6. RHODES, History of the United States, vol. iii., pp. 394-395, 437-442, 553-558; vol. iv., pp. 60-75 (confiscation act), 157–163 (emancipation), 175-172 (arbitrary arrests), 212-215 (emancipation), 223–239, 245-253 (arbitrary powers). See references on these pages in Rhodes. 7. THAYER'S Cases in Constitutional Law, ex parte Merryman, ex parte Milligan. GENERAL REFERENCES BEARD, CHARLES A., American Government and Politics, ch. ii. The same author's Readings in American Government and Politics, chap. x. BRYCE, JAMES, The American Commonwealth, vol. i., chs. v., vi. HART, A. B., Actual Government, chap. xv. IIINSDALE, B. A., The American Government, chaps. xxviii.-xxxiii. THE CHAPTER IV THE SENATE I HE present Senate of the United States, if all elections were complete, would consist of ninety-six Composition members, two members from each of the fortyof the Senate. eight States. By the Constitution which created the Senate, the Senators were chosen by the legislatures of their respective States for a term of six Election. years, and each Senator has one vote. the Senators are chosen by the popular vote of their respective States. This change was brought about by the 17th amendment adopted in 1913. Method of A Senator is required: Qualifications of Senators. To be thirty years of age; Now To have been nine years a citizen of the United States; and To be, at the time of his election, an inhabitant of that State for which he is chosen. No Senator can hold any other office under the United States. The The Vice-President of the United States is the presidHe votes only in case of a tie. ing officer of the Senate. The Vice-President, unlike the Speaker of the President of House, is not a member of the body over which he presides. He can therefore claim no right to vote, except in case of a tie. The Senate may choose, with its other officers, a President pro tempore, who presides in the absence of the Vice-President, or the Senate: Right to The English House of Lords has about 592 members; the French Senate, 300; the German Bundesrath, 58. The latter body represents the German states. when the latter shall exercise the office of President of the United States. The President pro tempore, as a member of the Senate, may claim a vote on any question at issue, but, having voted once, he cannot, of course, vote again even in case of a tie. Al- pro Tempore. ways in a tie vote the pending measure is lost.' The President Classes of Senators. At the first organization of the Senate its members were divided, according to the Constitution, into three classes, -the seats of the Senators of the first class to be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, of the third class at the expiration of the sixth year. Senators from a new State are assigned by lot to two of these classes. One of the newly elected Senators may fall into a class whose term expires in two years, the other into a class whose term expires in four years, or in six. By this provision the two Senatorships from the same State can never be vacant at the same time. So when Senators are elected from a new State one of them may serve for only two years and the other for four. However, such Senators are usually re-elected by their States for a full term. The Senate a Permanent or Continuous Body. The Senate is called a continuous, or permanent body, because it has in every Congress two-thirds of the same members as in the Congress just preceding. The body does not change all at once, as do assemblies created by a single popular 'In 1868, while the Senate was sitting as a court in the impeachment trial of President Johnson, Senator Wade, of Ohio, was President pro tempore of the Senate. His right to vote on the charges of impeachment was disputed, although the Chief Justice was presiding, on the ground that Wade was directly personally interested in the result of the vote, since if Johnson had been removed Wade would have become acting President. Wade based his right to vote on the constitutional provision that no State shall be deprived of its equal representation in the Senate except by its own consent, and if his right to vote were denied Ohio would have but one vote in the Senate. By the decision of the Senate, Wade was allowed to vote. He voted for the impeachment and removal of the President. election, but undergoes an "unceasing process of gradual renewal." "Always changing, it is forever the same.” This permanent character qualifies the Senate to help conduct the foreign policy of the nation and adds to the traditional dignity of the Senate.' Vacancies in How Filled. When a vacancy happens in the representation of any State in the Senate, the governor of the State shall issue a writ of election to fill such vacancy. The the Senate. legislature of the State may empower the gov. ernor to make a temporary appointment until the people may fill the vacancy by election as the legislature may direct. Vacancies may happen by death, resignation, expulsion, and by accepting an incompatible office. Such are the more or less familiar constitutional provisions touching the composition of the Senate. Origin of the Senate. of the Old Con The origin of the Senate is of historical interest and of political significance. As is well known, the so-called Congress of the old Confederation consisted of but a single house. This body, as we have seen in our notice of the old Confederation, was more of a diplomatic body than a legislature. We have seen that, in the old Congress, questions were determined by the voices of States, and the The Congress voice of any one State was equal in weight to the federation: voice of any other. The members were State A Diplomatic rather than a delegates, they were elected by States, were Law-Making paid by the States, and could be recalled by the States. The Congress was to consider certain definite subjects, which the States, through their delegates, had assigned to it for consideration. The old Congress was lacking in the two prime requisites of a governing body: it could not enforce a law nor collect a tax. There is a political absurdity involved in the asserBryce, vol. i., p. 103. • Seventeenth Amendment. Body. tion which we sometimes hear, that the old Confederation could make laws but could not enforce them; for a socalled government which has no law-enforcing power has really no law-making power. What such a body makes may be a proclamation, or resolution, or recommendation, but not a law. It is evident that the men who framed the Confederation did not look upon its Congress as a law-making body, except to a very limited extent, and that strictly specified. If a law-making body as part of a real government had been intended by our fathers when their States formed a league in 1781, they would doubtless have formed their Congress after the pattern of every government, save two, of which they had any working experimental knowledge. That is, they would have given their legislature the bicameral, not the unicameral, form. The bicameral form of legislature is the form of two houses. All of the original State legislatures, except Pennsylvania and Georgia, had the bicameral system, and all the later States, except Vermont in its early history, have followed this pattern. The advantage of two houses was thought to be that one should act as a check on the haste and error of the other. In several of the Colonies the upper houses were only small executive bodies, appointed to assist the governor, with power to check legislation by a suspensive veto. But after the Revolution these soon came to be co-ordinate houses of legislation. In America the need of two chambers came to be deemed "an axiom in political science, on the belief that the innate tendency of an assembly to become hasty, tyrannical, and corrupt needs to be checked by the coexistence of another house of equal authority.' The Bicameral System. 1 The Constitution of Pennsylvania of 1786, that of Georgia of 1777, and the two Constitutions of Vermont, 1786 and 1793, all provided for only one house in the Legislature. Each provided for an Executive Council with power of checking or delaying the acts of the law-making body. |