The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-11-19

regular annual sessions TO Commenced. A new
Congress cannot meet, under the constitutional
provision before the first Monday in December
unless convened in the interim by the Presi.
dent Hence, unless Congress, by law, appoint
different day for such regular annual ses.
siOns, there can be no constitutional meeting OF
q e Congress prior TO the first Monday in De-
cember; any meeting of the Congress in the In
terventng period would be an extra session, and
can only be called by the President. on an ex-
raordinary occasion demanding IL, OF which he
'TRe Constitution does not anywhere. I'm anv
other way. provide for any other than a regular
session of the Congress. It d. es not authorize
Congress to provide for an additional meet
tng,' but simply gives them power to change
the day for such regular meeting from the first
Monday in December by appointing different
"There IS q first and second session of each
Congress, and meeting of a new Congress
Constitution for it to assemble in regular iegs-
lative session cannot be legalized by calling IL
an sdditional session. or an additional meet;
"Hence there is no room for any 'additionap
session of the same Congress, otherwise than In
extra session; and an extra session can be called
only blythe President; otherwise the Congress ex-
erclses the power not only to convene an extra
session, but also to create an extraordinary
occasion Tor 1t, and to convened IL on such ex-
tTaOrdinaTy occasion, in cOntraVenttOn OF the
powers of the President"
There is obviously no soundness in this doc
trine unless it applies to every Congress alike
to the First as well as the FOrtieth. Every
Congress in the whole seriss possesses pre-
cisely the same powers, all being derived from
the same common origin, the Constitution.
The powers conceded to any must be con-
ceded to all; the powers denied to any one
must be denied to every one, from the begin
ming downwards. Now, the provision fixing
the first Monday in December for the beginning
of the annual session, unless Congress itself
should otherwise determine, was in the Consd-
| tuition before Congress assembled for the first
| time, on the 4th of March, 1889. If Mr.. Stan
| berry is correct, that session was unconstitu-
| tional and all its acts void. 1t was
not q meeting on the first Monday
| in December, as the Constitution pro-
vides 1t was not a meeting in pur-
suance of law of Congress fixing differ
ent day, for Congress had never before met,
and could have passed no such law, 1t was
not an extra session called by the President, the
electoral votes not having been counted, nor
| the President sworn in. There was a necessity
| for Congress meeting before there could be
| President. If the members had been of Mr..
/ Stanbery's opinion, they would, after an in
formal consultation, have forborne to organize,
| postponed their meeting to the December fol-
lowing, and dispersed to their homes. If they
had been of Mr.. Stanbery's opinion, they must
have felt that all the great acts they passed at
| that session, acts for creating the departments
| and organizing the Government, acts on which
all its operations have depended from that day
| to this, would be acts of usurped authority
| and constitutionally void.
MIR. Stanbery's fundamental error. consists
in the assumption that the powers of Con-
gress respecting its meetings and adjourn
ments are derived from the Constitution; an
error exploded by Jefferson in an ably reasoned
Cabinet opinion prepared in 1870. Jeferson's
| reasoning has too much detail to be given.
| The positions it supports are thus stated by
himself
| Each House of Congress possesses this natu-
| raj right OF governing Itself, and, consequently
| OF fixing It's own times and places OF meeting.
| so far as IL has not been abridged by the law or
those who employ them; that is to say, by the
manifeslly considers them as possessing this
right of course, and therefore, has nowhere
given 1t to them. In the several passages where
1t touches this right, it treats it an existing
thing, not as one called into existence by them.
tion shall be quoted where the right of ad-
jourDment Is touched; and 1t will be seen that
no one of them pretends to give that right; that,
on the contrary, every one is evidently intro
duoed either TO enlarge the right where it
would be too narrow; to restrain IL where, in its
natural and full exercise. it might be too large,
and lead 10 inconvenience; to defend IL from
the latitude OF Its own phrases; where these
were not meant TO comprehend 1t; or to pro-
vide for its exercise by Others, when they can
not exercise 1t themselves"
Such was Jeffersons position; the reasoning
by which he sustained It may be seen by CON
sulting his official papers. The right of ad-
journment is correlRtive to that of meeting;
every adjournment which is not sine die having
reference to some future time of meeting.
Both are expressly included by Jefferson, in
the paragraph we have quoted and through
out his argument. In the preceding para
graph he says: "When a certain description
of men are to transact together particular
business the times and places of their meet
ing and separation depend on their own will;
they make a part of the natural right of self
government. 1t was in the exercise of this
right that the first Congress assembled on the
4th of March;-this is our inference, not JEFF
teTsOn's; he had no occasion to allude to that
I~pOint. 1t is true that the day was appointed
by the Congress of the Confederation; but sup
posing Mr.. Stanbery's doctrine true, what
right had that body to prescribe violation of
the Constitution The Constitution gave it
no right to prescribe anything at all on any
subject whatever. This method of bringing
the first Congress together was adopted for
convenience; the authority to assemble de-
pended on the consent of the Congress itself.
Every provision of the Constitution should
be interpreted with reference to its object The
object of that which Mr.. Stanbery makes the
cornerstone of his reasoning is obviously to
secure meetings of Congress as often at least
as once year. Fixing the first Monday in
| December in case Congress itself does not
adopt different day, is merely subservient to
that object. 1t provides against default of
at least one meeting q year by the negligence
| OF Congress to fix a day. That it was SO un-
dersteod by the early Congresses is perfectly
evident by the date of their meetings. The
first meeting of the first Congress was on the
fourth of March. The next, instead of being
on the first Monday in December, was on the
fourth of January following. Having held
one session the preceding year. Con-