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CHAPTER failures of choice, a part of the representatives were not yet chosen. It accorded with this general system of 1789. tardiness, that Federal Hall, not yet completed, was still under the hands of the carpenters.

Thirty representatives, just a quorum, having at last March 30, made their appearance, the House proceeded to organize itself. The result of the presidential election, though the votes were not yet officially declared, was already well known. As the offices of president and vice-president had been filled from Virginia and Massachusetts, it seemed fit to take the speaker from Pennsylvania, the next state in wealth and population. Frederic A. Muhlenburg was accordingly chosen by ballot and conducted to the chair, an honor which he duly acknowledged. Muhlenburg was a man of wealth, engaged in the sugar-refining business in the city of Philadelphia.

April 6.

The Monday following, the Senate having also obtained a quorum, Langdon was chosen president of that body, "for the sole purpose of opening and counting the votes for President of the United States." A message was then sent to the other house that the Senate were ready in their chamber to proceed to count the votes. The Representatives proceeded to the Senate Chamber; the votes were opened, and, as they were read off by the presiding officer, two lists were made out, a senator and two representatives having been appointed for that purpose by their respective houses. The representatives having withdrawn, Langdon was elected president of the Senate pro tempore. The result of the election was of ficially declared to the two houses by their respective presiding officers. Washington had received sixty-nine votes, that being the whole number of electors voting. The votes for the second candidate were somewhat scattered. Nine votes, those of New Jersey, Delaware, and

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one of Virginia, were given to John Jay; the six Mary- CHAPTER land votes to Robert H. Harrison, formerly Washington's secretary, and then chief justice of that state; the 1789. six South Carolina votes to John Rutledge; two votes of Pennsylvania, and one each of Virginia and South Carolina, to John Hancock; three of Virginia to George Clinton; two of Connecticut to Samuel Huntington, late President of Congress, and now governor of that state; one of the Georgia votes to General Lincoln, and four others to three citizens of that state who did not enjoy a Continental reputation. John Adams received the entire vote of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, five votes out of seven in Connecticut, one in New Jersey, eight out of ten in Pennsylvania, and five out of ten in Virginia-thirty-four in all; not a majority, but sufficient, as the Constitution then stood, being the second highest number, to make him vice-president. Adams had lately returned from a nine years' diplomatic residence abroad, the latter part of the time as minister to England, a station from which he had been tacitly recalled by the expiration of the three years to which, by a resolution of the Continental Congress, all diplomatic appointments had been limited. England having appointed no minister to America, it had not been thought proper to continue the mission..

The notification of the president and vice-president elect was intrusted by the House to the Senate, and two special messengers were dispatched for that purpose, provided with formal certificates of the result of the vote, and letters of congratulation drawn up by a committee and signed by Langdon. A joint committee of the two houses was also appointed to prepare an appropriate reception.

During the absence of the messengers, the two houses busied themselves upon rules and orders of proceeding,

The

CHAPTER to draft which they appointed their separate committees, I. and also a joint committee on the choice of a chaplain 1789. and on rules to govern the two houses in cases of conference. The rules adopted on the reports of these committees, though since modified in some particulars, still continue to form the basis of congressional action. powers to preserve order given to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, and those relating to the course of debate and decorum of conduct, were tho same which had been in force in the Continental Congress, and which prevailed in all the state legislative assemblies.

In the Senate, committees were to be chosen by ballot, a practice still kept up; in the House, their appointment was to be by the speaker, unless they were to consist of more than three members, in which case the appointment was to be by ballot. This rule lasted, however, only for the session; at the commencement of the next session it was modified into the shape which it still retains, the appointment of all committees being given to the speaker, except when otherwise expressly ordered. The rules of the House provided for a single standing committee one on elections-the beginning of a system since so extended as to exercise almost complete control over the business of the House. This, however, was a work of time; no other standing committees were added till several sessions afterward, and for many years the number was limited to four or five.

In the House, bills could only be introduced by committees to whom the subject-matter had been referred. Every bill was required to receive three readings on three different days. It was made a standing order of the day for the House to resolve itself into committee of the whole on the state of the Union, for the consideration and free

discussion of such bills or motions as might be committed CHAPTER

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to it, the speaker in that case to leave the chair, having first appointed a chairman to preside; but no vote or pro- 1789. ceeding in committee of the whole was to be binding unless subsequently confirmed by the House.

In the Senate, every member had the right of introducing bills. The use of formal committees of the whole was not adopted; but all bills, on their second reading, were to be freely discussed, as if in committee of the whole. Both houses adopted the practice, borrowed from the British Parliament, of founding bills upon resolutions discussed in committee of the whole and adopted by the House, the principal discussion being thus made to precede the introduction of the bill-a method since, in a great measure, superseded by the practice of referring every new proposition to one or other of the numerous standing committees. The previous question, as a means of stopping debate, was hardly known in the early Congresses. A refusal to order the previous question was considered equivalent to a dismissal of the subject, for which purpose that motion was occasionally employed.

Some difference arose as to the method of communicating bills from one house to the other. The Senate proposed to send theirs by their secretary, and that bills from the House be brought up by two members of that body, to be received by the senators standing. The House refused to consent to any such distinction, and the Senate finally agreed to receive bills by such messengers as the House might appoint.

In case of amendments to bills proposed by one house and disagreed to by the other, but still insisted upon, committees of conference were to be appointed at the request of either house, for the purpose of arranging the difference.

While on their passage between the two houses, bills

CHAPTER were to be engrossed on paper. After their passage, they I. were to be enrolled on parchment, and after the correct1789. ness of the enrollment had been verified and reported

upon by a joint standing committee appointed for that purpose, they were to be signed first by the Speaker of the House and then by the President of the Senate, and afterward the same joint committee were to present them to the president for his signature, the day of presentation, as reported by the committee, to be entered on the journals of both houses.

In addition to its clerk, who had the making up of the journal, under the superintendence of the speaker, the House appointed a sergeant-at-arms as its executive officer for the arrest of absent or disorderly members, or other persons who might infringe the dignity of the House; also a door-keeper, with assistants, and a messenger. The Senate had a secretary, corresponding to the clerk of the House, a door-keeper, and a messenger. Two chaplains were to be chosen, of different denomina. tions, one by the Senate, the other by the House, to interchange weekly. The House sat with open doors, the public were admitted to hear the debates, and reporters were accommodated with seats on the floor. The Senate imitated the example of the Continental Congress, transacting all its business with closed doors, a practice continued for several sessions, till public opinion compelled

its abandonment.

Having received official notification of his election, after the honor of an entertainment from Governor Hancock, Vice-president Adams departed for New York, under the escort of a troop of horse. He was attended in like manner through Connecticut, and, by order of Governor Clinton, was received at the New York line in a similar way. From King's Bridge, at the upper end of