The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1869-07-01

tive power of the Senate being vested
In twenty-five Senators; would be
welded by a majority of that number,
thirteen. But the principle of the
resolution goes to this extent, that If
only New England, or any less number
of States, were to elect members of
the Senate and House, majority OF
these Senators and Representatives, re-
spectively, would constitute a quorum
to do business. and majority of those
quorums would pat in operation the
whole legislative power of the Gov
eminent.
Mr.. MeDougall further argued
against the resolution on the analogy
of the law of corporations. He said
| in all corporations there must be a
majority of the directors present,
etc Congressional Globe, 1861, z,
page 1892.
But these arguments were ably
answered by Reverdy johnson aud
/ others, and after more than two years
| deliberation the resolution was adopt
ed by more than two thirds vote.
shall not repeat these arguments here.
/ cite to them and the court will be
enlightened by reading them.
And we now fnd this state of facts:
The Congress. of the United States,
for the past eight years, has been
enacting laws, civil and criminal, by
a quorum only of the actual House.
being greatly below a legal quorum, ii
the quorum is a majority OF the larg-
est possible House under the COnsti-
tuition, aud these laws have been and
now are enforced by all the courts of
the United States, without a whisper
being brcathed as to their validity.
Your penitentiaries are full of men
deprived of their liberties under these
laws, and wrOngfully so, if the de-
PENDANTS doctrine Of the quorum is
correct.
l take it this long recognition of
the validity of these laws by the
Courts has put the question at rest
forever In this country, and settled it
that under our Constitution a legal
quorum is majority or two thirds, as
the case may be, of the actual House,
not of the possible House, under the
Constitution. 1t must be regarded as
settled by the concurriDg judgment of
the Courts Of the United States.
By rule Of the Senate, as we have
seen, a quorum, day, consists of a
majority of the Senators-the actual
existing Senators = excluding those
dead and those who have resigned,
they not being part of the Senators !;
it consists of majority of the exist
ing members, who have been duly
elected and sworn. This, we have
shown, is exactly the quorum pre-
scribed by our Constitution, under
which alone this case must be deter
mined. Recurring again for a mo-
ment to that Constitution, quorum
is there disclosed to consist of two
thirds of the House.; and the
House, we have seen, is the ag-
gregate Of the members who, at
any time, are present and absent,
but liable to be compelled to be pres
ent. This being so, there was clearly
quorum present In the House on
the 18th Of May, after the resignation
of the forty members, they being no
longer members whose attendance
could be compelled. The House con-
sisted Of the remaining members who
had not resigned, and there were two
thirds-a quOrum-of them present.
The gentlemen on the other side may
take either horn--if the members had
not efectually resigned, they were
part of the house, and being present,
they. according to the journal, made
a quorum. 1t they had etfectually
resigned, they were not part of the
House, and the House consisted of
the remaining members; and, in the
language of the Constitution, two
thirds Of that House made a quorum,
and two thirds were present.
| shall not argue the question of
policy. Ii may be said that one view
of this question acted upon may place
the government for preservation in
the hands of few men. 1t may be
said that another view acted upon
may enable a few men to destroy the
government. There are evils, both
ways, but | have sought in this argu-
ment to ascertain what the law is,
without regard to policy, and that is
the question for this court to decide.