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next succeeding apportionment of Representatives under the next succeeding census.

SEC. 26. And be it further enacted, That when the Department of the Interior shall have apportioned the Representatives in the manner above directed among the several States under the next, or any subsequent enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States, he shall, as soon as practicable, make out and transmit, under the seal of his office, to the House of Representatives, a certificate of the number of members apportioned to each State under the then last enumeration; and shall likewise make out and transmit without delay to the Executive of each State, a certificate under his seal of office, of the number of members apportioned to such State, under such last enumeration. Approved, 23 May, 1850.

[The preceding sections fall under the class of general Laws intended to be inserted in this compilation; the residue of this act, relating solely to the manner of taking and returning the census, will be found in the statutes of the United States.]

19. AN ACT to authorize Notaries Public to take and certify oaths, affirmations, and acknowledgments in certain cases.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in all cases in which, under the laws of the United States, oaths or affirmations, or acknowledgments, may now be taken or made before any justice or justices of the peace of any State or Territory, such oaths, affirmations, or acknowledgments may be hereafter also taken or made by or before any Notary public duly appointed in any State or Territory, and, when certified under the hand and official seal of such Notary, shall have the same force and effect as if taken or made by or before such justice or justices of the peace. And all laws and parts of laws for punishing perjury, or subornation of perjury, committed in any such oaths or affirmations when taken or made before any such justice of the peace, shall apply to any such offence committed in any oaths or affirmations which may be taken under this act before a Notary public, or commissioner, as hereinafter named: Provided always, That on trial for either of these offences, the seal and signature of the Notary shall not be deemed sufficient in themselves to establish the official character of such Notary, but the same shall be shown by other and proper evidence. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That all the powers and authority conferred in and by the preceding section of this act upon Notaries public, be, and the same are hereby vested in, and may be exercised by, any commissioner appointed, or hereafter to be appointed, by any Circuit Court of the United States, under any act of Congress authorizing the appointment of commissioners to take bail, affidavits, or depositions, in causes pending in the courts of the United States. Approved, 16 September, 1850.

20. A RESOLUTION relating to the publication of the Laws of the United States.

Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of State be authorized and directed to contract with Little and Brown to furnish their annual statutes at large, printed in conformity with the plan adopted by Congress in eighteen hundred and forty-five, instead of the edition usually issued by his order, under the act of Congress of April 20, 1818, and which conforms to an edition of the Laws now out of use.

Approved, 26 September, 1850.

CHAPTER 7.

EXPLANATORY NOTES OF THE FOLLOWING TABLES.

1. The tables of Electoral votes for President and Vice President of the United States, commencing with page 315, present an historical synopsis of the leading political sentiments of the American people, from the adoption of the Constitution to the present time, as indicated by the votes given for the distinguished individuals whose opinions were supposed to imbody, from time to time, those sentiments, and a biographical notice of the individuals themselves; the statement of whose names alone will recall to memory their meritorious public services and exalted characters.

2. The table commencing with page 336, of the terms of office and length of service, in the Senate, of the Vice Presidents and Presidents pro tempore, may be supposed, generally, to show, from time to time, the leading political sentiments of the majority of that honorable body, as indicated by the choice of Senators to occupy the station of President pro tempore, whose political sentiments were, at the time, well known. This table also shows the commencement and termination of, as well as the number of days in, each Session of Congress and special

session of the Senate, from the 4th March, 1789, to the termination of the second session of the thirty-first Congress, being the 3d March, 1851.

3. The table commencing with page 346 shows the names, and the commencement and termination of the service, of every Senator of the United States, from the 4th March, 1789, to the 3d March, 1851, being the termination of the second session, thirty-first Congress. A geographical, rather than an alphabetical, arrangement was preferred, for the reason that a regular succession may be traced in the service of the several classes of Senators of each State, from the commencement of the Government, or the admission of such State into the Union, to the present time.

This table practically illustrates that provision of the Constitution which directs the arrangement of the Senators into three classes, whose terms of service expire alternately every two years, exhibiting the progressive application of the principle to the Senators from new States as they become qualified, by which the three classes are preserved equal in number, or as nearly so as practicable -one-third being elected biennially, and two-thirds being, at all times, prepared to attend the call of their country for the transaction of Legislative, Executive, or Judicial business; or, indeed, by a provident arrangement of the State Legislatures (as is the prevailing practice) in reelecting the Senators whose terms of service are about

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