United States, according to the various censuses taken since the adoption of the Constitution :

ART. IX. - HOUSE-POWERS.

1. To choose their speaker and other officers.

2. Sole power of originating impeachments. 7.

3. Sole power of originating bills for raising revenue. 23. 4. Co-ordinate with the Senate in general legislation. 2. 5. When the electors of President and Vice-President of the United States fail to elect a President, the House of Representatives shall elect one. 94.

§ 1. The speaker is chosen from among the members themselves, being himself a representative. It is his duty to preside over the deliberations of the House, and to keep order. The other officers are a clerk, sergeant-at-arms, postmaster, and doorkeeper. These officers are not members of the House.

(List of Speakers of the House, Chap. XV., Art. VIII., Part II.)

§ 2. The House of Representatives has the sole power of originating articles of impeachment. An impeachment is a solemn and specific accusation brought against a public officer, drawn out in due form, charging him with treason, bribery, or other crimes and misdemeanors. It is in the nature of an indictment, being only primâ facie evidence of guilt, sufficient, however, to put the accused on trial at the bar of the Senate. Although it requires a two-third majority of the Senate to convict the accused, it requires only a numerical majority to prefer the impeachment by the House.

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§ 3. The following course, substantially, is pursued in preferring impeachments:

1st. Some member of the House, who believes that charges should be made against a public officer, proposes that a committee be appointed to inquire into the matter, and to make report of the results of their investigations to the House at some future time. Such com

mittee is generally appointed without opposition; and usually the mover will be appointed its chairman, as he is presumed, from the fact that he makes the move, to have some knowledge of the case.

2d. If the committee find, on investigation, that the charges are well founded, and are of such a character as to render the party implicated worthy of impeachment, they so report to the House, specifically defining the charges, and recommend that he be impeached.

3d. The House examines the report, the subject is discussed, and a vote taken. If the proposed impeachment is adopted by the House, and is not drawn out in due form, the House appoints another committee, to whom this part of the business is submitted, who report the impeachment in specific articles. Another vote is taken by the House on the impeachment, article by article.

4th. A committee is now appointed by the House to take the whole matter before the Senate, and to represent the House in its prosecution. The House has now taken all the steps properly belonging to that body in the proceedings. The proceedings of the Senate in the case will be noticed in treating of the judicial powers of that body.

§ 4. It seems proper that the House should possess the sole power of impeachment, as that body is constituted of the representatives of the people, who may be presumed to be better acquainted with public sentiment in their respective localities than members of the Senate. In England, the power of impeachment is vested in the House of Commons, the people's branch of the legislative department; and the trial of impeachment belongs to the House of Lords, which is analogous to the United-States Senate.

§ 5. The House of Representatives has the sole power of originating bills for raising revenue. This body, as has been stated, is constituted of the more immediate representatives of the people; and, as the people are to pay the taxes if any are imposed, it would seem fit and proper that their representatives should be the prime movers in any measures that require money to prosecute them.

§ 6. In the Constitutional Convention, there was considerable opposition to this clause of the Constitution. Even Mr. Madison, who was ever watchful of the rights of the people, at first objected to it.

He and some others thought that the Senate would be a more capable body of men, and that it would be bad policy to thus discriminate against them.

One member characterized it as a degrading discrimination.” Another said it would take away the responsibility of the Senate, the great security for good behavior; that it would be a dangerous source of disputes between the two houses.

The workings of government in Great Britain were often referred to in the Convention. All bills for raising revenue there must originate in the House of Commons, which, as has been stated, is the people's branch.

§ 7. Although the report of the committee in Convention, proposing that money-bills should originate with the House only, was declared passed, it did not pass by a majority of the States represented. Enough voted against it to defeat the measure, had the States that were divided in opinion (and therefore lost their vote) been added to their number. But it prevailed, and has thus far worked well.

§ 8. The House is co-ordinate with the Senate in general legislation. There are special powers peculiar to each house; and these are so clearly defined in the Constitution as to take away all ambiguity. There can be no mistaking the powers of one house for those of the other. But in the general, ordinary business of law-making, the houses are co-ordinate, with the foregoing exception.

§ 9. Among the peculiar and exclusive powers of the House of Representatives is that of choosing a President of the United States in a certain contingency. When the electors of President and VicePresident fail to elect a President by a majority of all the electors appointed by the people for that purpose, the election of the President devolves on the House.

§ 10. This has occurred twice since the adoption of the Constitution. Thomas Jefferson was elected the first time (1801) by the House of Representatives, on the thirty-sixth ballot. The opposing candidate was Aaron Burr. At that time, there were sixteen States in the Union. When the house elects a President, it is done by States, each State having but one vote. Jefferson received the votes of eight; Burr, six; and two States were divided. The same result

continued through thirty-five ballotings; but on the thirty-sixth, as above stated, Jefferson was elected.

This was done under the third clause of Article II. of the Constitution, which has been superseded by Article XII. of the Amendments.

§ 11. The second instance of the election of a President of the United States by the House of Representatives occurred in 1825. Four candidates were voted for on the electoral ticket, neither of whom received a majority of all the votes. These candidates were Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, who received ninety-nine votes ; John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, eighty-four; William H. Crawford of Georgia, forty-one; and Henry Clay of Kentucky, thirty-seven. No one receiving a majority of the electoral votes, the election was thrown into the House; when John Quincy Adams was elected. Mr. Clay's name did not come before the House, as he received the smallest number of electoral votes of the four candidates. For when the election comes into the House, since the Twelfth Article of Amendments was adopted, that body must elect from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three on the list of candidates.

The election of President will be more critically examined when we come to treat of the executive department.

CHAPTER II.

UNITED-STATES SENATE.

ART. I.-HOW COMPOSED.

The Senate is composed of two senators from each State. 8. § 1. The composition of the Senate is the result of compromise between the larger and smaller States represented in the Constitutional Convention. Under the Confederation, it will be remembered, the representative power in Congress was the same in all the States; and that body consisted of but one house. The small State of Rhode Island had one vote, and the great State of Virginia had no

more.

§ 2. The small States were tenacious of this power, and were reluctant to allow any encroachment on their sovereignty. It was inserted in the credentials of the members of the Constitutional Convention from Delaware, that they were prohibited from changing that article in the Confederation establishing an equality of votes among the States.

§ 3. The large States yielded one point in the controversy, and the small States another. The large States consented to equality in the Senate, and the small States to representation in the House in proportion to population. In the Senate, therefore, there is no distinction between the States; and as every bill, before it can become a law, must pass both Houses of Congress, the rights of the smaller States are not likely to be compromised in the legislative depart

ment.

ART. II.-ELIGIBILITY.

1. Must have attained to the age of thirty years.

2. Must have been nine years a citizen of the United States. 3. When elected, shall be an inhabitant of the State for which chosen. 10.

4. No United-States officer shall be a member of either house of Congress. 22. (See appendix D.)

§ 1. No difference of opinion prevailed in the Convention in reference to the age named. At thirty, the character of a man has usually become defined and established. He may be presumed, at this age, to have had sufficient experience to give weight and dignity to the public councils, and to have acquired that firmness and independence which will give stability of purpose in the performance of

his duties.

§ 2. By reference to the age required for membership of the other house, it will be seen that there is a difference of five years; a man being eligible to a seat in that house at twenty-five. It is considered, that, at least in some respects, the duties of a senator are more responsible than the duties of a member of the House of Representatives.

1st. There can be but two senators from one State, while the number of representatives will depend on the population. The