[Sidenote: The House of Representatives.]
The federal House of Representatives is descended, through the state
houses of representatives, from the colonial assemblies. It is an
assembly representing the whole population of the country as if it were
all in one great state. It is composed of members chosen every other
year by the people of the states. Persons in any state who are qualified
to vote for state representatives are qualified to vote for federal
representatives. This arrangement left the power of regulating the
suffrage in the hands of the several states, where it still remains,
save for the restriction imposed in 1870 for the protection of the
southern freedmen. A candidate for election to the House of
Representatives must be twenty-five years old, must have been seven
years a citizen of the United States, and must be an inhabitant of the
state in which he is chosen.
[Sidenote: The three fifths compromise.]
As the Federal Congress is a taxing body, representatives and direct
taxes are apportioned among the several states according to the same
rule, that is, according to population. At this point a difficulty
arose in the Convention as to whether slaves should be counted as
population. If they were to be counted, the relative weight of the
slave states in all matters of national legislation would be much
increased. The northern states thought, with reason, that it would
be unduly increased. The difficulty was adjusted by a compromise
according to which five slaves were to be reckoned as three persons.
Since the abolition of slavery this provision has become obsolete, but
until 1860 it was a very important factor in American history.[7]
In the federal House of Representatives the great states of course
have much more weight than the small states. In 1790 the four largest
states had 32 representatives, while the other nine had only 33. The
largest state, Virginia, had 10 representatives to 1 from Delaware.
These disparities have increased. In 1880, out of thirty-eight states
the nine largest had a majority of the house, and the largest state,
New York, had 34 representatives to 1 from Delaware.
[Footnote 7: See my _Critical Period_, pp. 257-262.]
[Sidenote: The Connecticut compromise]
This feature of the House of Representatives caused
the smaller states in the Convention to oppose the whole scheme of
constructing a new government. They were determined that great and
small states should have equal weight in Congress. Their steadfast
opposition threatened to ruin everything, when fortunately a method
of compromise was discovered. It was intended that the national
legislature, in imitation of the state legislatures, should have an
upper house or senate; and at first the advocates of a strong national
government proposed that the senate also should represent population,
thus differing from the lower house only in the way in which we have
seen that it generally differed in the several states. But it happened
that in the state of Connecticut the custom was peculiar. There it
had always been the custom to elect the governor and upper house by a
majority vote of the whole people, while for each township there was
an equality of representation In the lower house. The Connecticut
delegates in the Convention, therefore, being familiar with a
legislature in which the two houses were composed on different
principles, suggested a compromise. Let the House of Representatives,
they said, represent the people, and let the Senate represent the
states; let all the states, great and small, be represented equally
in the federal Senate. Such was the famous "Connecticut Compromise."
Without it the Convention would probably have broken up without
accomplishing anything. When it was adopted, half the work of making
the new government was done, for the small states, having had their
fears thus allayed by the assurance that they were to be equally
represented in the Senate, no longer opposed the work but cooperated
in it most zealously.
[Sidenote: The Senate]
Thus it came to pass that the upper house of our national legislature
is composed of two senators from each state. As they represent the
state, they are chosen by its legislature and not by the people; but
when they have taken their seats in the senate they do not vote
by states, like the delegates in the Continental Congress. On the
contrary each senator has one vote, and the two senators from the same
state may, and often do, vote on opposite sides.
In accordance with the notion that an upper house should be somewhat
less democratic than a lower house, the term of office for senators
was made longer than for representatives. The tendency is to make the
Senate respond more slowly to changes in popular sentiment, and
this is often an advantage. Popular opinion is often very wrong at
particular moments, but with time it is apt to correct its mistakes.
We are usually in more danger of suffering from hasty legislation than
from tardy legislation. Senators are chosen for a term of six years,
and one third of the number of terms expire every second year, so
that, while the whole Senate may be renewed by the lapse of six years,
there is never a "new Senate." The Senate has thus a continuous
existence and a permanent organization; whereas each House of
Representatives expires at the end of its two years' term, and is
succeeded by a "new House," which requires to be organized by electing
its officers, etc., before proceeding to business. A candidate for the
senatorship must have reached the age of thirty, must have been nine
years a citizen of the United States, and must be an inhabitant of the
state which he represents.
