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finding the authority or reason for the expiration of each Congress on the 4th day of March, there having been no statute or constitutional provision, under the existing Government, requiring such practice.

On the 13th of September, 1787, Mr. Johnson, of Connecticut, from the Committee on Style, reported to the Federal Convention that formed the Constitution of the United States two resolutions, the second of which is as follows:

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this convention that as soon as the conventions of nine States shall have ratified this Constitution the United States, in Congress, shall fix a day on which electors shall be appointed by the States which shall have ratified the same, and a day on which the electors shall assemble to vote for President, and the time aud place for commencing the proceedings under this Constitution; that after such publication the electors should be appointed, and the Senators and Representatives elected; that the electors should meet on the day fixed for the election of the President, and should transmit their votes, certified, signed, sealed, and directed, as the Constitution requires, to the Secretary of the United States in Congress assembled; that the Senators and Representatives shall convene at the time and place assigned; that the Senate should appoint a president for the sole purpose of receiving, opening, and counting the votes for President, and that after he shall be chosen the Congress, together with the President, should, without delay, proceed to execute this Constitution.

This resolution, which appears to have been adopted on the 17th of September, 1787, may be found in the Madison Papers containing the debates upon the Confederation and the Federal Constitution, page 541; and also in the Journal of Congress, vol. 12, pages 163 and 164 of the original edition, and vol. 4, page 781 of the edition of 1823.

The Continental Congress, at a session held September 12, 1788, adopted the following resolution:

Resolved, etc., That the first Wednesday in January next be the day for appointing electors in the several States which before the said day shall have ratified the said Constitution; that the first Wednesday in February next be the day for the electors to assemble in their several States and vote for a President; and that the first Wednesday in March next be the time and the present seat of Congress the place for commencing proceedings under the said Constitution.

The preamble to this resolution recites a portion of the resolution of September 17, 1787, but refers to it as having been

passed on the 28th day of September, 1787. This last resolution may be found in the Journal of Congress, edition of 1823, vol. 4, page 866.

It thus appears that the Continental Congress, by the resolution of September 12, 1788, and acting under and by virtue of the authority conferred upon it by the resolution of the Constitutional Convention of September 17, 1787, declared that the first Wednesday in March, 1789, should be the time for commencing proceedings under the Constitution. The first Wednesday of March in that year fell on the fourth day of that month. The first paragraph of the second section of the first article of the Constitution provides that the House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States. This implies necessarily that the term is for two years, and as the term of the members elected to the First Congress commenced on Wednesday, the 4th day of March, 1789, their term expired, by operation of the Constitution, on the 4th day of March, 1791; and, by a like necessity, the term of their successors commenced on the same day. As that provision of the Constitution has been operative without modification from that day to this, it has not been possible to make any change in the commencement or ending of a Congress, or of the terms of members of the House of Representatives.

It thus appears also that a term of Congress is as fixed as though specific provision had been made in the Constitution that it should commence on the 4th day of March and terminate on the 4th day of March at the end of every two years. Yours, very respectfully,

TO HENRY H. SMITH, Esq.,

GEO. S. BOUTWELL.

Journal Clerk of the House of Representatives.

(In this connection attention is called by the compiler to the concurrent resolution of first session, First Congress, S. J., p. 140; H. J., pp. 218, 296.)

See also act of March 1, 1792, Stat. at Large, vol. 1, p. 239, of which section 12 is as follows, viz:

"That the term of four years for which a President and

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mber of members to which said State ne district to elect more than one Repay after the first Monday in November, nd year thereafter, is fixed for the elecates and Territories of Representatives ongress commencing on the 4th of March nt failure to elect or a vacancy, an election shall be held at such time as may be prothe State or Territory where the same may er of Representatives shall be reduced in the the number of male citizens being twentydenied the right to vote therein shall bear to er of male citizens twenty-one years of age in secs. 20, 22, 23, 25, 26.

on of Colorado on August 1, 1876 (under the with one Representative, made the total number the House two hundred and ninety-three, makred and forty-seven members the quorum necesact business.

February 25, 1882 (under the tenth census), ine number of Representatives to three hundred and after that (47th) Congress, made one hundred and members the necessary quorum.

of February 22, 1889, admitting the States of North, Dakota, Montana, and Washington, with five Repes, and the acts of July 3 and 10, 1890, admitting es of Idaho and Wyoming, with two Representatives, ncreased the membership of the House to three hunnd thirty-two, making one hundred and sixty-seven ers the necessary quorum.

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of the Revised Statutes, prescribing the time for ons for representatives to Congress, is modified apply to any State that has not yet changed its in, and whose constitution must be amended in t a change in the day of the election of State d State.-Laws, 2, 43, pp. 400, 401.

a new State is admitted to the Union the Repreassigned to it shall be in addition to the two huninety two.-R. S., sec. 31.

Vice-President shall be elected, shall in all cases commence on the fourth day of March next succeeding the day on which the votes of the electors shall have been given."

MEMBERS.

"No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained the age of twenty-five years, and have been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen."-Const., 1,2; 2, 2.

"No person shall be a Representative in Congress *

who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability."-Ibid., XIV Amendment, p. 31.

By the act of May 22, 1872 (Stat. at Large, Vol. XVII, p. 142), the disabilities imposed by the foregoing article are removed from all persons whomsoever, except Senators and Representatives of the Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Congresses, officers in the judicial, military, and naval service of the United States, heads of departments, and foreign ministers of the United States.

"Each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members."-Const., 1, 5; 1, 5. (See ELECTIONS, CONTESTED.)

The time, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the place of choos ing Senators.-Const., 1, 4; 1, 4.

The House shall consist of two hundred and ninety-two mem bers, to be elected by districts having contiguous territory and containing as near as practicable an equal number of inhabit

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