Weekly New Oregon plain dealer. (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1866-1867, 1866-11-16
WHAT Is CONGRESS!

+ 1t Is Important to kno" "ha'
under the constitution constitutes
legal Congress; whether it is the
entire number Of me mbcrs fixed by
only those actually chosen. The
constitution says the House of Rep
rescntatives shall be composed of
members chosen every second year
b. the people Of the several states,
and that the Senate shall be COM
posed Of two Senators from each
State. y
| The constitution nowhere says
that the House of Representatives
shall be composed Of the number Of
members absolutely chosen, but Of
! the number allotted to the several
states in one grand aggregate.-
Neither does it say the Senate
shall be composed of the number of
senators actually chosen, but that
it shall consist of two senator's from
each State. In brief it says that
each house shall be composed of the
entire number of members fixed by
law.
1t may be well to advert to the
early practice of the governm emit,
as the course pursued by those who
framed the constitution, under SIM
liar circumstances, unmistaka bly,
shows the const ruction they put
upon the question standing at the
head of this article. The constitu-
ton provided that when it should
have been adopted by nine states
it should 60 into operation among
the states ratifying it. On the 4th
day of March 1889 eleven states
bud "rati6Gd the, aarSt itas vonfp6ssSea
# twenty-five members, and the
house of representatives was COM
posed Of fifty-nine members.
However there were but twenty
senators actually chosen; hence it
became a question with the men. of
that day which number composed
the senate? If twenty, then eleven
members were majority; if twenty
two, then twelve was majority; and
in either case that ma jority consti-
tuted the quorum for business. On
the 18th Of March 1889, eleven
senators appeared, 1.ing majority
Of all the members chosen, yet they
were considered as constituting less
than quorum, the senate in the
meantime transacting no business
until April 6, 1889, twelve senator's
appearing and being majority Of
the whole number were taken as a
quorum, and the senate proceeded
for the first time to transact bust
ness under the present constitution.
| Nor did the practice of the house
Of representatives, in any material
point, differ from that Of the senate.
BY the constitution as VIC just as
serted the FIRST house of representa-
tlvcs was composed of fifty. nine
members, and it was not until thir-
t. had appeared, that being
majority over all, that it held that
a quorum was present for the trans
There are now thirty-six states in
the Union, and the senate is COM
posed of seventy-two members j
The number Of Representatives fixed
by law is two hundred and forty -one
aui of them are the two houses of
congress composed as defined by the
constitution.
Forty-eight is two thirds Of the
senate, and one hundred and sixty
one is two thirds Of the house of
representatives. 10 propose an
amendment to the constitution re-
quircs not only legal congress to
he assembled, but that the proposed
amendments have two thirds Of the
votes of a constitutional congress.
The pending constitutional amend
ments in the senate had thirty three
votes, and in the house one hundred
and twenty.
The amendments did not therefore
receive the constitutional two thirds
in either house of congress, and
therefore is not and never has been
legally and constitutionally before
the country.