The constitution leaves the times, places, and manner of holding
elections for senators and representatives to be prescribed in each
state by its own legislature; but it gives to Congress the power to
alter such regulations, except as to the place of choosing senators.
Here we see a vestige of the original theory according to which the
Senate was to be peculiarly the home of state rights.
[Sidenote: Electoral districts.]
[Sidenote: "Gerrymandering."]
In the composition of the House of Representatives the state
legislatures play a very important part. For the purposes of the
election a state is divided into districts corresponding to the number
of representatives the state is entitled to send to Congress. These
electoral districts are marked out by the legislature, and the division
is apt to be made by the preponderating party with an unfairness that is
at once shameful and ridiculous. The aim, of course, is so to lay out
the districts as to secure in the greatest possible number of them a
majority for the party which conducts the operation. This is done
sometimes by throwing the greatest possible number of hostile voters
into a district which is anyhow certain to be hostile, sometimes by
adding to a district where parties are equally divided some place in
which the majority of friendly voters is sufficient to turn the scale.
There is a district in Mississippi (the so-called Shoe String district)
250 miles long by 30 broad, and another in Pennsylvania resembling a
dumb-bell.... In Missouri a district has been contrived longer, if
measured along its windings, than the state itself, into which as large
a number as possible of the negro voters have been thrown.[8] This
trick is called "gerrymandering," from Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts,
who was vice-president of the United States from 1813 to 1817. It seems
to have been first devised in 1788 by the enemies of the Federal
Constitution in Virginia, in order to prevent the election of James
Madison to the first Congress, and fortunately it was unsuccessful.[9]
It was introduced some years afterward into Massachusetts. In 1812,
while Gerry was governor of that state, the Republican legislature
redistributed the districts in such wise that the shapes of the towns
forming a single district in Essex county gave to the district a
somewhat dragon-like contour. This was indicated upon a map of
Massachusetts which Benjamin Russell, an ardent Federalist and editor of
the "Centinel," hung up over the desk in his office. The celebrated
painter, Gilbert Stuart, coming into the office one day and observing
the uncouth figure, added with his pencil a head, wings, and claws, and
exclaimed, "That will do for a salamander!" "Better say a Gerrymander!"
growled the editor; and the outlandish, name, thus duly coined, soon
came into general currency.
[Illustration]
[Footnote 8: Tyler's _Patrick Henry_, p. 313.]
[Footnote 9: _Winsor's Memorial History of Boston_, vol. iii. p. 212;
see also Bryce, _loc. cit_. The word is sometimes incorrectly pronounced
"jerrymander." Mr. Winsor observes that the back line of the creature's
body forms a profile caricature of Gerry's face, with the nose at
Middleton.]
[Sidenote: The election their at large.]
When after an increase in its number of representatives the state has
failed to redistribute its districts, the additional member or members
are voted for upon a general state ticket, and are called
"representatives at large." In Maine, where the census of 1880 had
_reduced_ the number of representatives and there was some delay in the
redistribution, Congress allowed the State in 1882 to elect all its
representatives upon a general ticket. The advantage of the district
system is that the candidates are likely to be better known by
neighbours, but the election at large is perhaps more likely to secure
able men.[10] It is the American custom to nominate only residents of the
district as candidates for the House of Representatives. A citizen of
Albany, for example, would not be nominated for the district in which
Buffalo is situated. In the British practice, on the other hand, if an
eminent man cannot get a nomination in his own county or borough, there
is nothing to prevent his standing for any other county or borough. This
system seems more favourable to the independence of the legislator than
our system. Some of its advantages are obtained by the election at
large.
[Footnote 10: The difference is similar to the difference between the
French _scrutin d'arrondissement_ and _scrutin de liste_.]
