The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1914-05-08
Parliamentarians Asking Whether
Absence of Vice President Could in
Any Way Distrub Action in War j,
SENATOR LEWIS COMPIIMENTED
Praise Given Illinois LaWmaker Who
so Successfully Presided During.
Hot Moments of Debate
BY Congressman G. H. Tavenner.

BY Congressman G.. H. TaVenner.
Washington, May Spending the
lapse of war activities awaiting me-
diation, the pariamentarians of
Congress are asking if the Resolu-
tion passing the Senate authorizing
the President to use the Army and
Navy in Mexico would have been
constitutional. The point made is
that the power was an eNtraordin-
airy one and required the assent and
presence of the Vice President. The
Vice President was called from
Washington by illness in his family.
The Senate elected Senator James
Hamilton Lewis of Illinois as Presi-
dent of the Senate and to serve as
Vice President 1t was great
compliment to the State of Illinois
and a distinguished honor to the
Junior Senator-the Democratic Whip
Of the Senate; but the question is,
was it legal. The praise accorded
Senator Lewis from all sources for
1he manner he had handled the Sen
ate in the exciting days of the long
and furious debates, and the credit
Senate in the presence of the assem-
Died Diplomats of the Foreign Coun-
tries, the Cabinet and members of
the Supreme Court and Congress-
men present by the skillful DISPOSE
tion of the difficult parliamentary
disputes was such that no one paus-
ID to consider the effect that would
have followed had any set of citizens
who oppose war for any purposes
the United States Courts the order
OF the President directing the Army
and Navy into action. The Consti-
tuition prescribes that the Vice Presi-
dent shall be the presiding officer Of
the Senate and sign all resolutions
before they can become a law The
only exception to this is routine
matters where the vice president
calls some one temporarily to take
the chair in momentary absence. In
the instance of an extraordinary
event such as war resolution, it
is doubted if any other officer could
lake the place of the vice president.
1t is pointed out THAT in the war Of
1912 the vice-president of the Uni
ted States presided. That in the
only war declaration since, only the |
wee presidents in person ever sat
during the Senate declarations.
I'll the discussion of the resola-
lion declaring military operations on
Spain in behalf of Cuba, Vice Presi- |
dent Garrett Hobart presided in per-
son. In the severe discussion of the
Lincoln proclamation declaring war
between the states, the Vice Presi-
dent Hannibal Hamlin presided over
the Senate.
1t is urged that if the action of |
the Senate in unanimously electing |
Senator Lewis as president can be |
legal and constitutional, merely be-
cause not one Republican vote was
cast against it nor any dissent from
any source, that in other instances
Of partisan objects to declare war
for political objects as was charged
by Webster and Clay against Presi-
dent Polk-though the vice presi-
dent of that day presided when the
Mexican War declaration was passed
"a mere majority with the CONN.,
vance of the vice president or in |
his accidental absence could whip a |
resolution through declaring war
that would have been illegal. 1t is |
asserted that the precedent in plac-