Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-06

which is $4,000. The senator who is
chosen president pro tempore retains his
right to vote and debate on all questions
and has no casting vote in case of q tie.
He can name IN open senate, or IN
writing, senator to perform the duties
of the chair, but for no longer period
than one daily session, except by unani-
nous consent.
The president of the senate Is the GUS
todian of the electoral votes for president
and vice-president of the United States,
and opens the certificates, 90 be counted,
in the presence of both houses in the
February preceding the expiration of the
term.
The senate has exclusive power to try
impeachments, which are proceedings TO
remove the president, the president
and all civil off GERS of the United States,
If proven guilty of treason, bribery, or
other high crimes and misdemeanors.
When the president is tried, the chief
justice of the supreme court presides over
the senate, as the vice president could
not be disinterested, although he might
be impartial.
Executive sessions of the senate are
held for the consideration of business
connected with the executive department
of the government, consisting principally
of nominations for office and treaties
with foreign powers. These sessions are
usually held with closed doors, the galle-
ries being cleared of visitors and all per-
sons excluded except senators and such
clerks and other officials as are requisite,
these being previously sworn to secrecy.
There is no other parliamentary body
that habitually holds secret sessions, the
reason being that the senate is the only
HI &Iok
ecutive functions, and shares with
the president, or head of the nation,
in the exercise of executive powers.
These sessions are CONTINUATION Of the
deliberations begun by the president
and his cabinet, or by the diplomatic
representatives of our own and other
governments, which are confidential in
their nature, and for prudential reasons
are not made public until the transact
tons are concluded. When nomina-
tions are confirmed or rejected and
treaties ratified the result is announced
through the press, or by proclamation
of the president, but the votes, speeches
and other proceedings in the cabinet
and in the senate are not disclosed.
After O sufficient interval has elapsed
the journals of the executive sessions
are printed, the publication at this time
coming down to the year 1863.
The alleged wits of the newspapers,
when times are dull, and other sources
of recreation fail, are accustomed to dis
parage the senate by describing it as a
"club of millionaires'' and the "Ameri-
can house of lords, - intimating thereby
that wealth is a condition precedent to
admission, and that it is a supertiuous
and unnecessary part of our political syS-
tenn. Upon occasions of public excite
ment and discomfort no appeal is more
effective from the stump, or in the reso-
buttons of Jacobins and anarchists, than
the demand for its abolition.
These denunciatiOns proceed from a
mlsapprehension of its relations to our
government, which has been defined IS
ian indissoluable union of indestructible
states. - The senate represents the states
in their corporate capacity, as distin-
guished from the nation, the great body
of the people, whose powers are expressed
in the house of representatives. 1t is
permanent and enduring factor in our
complex system, so far as anything can
be pei manent amid the fluctuations and
vicissitudes of democracy. 1t might be
eliminated by an amendment to the
constitution, but that instrument, which
permits changes in other respects by the