[Sidenote: Time of assembling.]
Congress must assemble at least once in every year, and the constitution
appoints the first Monday in December for the time of meeting; but
Congress can, if worth while, enact a law changing the time. The
established custom is to hold the election for representatives upon the
same day as the election for president, the Tuesday after the first
Monday in November. As the period of the new administration does not
begin until the fourth day of the following March, the new House of
Representatives does not assemble until the December following that
date, unless the new president should at some earlier moment summon an
extra session of Congress. It thus happens that ordinarily the
representatives of the nation do not meet for more than a year after
their election; and as their business is at least to give legislative
expression to the popular opinion which elected them, the delay is in
this instance regarded by many persons as inconvenient and injudicious.
Each house is judge of the elections, qualifications, and returns of its
own members; determines its own rules of procedure, and may punish its
members for disorderly behaviour, or by a two thirds vote expel a
member. Absent members may be compelled under penalties to attend. Each
house is required to keep a journal of its proceedings and at proper
intervals to publish it, except such parts as for reasons of public
policy had better be kept secret. At the request of one fifth of the
members present, the yeas and nays must be entered on the journal.
During the session of Congress neither house may, without consent of the
other, adjourn for more than three days, or to any other place than that
in which Congress is sitting.
[Sidenote: Privileges of members.]
Senators and representatives receive a salary fixed by law, and as they
are federal functionaries they are paid from the federal treasury. In
all cases, except treason or felony or breach of the peace, they are
privileged from arrest during their attendance in Congress, as also
while on their way to it and while returning home; "and for any speech
or debate in either house they shall not be questioned in any other
place." These provisions are reminiscences of the evil days when the
king strove to interfere, by fair means or foul, with free speech in
parliament; and they are important enough to be incorporated in the
supreme law of the land. No person can at the same time hold any civil
office under the United States government and be a member of either
house of Congress.
[Sidenote: The Speaker.]
The vice-president is the presiding officer of the Senate, with power
to vote only in case of a tie. The House of Representatives elects its
presiding officer, who is called the Speaker. In the early history of
the House of Commons, its presiding officer was naturally enough its
_spokesman_. He could speak for it in addressing the crown. Henry
of Keighley thus addressed the crown in 1301, and there were other
instances during that century, until in 1376 the title of Speaker was
definitely given to Sir Thomas Hungerford, and from that date the list
is unbroken. The title was given to the presiding officers of the
American colonial assemblies, and thence it passed on to the state and
federal legislatures. The Speaker presides over the debates, puts the
question, and decides points of order. He also appoints the committees
of the House of Representatives, and as the initiatory work in our
legislation is now so largely done by the committees, this makes him
the most powerful officer of the government except the President.
[Sidenote: Impeachment in England]
The provisions for impeachment of public officers are copied from the
custom in England. Since the fourteenth century the House of Commons
has occasionally exercised the power of impeaching the king's
ministers and other high public officers, and although the power was
not used during the sixteenth century it was afterward revived and
conclusively established. In 1701 it was enacted that the royal pardon
could not be pleaded against an impeachment, and this act finally secured
the responsibility of the king's ministers to Parliament. An impeachment
is a kind of accusation or indictment brought against a public officer
by the House of Commons. The court in which the case is tried is the House
of Lords, and the ordinary rules of judicial procedure are followed.
The regular president of the House of Lords is the Lord Chancellor, who
is the highest judicial officer in the kingdom. A simple majority vote
secures conviction, and then it is left for the House of Commons to
say whether judgment shall be pronounced or not.
[Sidenote: Impeachment in the United States.]
In the United States the House of Representatives has the sole
power of impeachment, and the Senate has the sole power to try all
impeachments. When the president of the United States is tried,
the chief-justice must preside. As a precaution against the use of
impeachment for party purposes, a two thirds vote is required for
conviction; and this precaution proved effectual (fortunately, as most
persons now admit) in the famous case of President Johnson in 1868. In
case of conviction the judgment cannot extend further than "to removal
from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of
honour, trust, or profit under the United States;" but the person
convicted is liable afterward to be tried and punished by the ordinary
process of law.
