July 3d, according to the provision in the resolution of
adjournment at the last session, Congress met at noon this day.
The Chief Clerk read the resolution.[228] Mr. Sumner then said
that he rose to a question of order on the resolution.
The resolution under which Congress is to-day assembled, so far as it
undertakes to direct the adjournment of the two Houses of Congress
without day, in the absence of a quorum of the two Houses, is
unconstitutional and inoperative, inasmuch as the Constitution, after
declaring that “a majority of each House shall constitute a quorum to
do business,” proceeds to provide that “a smaller number may adjourn
from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of
absent members”; and therefore such resolution must not be regarded
by the Chair, so far as it undertakes to provide for an adjournment
without day.
As, according to the view, there is a quorum already present, the
incident contemplated by the resolution will not arise; but I felt it
my duty, by way of precaution and _caveat_, to introduce this protest,
to the end that the resolution may not hereafter be drawn into a
precedent so as to abridge the rights of the two Houses of Congress
under the Constitution of the United States.
Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, differed from Mr. Sumner, and
entered his “protest against any such construction of the
Constitution as denies to the two Houses of Congress the right
to regulate their own adjournments.” After quoting the text of
the Constitution, that “a majority of each shall constitute a
quorum to do business, but a smaller number may adjourn from
day to day and may be authorized to compel the attendance of
absent members,” Mr. Sumner said:--
Here is a concurrent resolution providing for a future meeting of
Congress. To that extent it is unquestionably constitutional; but
when the resolution imposes shackles upon the two Houses of Congress
assembled by virtue of that resolution, then, I submit, it does
what, under the National Constitution, it cannot do,--its words are
powerless. Congress, when once assembled by virtue of that resolution,
has all the powers of a Congress of the United States under the
Constitution. That resolution cannot restrain it. Such, at any rate,
is my conclusion, after the best reflection that I have been able to
give to these words of the Constitution; and I feel it my duty to make
this protest, to the end that what we now do may not be drawn into an
example hereafter. It is well known that those words were introduced in
order to tie the hands of Congress, should it come together and there
be no quorum present,--in short, to despoil the Congress then assembled
of the prerogative secured to it by the National Constitution. To that
extent I suggest that the resolution hereafter shall be regarded as of
no value, and not be quoted as a precedent.
After reply from Mr. Trumbull, the subject was dropped.