THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE IN IOWA

[The official position of the President of the Senate corresponds to that of the Speaker of the House of Representatives; and so this article may be regarded as a companion to the monograph by Dr. Upham on The Speaker of the House of Representatives in Iowa which was published in the January, 1919, number of THE IOWA JOURNAL OF HISTORY AND POLITICS.-EDITOR.]

I

HISTORICAL TRADITION AND LEGAL STATUS

Under the bicameral system of legislative organization which now prevails in the United States the presiding officer of the upper house usually holds his position ex officio, while the moderator of the lower house is usually elected by the members from among their own number. Moreover it has worked out that the chairman of the upper house in America is elected by the people at large as an executive official with ex officio legislative duties and responsibilities: thus, the Vice President presides over the United States Senate, and in most of the States the Lieutenant Governor presides over the State Senate.1 Some of the earlier State constitutions, however, provided that the presiding officers of the two houses should be identical in character and method of election. In 1780 the Constitution of Massachusetts, for example, provided that both the Senate and House should choose their own presiding officers.2 Tennessee, too, as late as 1870 adopted a Constitution providing that each house of the legislature should choose its own Speaker.3

1 This rule prevails also in Great Britain and in many other countries which have bicameral parliamentary bodies.

2 Constitution of Massachusetts, 1780, Pt. II, Ch. I, Sec. 2, par. 7, Sec. 4,

par. 10.

3 Constitution of Tennessee, 1870, Art. II, Sec. 11.

There was considerable discussion prior to the adoption of the Federal Constitution as to whether the Senate should be allowed to choose a presiding officer from among its members: indeed there was strong opposition to the establishment of the office of Vice President. Some thought such an official "not a very important, if not an unnecessary part of the system"; while others went so far as to say that the office is "as unnecessary as it is dangerous.''5 It was alleged that this officer, "for want of other employment, is made president of the senate, thereby blending the executive and legislative powers, besides always giving to some one state, from which he is to come, an unjust preeminence."'" On the other hand, it was urged that "the vice-president is not an executive officer while the president is in discharge of his duty, and when he is called to preside his legislative voice ceases."

Two considerations were said to justify the final decision of the convention. "One is, that to secure at all times the possibility of a definitive resolution of the body, it is necessary that the President should have only a casting vote. And to take the Senator of any State from his seat as Senator, to place him in that of President of the Senate, would be to exchange, in regard to the State from which he came, a constant for a contingent vote. The other consideration is, that, as the Vice-President may occasionally become a substitute for the President, in the supreme Executive magistracy, all the reasons which recommend the mode of election prescribed for the one, apply with great,

4 The Federalist and Other Constitutional Papers, p. 856.

The reference is to the edition by E. H. Scott published in 1894.

5 The Federalist and Other Constitutional Papers, p. 628. The Federalist and Other Constitutional Papers, p. 628.

7 The Federalist and Other Constitutional Papers, p. 573.

if not with equal, force to the manner of appointing the other."'s

It was also urged, that the "Vice-President, while he acts as President of the Senate will have nothing to do in the executive department; his being elected by all the states will incline him to regard the interests of the whole, and when the members of the senate are equally divided on any question, who so proper to give a casting vote as one who represents all the states?"""

The majority of the Commonwealths have followed the lead of the framers of the Constitution of the United States; and so to-day in the States as well as in the nation the Speaker of the lower house is given his position by the party vote of the legislative body over which he presides, while the President of the upper house is such ex officio. It is so in Iowa: the House of Representatives elects a Speaker from among its own members; while the Senate must accept as its President the Lieutenant Governor elected by the people. But this has not always been the case.

The office of Lieutenant Governor was not created in Iowa until 1857. Prior to that time, during the Territorial period from 1838 to 1846 and under the first State Constitution from 1846 to 1857, the Massachusetts-Tennessee system prevailed in Iowa. The Presidents of the Council during the period of the Territory and the Presidents of the Senate during the period of the Constitution of 1846 did not differ in character or manner of selection from the Speakers of the House during the same periods.

When the Council of the First Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Iowa met in session on the twelfth of November, 1838, it devolved upon that body to effect some sort of organization. The Organic Act contained no menThe Federalist and Other Constitutional Papers, p. 376. The Federalist and Other Constitutional Papers, p. 613.

tion of a moderator for the Council: it provided merely that "the persons elected to the Legislative Assembly shall meet at such place, and on such day as he [the Governor of the Territory] shall appoint" 10 There were neither constitutional provisions nor statutory regulations for the election of a presiding officer.11

The President of the Council in the First Legislative Assembly, however, seems to have had a legal status somewhat more definite than that of the Speaker of the House in the same session, since the Council, before perfecting organization by the election of permanent officers, drew up rules for its own governance, wherein it was provided that the "Council shall choose by ballot one of their own number to occupy the Chair. He shall be styled President of the Council."'12 Although the official journal does not record the adoption of the rules of which this regulation formed a part, the omission is doubtless a clerical error. At any rate on the afternoon of the thirteenth of November Jesse B. Browne was elected President of the Council, having received the whole number of votes cast. 13 At later sessions of the upper house almost without exception the rules of the previous session were adopted by the Council before effecting organization, thus authorizing the election of a President.

The Second Legislative Assembly, recognizing the advisability of placing the office of President on a statutory basis, enacted a law which directed that "after the decision of all cases of contested elections, the Council shall proceed

10 Organic Act, Sec. 4, in Shambaugh's Documentary Material Relating to the History of Iowa, Vol. I, p. 103.

11 See Upham's The Speaker of the House of Representatives in Iowa in THE IOWA JOURNAL OF HISTORY AND POLITICS for January, 1919, pp. 5, 6.

12 Council Rules, 1838-1839, Rule I.

13 Council Journal, 1838-1839, p. 20.

to elect a president".14 This statute continued in force down to 1851, when it was superseded by a more general provision authorizing the "election of officers" 15

Agitation for the admission of Iowa into the Union as a State began in 1840. In August of that year a vote of the people was taken on the question of calling a constitutional convention, which resulted in the defeat of the proposition by a large majority. Two years later the people voted on the same question, and again it was defeated by a majority in every county. But in 1844 a favorable vote was secured and delegates were elected to the first constitutional convention which met in Iowa City on October 7, 1844. The Constitution drafted by this convention is known as the Constitution of 1844.

Although this instrument was never adopted by the people of the State, and consequently was never in force, the provision which it contained for a presiding officer of the Senate should be noted. It authorized the election of a Lieutenant Governor who was to be ex officio President of the Senate. Unsuccessful arguments against the incorporation of this section were based "upon the principle of economy, and the non-necessity of the Office."16 Two years later these arguments must have had more weight, for the Constitution of 1846 in its final form contained no provision for a Lieutenant Governor, although the reports show no debate on this point. The report of the Committee on Legislative Department, it is true, included the provisions of the Constitution of 1844 in regard to the duties of the Lieutenant Governor as the presiding officer of the Senate; but the Committee on Executive Department

14 Laws of Iowa, 1839-1840, Ch. 66, Secs. 5, 10.

15 Code of 1851, Ch. 2, Sec. 8.

16 Shambaugh's Fragments of the Debates of the Iowa Constitutional Conventions of 1844 and 1846, p. 50.