[Sidenote: Veto power of the president]
The provisions of the Constitution for legislation are admirably
simple. All bills for raising revenue must originate in the lower
house, but the upper house may propose or concur with amendments, as
on other bills. This provision was inherited from Parliament, through
the colonial legislatures. After a bill has passed both houses it must
be sent to the president for approval. If he approves it, he signs
it; if not, he returns it to the house in which it originated, with
a written statement of his objections, and this statement must be
entered in full upon the journal of the house. The bill is then
reconsidered, and if it obtains a two thirds vote, it is sent,
together with the objections, to the other house. If it there
likewise obtains a two thirds vote, it becomes a law, in spite of the
objections. Otherwise it fails. If the president keeps a bill longer
than ten days (Sundays excepted) without signing it, it becomes a law
without his signature; unless Congress adjourns before the expiration
of the ten days, in which case it fails to become a law, just as if
it had been vetoed. This method of vetoing a bill just before the
expiration of a Congress, by keeping it in one's pocket, so to speak,
was dubbed a "pocket veto," and was first employed by President
Jackson in 1829. The president's veto power is a qualified form of
that which formerly belonged to the English sovereign but has now, as
already observed, become practically obsolete. As a means of guarding
the country against unwise legislation, it has proved to be one of the
most valuable features of our Federal Constitution. In bad hands it
cannot do much harm, it can only delay for a short time a needed law.
But when properly used it can save the country from, laws that if once
enacted would sow seeds of disaster very hard to eradicate; and it has
repeatedly done so. A single man will often act intelligently where
a group of men act foolishly, and, as already observed, he is apt to
have a keener sense of responsibility.
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT.
What is to be said with regard to the following topics?
1. The House of Representatives:--
a. Its relation to the people.
b. The term of service.
c. Qualifications of those who may vote for representatives.
d. Qualifications for membership.
e. The three fifths compromise.
2. The Connecticut Compromise.
a. The powers of the different states in the House.
b. Opposition to the scheme of a new government.
c. What the advocates of a strong government wanted the Senate to
represent.
d. A peculiar Connecticut system.
e. The suggestion of the Connecticut delegates.
f. The effect of the compromise.
3. The Senate:--
a. The number of senators.
b. The method of electing senators.
c. The voting of senators.
d. The term of service.
e. The maintenance of a continuous existence.
f. A comparison with the House in respect to nearness to the people.
g. Qualifications for membership.
4. Elections for senators and representatives:--
a. Times, places, and manner of holding elections.
b. The power of Congress over state regulations.
c. Electoral districts.
d. The temptation to unfairness in laying out electoral districts.
e. Illustrations of unfair divisions.
f. "Gerrymandering."
g. Representatives at large.
h. The advantage of the district system.
i. The British system and its advantage.
5. The assembling of Congress:--
a. The time of assembling.
b. The interval between a member's election and the beginning of his
service.
c. The disadvantage of this long interval.
6. What is the duty of each house in respect (1) to its membership,
(2) its rules, (3) its records, and (4) its adjournment.
7. Give an account (1) of the pay of a congressman, (2) of his freedom
from arrest, (3) of his responsibility for words spoken in debate, and
(4) of his right to hold other office.
8. Tell (1) who preside in Congress, (2) how the name _speaker_
originated, (3) what the speaker's duties are, and (4) what his power
in the government is.
9. Impeachment of public officers:--
a. Old English usage.
b. The conduct of an impeachment trial in England.
c. The conduct of an impeachment trial in the United States.
d. The penalty in case of conviction.
10. The provisions of the Constitution for legislation:--
a. Bills for raising revenue.
b. How a bill becomes a law.
c. The president's veto power.
d. Passage of a bill over the president's veto.
e. The "pocket veto."
f. The veto power in England.
g. The value of the veto power.