68. A Delegate from Territory's term expires with EXTRA OR SPECIAL SESSION.-Members elected for 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. SECTION 5. 1. Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members, and 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, in such manner and under such penalties as each House may provide. 2. Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member. 3. Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may, in their judgment, require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House, on any question, shall, at the desire of one fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. Powers of Houses of Compensation and duties of members. 4. Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. NOTE.-See note to Sec. 2, ante, as to contested elections. The qualifications of members being fixed by the Constitution, additions cannot be required by State legislation or other acts.-Barney vs. McCreery, 1 Cong. Elec. Cases, p. 167; Turney vs. Marshall, 2 Cong. Elec. Cases, p. 167; Trumbull's Case, id., p. 618. One who was a resident of the United States at the close of the Revolutionary War and an alien was not qualified to sit in the U. S. Senate.-Gallatin's Case, 1 Cong. Elec. Cases, p. 85. One being foreign Minister does not thereby lose his residence of his State, so as to disqualify him for a seat in Congress.-Forsyth's Case, 1 Cong. Elec. Cases, p. 497. Erecting a Territory into a State does not necessarily vacate the seat of the Delegate.-Fearing's Case, 1 Cong. Elec. Cases, p. 127. The House of Representatives has jurisdiction to punish for contempt.-Anderson vs. Dunn, 6 Wh., p. 204. Powers of Continental Congress were revolutionary and coextensive with the object to be obtained. Peterson & Pennballow vs. Doane's Administrators, 3 D., p. 80. SECTION 6. 1. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall, in all cases except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate, in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place. 2. No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil. office under the authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no person holding any office under the United States shall be a member of either House during his continuance in office. NOTE.-One elected to Congress may resign a disqualifying office before taking his seat.-Hammond vs. Herrick, 1 Cong. Elec. Cases, p. 287; Earle's Case, id., p. 314. If the duties of such office have so far ceased as to virtually abolish the office, a formal resignation is unnecessary.-Mumford's Case, 1 Cong. Elec. Cases, p. 316. Accepting such office after taking his seat works a forfeiture of his office of member of Congress. Van Ness' Case, 1 Cong. Elec. Cases, p. 122. So the acceptance of a military commission operates as a forfeiture. Id., last supra; Yell's Case, 2 Cong. Elec. Cases, p. 93; Byington vs. Vandever, id., p. 395; see, also, Stanton vs. Lane, 2 id., p. 637. A vacancy filled by an executive appointment to the U. S. Senate again becomes vacant when the State Legislature subsequent to such appointment meets and adjourns without electing. Williams' Case, 2 Cong. Elec. Cases, p 612; Phelps' Case, id., p. 613. Such appointee has a right to sit till his successor is elected or appointed and presents his credentials.-Winthrop's Case, id., p. 607. SECTION 7. of laws. 1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the Enactment House of Representatives, but the Senate,may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills. 2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his objections, to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each House respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a Powers of law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress, by their adjournment, prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 3. Every order, resolution, or vote, to which the concurrence of the Senate and the House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment), shall be presented to the President of the United States; and, before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be re-passed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. SECTION 8. 1. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; 2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States; 3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes; 4. To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States; 5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coins, and fix the standard of weights and measures; 6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States; 7. To establish Post Offices and post roads; 8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing, for limited times, to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries; 9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court; 10. To define and punish piracies and felonies com mitted on the high scas, and offenses against the law of Powers of nations; 11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water; 12. To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years; 13. To provide and maintain a navy; 14. To make rules for the government and regula tion of the land and naval forces; 15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions; 16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the States, respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; 17. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the Legisla ture of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings; 18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof. NOTE. TAXATION.-A tax on carriages is not a direct tax, within the meaning of the Constitution.Hylton vs. United States, 3 Dall., p. 171. Congress has no power to exempt any State from its due share of the burden of taxes, but is not bound to extend a direct tax to the District of Columbia and Territories.Loughborough vs. Blake, 5 Wheat., p. 317. A tax Congress. |