rence of two-thirds of the members present. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States; but the party convicted shall be liable to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law.

§ 146. In the case of a conviction on impeachment of the President, Vice-President, or other civil officer of the United States, for treason, bribery, or other high crime or misdemeanor, the judgment must be removal, and can be nothing less.1 Whether persons not in any civil office may be impeached, and whether persons in office may be impeached for any less offence than those above named for which they must be removed, the Constitution does not expressly decide. But disqualification for office may be superadded in the case of officers, and made the whole judgment in other cases, if there may be any. In the case of William Blount, the Senate, having expelled him from their body, declined to try him on the impeachment. Many principles were ably discussed by learned counsel; but it is difficult to say what principle was decided by sustaining the plea to the jurisdiction of the Senate. In the case of John Pickering, they substantially decided that a conviction and judgment of removal might be had for less offences 1 Article II., section 4.

than those above specified; or rather, that a low crime was a high misdemeanor in a Judge.1

§ 147. When the President of the Senate, who is the Vice-President of the United States, shall be absent, or exercise the office of President of the United States, the Senate shall choose a President pro tempore. It has been decided, that each House has, by implication, the power to punish for contempt; though no such power is expressly given by the Constitution, except in regard to their own members, or has been conferred by law. It is founded on its

In the case of Blount, the House refused either to direct their Managers to move for process to compel his personal attendance, or to proceed without it; thus leaving the matter to the Senate. The Senate, on motion, admitted an appearance by counsel, and then permitted them to file their plea, without objection. Nothing can be inferred from this action, against the right of the Senate to take the respondent into custody, either with or without a voluntary appearance on summons. In opening the prosecution, Mr. James A. Bayard, Chairman of the Managers, said, "The Constitution has said who shall have the power to impeach, and who of trying impeachments. It has also limited the extent of the punishment. But it has not described the persons who shall be the objects of impeachment, nor defined the cases to which the remedy shall be confined. . . . Upon these points we are designedly left to the regulations of the common law. . . . The question therefore is, What persons, for what offences, are liable to be impeached at common-law? . . . The question of impeachability is a question of discretion only with the Commons and Lords. . . . All the King's subjects are liable to be impeached by the Commons and tried by the Lords." Judge Pickering was impeached, tried, convicted, and removed, in his absence and without counsel. His misfortune was, that he held an office, the duties of which, by the providence of God, in depriving him of reason, he was disqualified to perform or to resign; and for the same reason was unable to defend himself, or even to appoint counsel to do it for him. His office was wanted by individuals from personal considerations, and by the Administration to pay partizans. Under such circumstances, impeachment was a ready remedy; and, with or without offences, which were not likely to be wanting, encountered no obstacles adequate to insure a correct administration of justice.

necessity for self-preservation; but the punishment extends only to imprisonment, and that only during the continuance of the body exercising the power. Neither House can adjourn for more than three days during the session of Congress, nor to any other place than that in which they are sitting, without the consent of the other House; and each is a complete check upon the other in all the business of legislation.

§ 148. The Senate, for certain specified purposes, constitute an advisory council to the President, and so far participate in the exercise of the executive power. The appointment of ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not otherwise provided for in the Constitution, and which are established by law, shall be made by and with the advice and consent of the Senate; and the exercise of his power to make treaties" shall be " "by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, . . provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur."

ee

149. By the second Article and twelfth Amendment, certain duties are assigned to each of the two Houses separately, in relation to the choice of President and Vice-President. When the votes of the electors for those officers

1 6 Wheat., 204.

are counted, in the presence of the two Houses in convention, if no person has a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, then from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President; the votes to be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote, and a quorum for the purpose shall consist of one or more members from two-thirds of the States, a majority of all the States being necessary to a choice. If no person have a similar majority of the votes of the electors for Vice-President, then, from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose being two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number being necessary to a choice. On the same principle that a quorum for ordinary business was decided, this quorum must be two-thirds of the Senators actually qualified and entitled to seats at the time. In regard to the House of Representatives, the expression is different. The quorum is a representation from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States is necessary for a choice. There has been no direct decision by the House what this majority and quorum is; but it may be safely inferred, from the concurrent order of both Houses in relation to the election of 1865, that

the returns from certain States then in rebellion, and not represented in Congress, should not be received or counted; that the decision would be, if required to be made, that no State in rebellion, without representation in Congress, and without a republican government recognized by Congress as in subordination or conformity to the Constitution, could be considered for this purpose as a State within the Union, and counted in order to ascertain how many made a majority or two-thirds of all the States.

THE CONGRESS.

§ 150. The Senate and House of Representatives constitute the "Congress of the United States," in which are "vested" "all legislative powers granted" by the Constitution.' They shall assemble at least once in every year, and on the first Monday in December, unless a different day shall be appointed by law.2 Every bill, order, resolution, or vote of Congress, requiring the concurrence of the two Houses (except on a question of adjournment), shall, before it becomes a law or shall take effect, 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