bers of either house, on any question, shall, at the desire of onefifth of those present, be entered on the journal. of members. 4. Neither house during the session of Congress shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. SECTION VI. 1. The senators and representatives shall receive Disabilities a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury of the United States. They shall in all cases, except treason, felony, breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective houses, and in going to or returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either house, they shall not be questioned in any other place. 2. No senator or representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased, during such time; and no person holding any office under the United States shall be a member of either house during his continuance in office. passing laws SECTION VII. 1. All bills for raising revenues shall originate Mode of in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments, as on other bills. 2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve, he shall sign it; but if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill The apportionment of members. Congressional districts. shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 3. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or, being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. 89. The Apportionment of Representatives among the States After every census, Congress determines upon the number of Representatives to be allotted to the House of Representatives and apportions them among the states in the following form. It will be noted that by Section 3 of the act Congress has gone further than the letter of the Constitution authorizes and prescribed the general character of each congressional district.1 An Act making the apportionment of Representatives in Congress among the several States under the Twelfth Census. Be it enacted . . . That after the third day of March, nineteen hundred and three, the House of Representatives shall be composed of three hundred and eighty-six members to be apportioned among the several States as follows: Alabama 9; Arkansas 7; California 8; Colorado 3; [etc., etc.]. SEC. 2. That whenever a new State is admitted to the Union the Representative or Representatives assigned to it shall be in addition to the number three hundred and eighty-six. SEC. 3. That in each State . . . the number to which such State may be entitled in the Fifty-eighth and each subsequent 1 On this point see Burgess, Political Science and Constitutional Law, II, 48 sq. Congress shall be elected by districts composed of contiguous and compact territory containing as nearly as practicable an equal number of inhabitants. The said districts shall be equal to the number of Representatives to which such State shall be entitled in Congress, no one district electing more than one Representative. SEC. 4. That in case of an increase in the number of Representa- Members at large. tives which may be given any State under this apportionment, such additional Representatives shall be elected by the State at large and the other Representatives by the districts now prescribed by law until the legislature of such State in the manner herein prescribed shall redistrict such State; . . . and if the number hereby provided for shall in any State be less than it was before . . . then the whole number... shall be elected at large unless the legislatures of said States have provided or shall otherwise provide before the time fixed by law for the next election of Representatives therein. 90. The Art of Gerrymandering Subject to the rule regarding "contiguous territory," the legislature of each state may construct congressional districts after its own fashion. As a matter of general practice the political party that happens to be in power in the state, when the decennial apportionment comes around, so arranges the districts as to secure the largest possible number of Representatives at the ensuing elections. Sometimes by careful calculation a legislature may enable a minority of the voters to return a majority of Representatives for the whole state. This is the art of gerrymandering. It is described in an interesting manner in a speech made by Mr. McKinley criticising the action of the Democratic party in Ohio in undoing a reapportionment made by the Republicans. The practice of letting the The act of the Legislature in reapportioning the counties into Congressional districts, at an irregular period, is without precedent in Ohio since the organization of the Republican party and without apportionexample under the present Constitution. For thirty-three years for the the unbroken rule has been to form such districts after each Federal decennial census, and at the end of every ten years, such political subdivisions period. ment stand How the gerrymander operates. to remain unchanged until the next census. This secures a representation based upon the actual number of inhabitants disclosed at each census, according to the ratio of representation fixed by the Congress of the United States. No innovation has been made upon this rule since 1845 and then but a partial one. Parties have changed in numerical strength within that period, political supremacy has alternated from one to the other of the great parties, partisan hate has been intense and bitter, party necessities have been great and overshadowing. The majority force has existed many times before, in both political parties, but no Ohio Legislature from 1845 to 1878 was found so reckless of principle and precedent as to destroy these political subdivisions between the decennial periods. This action alone, it seems to me, is sufficient, when rightly understood, to react upon its authors and secure for them a crushing defeat. It can not be too frequently brought to the attention of the people, nor too severely denounced. It works a vital disfranchisement of a large body of Republicans under color of law by a shameful abuse of power and in violation of the spirit of the Constitution of the State and of the United States. Under the new law, taking the vote of 1876 as a basis, when the Republicans carried the State by over 6,000, the Democrats will have twelve Congressmen and the Republicans eight. The redistricting was not in the interest of fairness, but to increase Democratic representation, in violation of every principle of fairness. It was not the work of the masses of the Democratic party in the State; it was not the creation of the better class of our political opponents; it met with opposition from the order-loving and law-abiding citizens alike of both parties. It was ordered by designing politicians at Washington, to secure power in the next House, right or wrong; and the Ohio Legislature, which had before always stood with a "face of flint" against every species of revolution, yielded, basely yielded, principle and justice for purely party ends. 91. The Law Governing the Election of Senators The Constitution states that the two Senators from each commonwealth shall be elected by the legislature thereof, and authorizes Congress to make regulations regarding the time and manner of the election. For more than half a century the states were left to their several devices, but in 1866 Congress passed this statute prescribing the precise method to be followed in each case: election. SEC. 14. The legislature of each State which is chosen next Time of preceding the expiration of the time for which any Senator was elected to represent such State in Congress shall, on the second Tuesday after the meeting and organization thereof, proceed to elect a Senator in Congress. election. SEC. 15. Such election shall be conducted in the following Mode of manner: Each house shall openly, by a viva-voce vote of each member present, name one person for Senator in Congress from such State, and the name of the person so voted for, who receives a majority of the whole number of votes cast in each house, shall be entered on the journal of that house by the clerk or secretary thereof; or if either house fails to give such majority to any person on that day, the fact shall be entered on the journal. At twelve o'clock meridian of the day following that on which proceedings are required to take place as aforesaid, the members of the two houses shall convene in joint assembly, and the journal of each house shall then be read, and if the same person has received a majority of all the votes in each house, he shall be declared duly elected Senator. But if the same person has not received a majority of the votes in each house, or if either house has failed to take proceedings as required by this section, the joint assembly shall then proceed to choose, by a viva-voce vote of each member present, a person for Senator, and the person who receives a majority of all the votes of the joint assembly, a majority of all the members elected to both houses being present and voting, shall be declared duly elected. If no person receives such majority on the first day, the joint assembly |