156 



CONGEESS, UNITED STATES. 



in the presence of the two Houses, are to be 

 counted. Counted by whom ? Who is to de- 

 termine whether a vote is lawful or not ? Does 

 it require both Houses of Congress acting sep- 

 arately to admit a vote, or are they to be pre- 

 sumed to be lawful votes, so as to require both 

 Houses to reject them? There are a great 

 many questions involved, and it seems to me 

 that this is a propitious time, and that it is our 

 duty to fix this question, so that that danger 

 to the country resulting from the present un- 

 certainty shall be removed." 



Mr. Thurman, of Ohio, said : " The resolu- 

 tion now before the Senate rests upon the 

 assumption that the joint rules of the two 

 Houses fall at the end of what is called every 

 Congress, and that they must necessarily do 

 so upon the theory that the House of Repre- 

 sentatives expires at the end of every Con- 

 gress, while it is said that the Senate is a per- 

 petual body. Why is it said that the Senate is 

 a perpetual body ? I know of no reason ex- 

 cept one, and that is that only one-third of its 

 members go out every two years, so that there 

 is always a sufficient number of Senators in 

 office to constitute a quorum of the Senate." 



'' The Senate is said to be a perpetual body, 

 because it can be convened at any instant. I 

 ay, that the Congress of the United States 

 can be convened at any moment. In the con- 

 templation of our Constitution there is never 

 one moment of time when there is not a Con- 

 gress of the United States which can be con- 

 vened upon the call of the President, and in 

 point of fact it is so; for, although some of 

 the States have been accustomed to elect after 

 the 4th of March, as the State of Connecticut, 

 and perhaps the State of Kentucky, yet the 

 great majority of the States elect before the 

 4th of March, in the fall preceding the 4th of 

 March of the odd year ; and I believe that, 

 under an act of Congress which we have passed, 

 and which will go into effect after 1876, all the 

 members of the House of Representatives will 

 be elected before the 4th of March of the year 

 when a Congress expires. But there never 

 has been one day, I believe, since the inaugu- 

 ration of this Government when a quorum of 

 the House of Representatives has not been 

 elected, and a Congress could not have been 

 convened upon the call of the President ; and 

 I say the theory of our Government is that 

 all the departments of the Government, execu- 

 tive, judicial, legislative, are in existence at 

 every moment of time. A department of Gov- 

 ernment is not the less in existence because 

 some seat may be vacant in it. There ia no 

 less a Supreme Court because there may be a 

 vacancy on the bench of that court. There is 

 no less a Chief Executive because the President 

 may die. There is no less a Congress because 

 seats on this floor, or in the other House, may 

 be vacant. No, sir; the theory of our Gov- 

 ernment is that there is a Congress always in 

 existence, and the fact is that there is such a 

 Congress; that at no time, perhaps, in all our 



history has there been a single moment when, 

 upon a call of the President, a lawful Congress 

 of the United States could not have been as- 

 sembled." 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said: ll The rules of 

 the House of Representatives, I believe it is 

 conceded on all hands, expire with the Con- 

 gress. There can be no doubt about that; 

 because that has been the universal practice 

 of the Government, I believe, from the begin- 

 ning. While I was a member of the House 

 there were two or three important occa- 

 sions when, before the House was organized, 

 it was held that there were no rules. The 

 hour rule, so necessary in the government of 

 the House, was abandoned during at least two 

 periods of stormy contest; and it was agreed 

 on all hands, that the rules of the House of 

 Representatives expired with the Congress, 

 and that no law, no act of Congress even, could 

 prevent it An act of Congress cannot extend 

 the rules of one House to another, because the 

 Constitution, the supreme law of the land, de- 

 clares that each House shall make its own 

 rules. By the established practice of the Gov- 

 ernment from the beginning to this hour, it 

 has been held that the rules of the House of 

 Representatives expire with the Congress, and 

 that no law can operate to extend the rules 

 from one Congress to another, because that 

 would be to violate the Constitution itself. 

 In this respect, the rules of each House are 

 precisely alike. The rules of the Senate are 

 no more operative than the rules of the House 

 of Representatives. We have the power to 

 change them at any moment." 



Mr. Morton: "Mr. President, I have always 

 understood the theory of the two Houses to 

 be this : first, that the Senate is a continuing 

 body. That results from the nature of its 

 organization, and also because it is a part 

 of the executive department of the Govern- 

 ment. We have had some discussion here 

 within a few days, involving that very ques- 

 tion. When the Senate adjourns from one 

 session to another, it is nothing more than 

 a recess of the Senate. It does not differ in 

 point of law from an adjournment from Thurs- 

 day over to Monday. The officers all continue. 

 We have just decided that a President pro tern- 

 pore of the Senate elected at a former session 

 continues to be President $ ro tempore when 

 the Senate meets in a new Congress. In that 

 way we have recognized the continuous char- 

 acter of the Senate; but I believe I have never 

 before heard it said that the House of Repre- 

 sentatives was a continuing body. The Sena- 

 tor from Ohio says that in that respect it is 

 precisely like the Senate. The organization 

 of the Senate is never lost; all the officers 

 continue. If we have a Vice -President, he 

 continues during his term. We have a Presi- 

 dent pro tempore, a Sergeant-at-Anns, and a 

 Secretary, and they continue until the Senate 

 itself makes a change. Therefore the organi- 

 zation of the body is not lost, and every ad- 



