1 protracted. He has a right to vote on all questions, and is required to do so when his vote will decide the pending question, or when the vote is by ballot. The title Speaker comes from England, where it is given to the presiding officers of both Houses of Parliament. The Lord Chancellor is Speaker of the House of Lords ex-officio. The Speaker of the House of Commons is chosen by the House, subject to the formal permission and approval of the Crown. The title had been in use in the States from the very beginning. CHAPTER IV. COMPOSITION OF THE SENATE. ARTICLE I. Section 3, Clause 1.-The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. 243. NUMBER, ELECTION, AND TERM OF SENATORS.Every item of this clause was the subject of controversy in the Convention. When it had been settled that Congress should consist of two branches, and that representation should be equal in the Senate and proportional in the House, there remained the questions: How shall the Senators be chosen? For what term shall they serve? and, How shall they vote? Some said they should be elected by the House of Representatives; some that the President should appoint them from a list of candidates named by the State legislatures; some that they should be elected by the people; while Mr. Hamilton proposed that they be elected by electors chosen by the people of the several States. The rule adopted was the one most consistent with the general character of the Constitution. Four years, six years, seven years, and life, or good behavior, were named as a suitable term. Six years combines both permanency in the Senate and responsibility in the Senator. An equal vote in the Senate is not the same thing as voting by States. The individual vote gives less prominence to the State idea. Nevada, with a population of 45,761, has the same number of Senators as New York, with 5,997,853. ( 138 ) Section 3, Clause 2.-Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one-third may be chosen every second year; and if vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature of any State, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. 244. THE CLASSES OF SENATORS.-May 15, 1789, the twenty Senators present from the ten States were divided in accordance with this rule. They were first put into three classes, care being taken not to have the two Senators from any State in the same class, and the time for which the classes should serve was then determined by lot. Class one, consisting of seven Senators, should retire in two years; class two, of the same number, in four years; class three, of six, in six years. It was also ordered that when additional Senators should take their seats, they should be placed by lot in these classes, but in such manner as to keep them as nearly equal in number as possible. Accordingly, the New York Senators were placed in classes three and one; the North Carolina Senators in two and three; and the Rhode Island Senators in one and two. The years in which the classes retire may be thus exhibited: Class 1, 1791, 1797, 1803. Class 3, 1795, 1801, 1807...... 1881, 1887, 1893. 1883, 1889, 1895. .1885, 1891, 1897. The time that a Senator from a newly-admitted State serves, depends on the date of the State's admission to the Union, and on the state of the classes at the time. He may serve six years, he may serve but a single day. California was admitted to the Union September 9, 1850. The California Senators fell into classes three and one, and John C. Fremont, who had drawn one (or the short term), served only until March 1, 1851. 245. THE SENATE A PERMANENT BODY-A House of Representatives continues two years, and an Executive administration four. But the Senate, like the Old Congress, is a perpetual body, and it is the rule to keep up a perfect organization. This fact gives the Senate dignity and adds strength to the government. One reason for this was to show to the world that the American government did not come to an end every two or four years. A Senator appointed by a governor to fill a vacancy holds his seat until the legislature elects a successor to the former incumbent, or, if it fails to elect, to the end of the session of the legislature following his appointment; then the governor must make a second appointment, provided the term has not expired. Section 3, Clause 3.-No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. 246. THE SENATOR'S QUALIFICATIONS.-The remarks made concerning the qualifications of the Representative are of equal application to the Senator, only the greater dignity and responsibility of the Senator call for a greater age and a longer citizenship. Two men elected to the Senate have been declared disqualified by reason of an insufficient length of citizenship: Albert Gallatin, of Pennsylvania, in 1798, and James Shields, of Illinois, in 1849. Section 3, Clause 4. The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 247. THE VICE-PRESIDENT'S VOTE. As the VicePresident is not a member of the Senate, he is not, like the Speaker of the House, entitled to a vote. His casting vote is of no avail unless given in favor of the pending measure; for every question is lost unless it receives a majority. In the early years of the Government, when the Senate was small and equally divided politically, the Vice-President's position was very important. Mr. Morse speaks of John Adams's" unusual number of opportunities to exercise personal power in important matters. Certainly no other Vice-President has had the like, and probably no officer of the United States has ever been able to do so much by positive acts of individual authority. . . . No less than twenty times during the life of the First Congress he voted for the Federalists. 248. THE VICE-PRESIDENT.-Neither the Virginia plan nor the Jersey plan said anything about the officers of the Houses of Congress, or the succession to the Presidency in case of the P'resident's death, removal, etc. The draft submitted by Mr. Pinckney provided that the Houses should elect their own officers, and that the President of the Senate should become President of the United States in case of a vacancy. Hamilton's plan agreed with Pinckney's, only he styled the President of the Senate Vice-President. The first proposition to have a Vice-President proper was made when the electoral-college plan of electing the President was under consideration, near the end of the Convention. It was then provided that every Elector should vote for two candidates for President, the candidate having the largest number of votes to be President, if a majority of all, the one having the next largest to be Vice-President; and then, to give the office dignity, the VicePresident was made President of the Senate. This was a complete reversal of Pinckney's and Hamilton's ideas. Some members of the Convention opposed the office as unnecessary, and some as an encroachment on the right of the Senate to choose its own officers, and as mingling the Legislative and Executive branches. Section 3, Clause 5. -The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall exercise the office of President of the United States. 249. OFFICERS OF THE SENATE.-The other officers are the Secretary, Chief Clerk, Executive Clerk, Sergeant-at-arms, Door-keeper, and Chaplain. The custom is for the Vice 1 John Adams, 249. 250. |