, it can have no such effect until the 

 contingency takes place, even if the Senator ia 

 rL'ht about it. It cannot have that effect in 

 advance of the happening of the contingency." 



Mr. Norwood : " Would it not follow, then, 

 I will ask the Senator, by the exercise of the 

 power for which he contends, that the Senate 

 of the United States would have the constitu- 

 tional power to elect a President of the United 

 Btateal" 



Mr. Morton : " No, sir ; not the President of 

 the United States." 



Mr. Norwood : " If the President pro tern- 

 pore of the Senate becomes President of the 

 United States eo instanti on the death of the 

 President, and wo the next day can change 

 that officer, an officer of this body, and put 

 another in the chair, would we not virtually 

 elect the President of the United States ? " 



Mr. Morton : " We would not elect a Presi- 

 dent of the United States at all, I submit to my 

 friend. The President pro tempore of the Sen- 

 ate does not become Vice-President ; he sim- 

 ply is the presiding officer of the Senate. He 

 does not lose any of his functions as Senator ; 

 he votes on every question ; his name is called 

 on the roll ; and he has a right to call any 

 other m3mber to the chair and come down and 

 take p:irt in the debates. He is in no sense 

 tho Vice-President of the United States ; and 

 waen the duties of President of the United 

 States are devolved upon the President of the 

 Senate pro tempore, he does not become Presi- 

 dent of the United States, but he is simply 

 performing the duties of that officer for the 

 time being under the law." 



Mr. Stevenson, of Kentucky, said : " Mr. 

 President, I desire to say that the usage of tho 

 Senate upon the question of the tenure of the 

 President pro tempore for seventy years has 

 been directly opposed to the argument of tho 

 Senator from Indiana. I confess frankly that 

 precedents in legislation are not necessarily 

 conclusive evidence of what the law is. But 

 when there has been, as in this case, a long, 

 unbroken series of precedents, always in one 

 direction, it is strongly persuasive that their 

 construction of this clause of the Constitution 

 is the true one. This argument finds additional 

 support when we ascertain such jurists as Judge 

 Collamer, of Vermont, and James A. Bayard, 

 of Delaware, able and honored members of the 

 legal profession, opposed in political sentiment, 

 concurring in opinion that the office of Presi- 

 dent pro tempore of tho Senate is one of fixed 

 tenure, and is not subject to removal at the 

 mere pleasure of the Senate. The debates in 

 1881 show that Senators Collamer and Bayard 

 differed not upon the point of the permanen- 

 cy of the tenure of the President pro tempore, 

 not upon the point that that officer did not 

 hold his appointment at the mere pleasure of 



tho Senate, as tho pending resolution asserts. 

 No, sir ; they differed alone upon the point 

 upon the duration of tho appointment. Mr. 

 Collamer held that the President pro tempore 

 continued to hold his position during the ul>- 

 sence of the Vice-President, during the sena- 

 torial term of such officer, and that the return 

 of the Vice-President to the Senate did not 

 terminate the tenure of the appointment of 

 President pro tempore; while Mr. Bayard, 

 upon the other hand, argued that the true lim- 

 itation of the tenure of the President pro tem- 

 pore during his terra as Senator was the return 

 of the Vice-President. In other words, as soon 

 as the Vice-President took his place in the Sen- 

 ate the office of President pro tempore ceased, 

 and another election became necessary. 



"Both these eminent legal minds concurred in 

 opinion that it was not competent for the Sen- 

 ate to remove the President pro tempore at 

 their whim and pleasure. The views of each 

 were in direct opposition to the report of the 

 committee and to the conclusions reached by 

 them. 



" There was no difference of opinion between 

 them on the point that tho office of President 

 pro tempore was fixed by the Constitution, al- 

 though they reached different results as to its 

 duration. 



" I concur in the opinion of Mr. Bayard, so 

 ably vindicated by the masterly argument of 

 the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Merri- 

 mon). I could, I am sure, add nothing to what 

 was so forcibly and well said by him in sup- 

 port of his views of this question, and in which 

 I so heartily concur, and I should say nothing 

 but for the construction so earnestly insisted 

 upon by the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Mor- 

 ton) in his argument to-day, and which, if it 

 prevail, may lead to pernicious results, fore- 

 seen by the framers of the Constitution, and 

 intended to be avoided and guarded against by 

 this clause of the Constitution creating the 

 office of President pro tempore of the Senate. 



" The honorable Senator from Indiana insists 

 that the act of 1792, declaring that the Presi- 

 dent pro tempore shall, upon the happening of 

 certain contingencies, become President of the 

 United States, cannot change the Constitution. 

 I admit it. But that Senator will not deny that 

 an not of Congress, passed so shortly after the 

 adoption of the Constitution as this act of 1792, 

 constitutes a strong contemporaneous implica- 

 tion as to what the framers of the Constitution 

 intended in creating the office of President pro 

 tempore of the Senate, and as to what that Con- 

 gress thought as early as 1792, was tho true 

 construction of that clause of the Constitution 

 creating that office. 



" Examine the clause itself: 



The Vice-President of the United States shall he 

 President of tho Senate, but shall have no vote, un- 

 less they be equally divided. 



" The Constitution creates this office. The 

 incumbent is not elected by the Senate. He 

 holds his office independently of the body over 



