The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1883-01-28
THE SESSIONS or CONGRESS.


The Joint resolution introduced by Mr..
blanchard, Of Louisiana, to change the
time for the annual convening Of Congress.
is so sensible that the only wonder is that
similar one has not been passed long
since. Il provides that the Forth-ninth and
every subsequent Congress shall meet as
soon az their term Of office begins. viz. on
the 9Th OF March, when the previous Con.
gress dissolvcs. Tho second session shall
begin on the first Monday in January Of the
ensuing year, and continue, of course, lust
as lq5lg and with such recessos as they
choose. The present arrangement is in it.
self the most idiotic that the mind of man
could conceive The Congress elected last
November for instance, will not meet until
next December, over year afterits election,
and will not get to work for a
month or two months after that. This
will give ample time TO forget all
the pledges made to and instructions re-
ceived from constituents. In the interim the
country is for a while governed by the rep.
resentatives of the minority, and then, to
state the evil in its more crying form, left
from March to December with no organized
legislature, and no Speaker Of the House TO
succeed to possible vacancy in the Presi.
dental chair. The country is thus exposed
not merely to inconvenience, but to the
danger of positive anarchy. For this Mr..
Blanchard s measure proposes to substitute
that upon each Congress dissolving, its sue
cessor shall stand ready to step into its
place, continue its officers or elect
new ones Immediately, receive over the
arrears of unfinished business, get in good
working order and perhaps accomplish a
great deal before the hot weather comes on.
The reelected members of the old House will
OF course be ON hand to take their places in
the new. The pretense of meeting before
the Christmas holidays will be abolished and
such farcical attempts to keep in session
through Christmas week as exposed the
present Congress to derision be rendered uu-
necessary. The country imperatively de-
mands some such reform as this in the work
ing-time of its paid Legislators in fact, we
yet expect to see Congress in session all the
year round, with but brief recesses during
the hot season and holidays.
One most desirable thing in the change
would be to have business 90 over
into the new Congress in whatever state it
might be left unfinished by the old one. It
now often happens that measure is care
fully considered in committee, passed by one
House, referred and thoroughly considered
In committee in the other, and reported back
favora0ly, only to die on the Senate calendar
or Speakers table. Then all the work has
to be done over again, and thus the time of
both Houses and of their committees is con-
sumed and business obstructed year after
year, Months of the working time OF every
Congress are lost through the necessity i'm
posed by the present rules, of beginning de
novo with matters that had been brought to
the very verge of a final conclusion in several
previous Congresses. All this waste of time
and labor could be avoided by simple pro.
vision for continuing unfinished business
on the calendar.