CONGRESS. An assembly of deputies convened from different governments to treat of peace or of other international affairs.
The name of the legislative body of the United States, composed .of -the senate and house of representatives. U. S. Const. art. 1, s. 1.
2. Congress is composed of two independent houses,—tbe senate and the house of representatives.
The senate is composed of two senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof for six years; and each senator has one vote. They repre sent the states, rather than the people, ae each state has its equal voice and equal weight in the senate, without any regard to the disparity of population, wealth, or dimensions. The senate have been, from the first formation of the government, divided into three classes. The rotation of the Classes was originally determined by lot, and the seats of one class are vacated at the end of the second year, so that one-third of the senate is chosen every second year. U. S. Const. art. 1, s. 3. This provision was borrowed from a similar one in some of the state constitutions, of which Virginia gave the first ex ample.
The qualifications which the constitution requires of a senator are that he should be thirty years of age, have been nine years a citizen of the United States, and, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state for which he shall be chosen. U. S. Const. art. 1, s. 3.
3. The house of representatives is composed of members chosen every second year by the peopls of the several States who are qualified electors of the most numerous branch of the legislature of the state to which they belong.
7 person can be a representative until he has attained the age of twenty-five years, and has been seven years a citizen of the United States, and is at the time of his election an inhabitant of the state in which he is chosen. U. S. Cond. art. 1, s. 2.
The constitution requires that the representatives and direct taxes shall he apportioned among the seve ral states, which may he included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. U. S. Genet. art.
1, a. I.
The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand; but each state shall have at least one representative. Id.
4. Each house is made the judge of the election, returns, and qualifications of its own members.
Art. 1, s. 5. As each house acts in these cases in a, judicial character, its decisions, like the decisions of any other court of justice, ought to be regulated by known principles of law and strictly adhered to, for the sake of uniformity and certainty.. A majority of each house shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members in such manner and under such penalties as each may provide. Each house may determine the rules of its proceed ings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member. Each house is bound to keep a journal of its proceedings and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may, in their judgment, require secrecy, and to enter the yeas and nays on the journal, on any question, at the desire of one-fifth of the members present. Art.
I, e. 5.
5. The members of both houses are in all cases, except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective houses and in going to •and returning from the same; and—important to the freedom of deliberation—no member can be ques tioned in any other place for any speech or debate in either house. U. 'S. Const. art. 1, s. 6.
Each house of congress claims and exercises the power to punish con tempts of its mandates lawfully issued, and also to punish breaches of its privileges. This power rests upon no express law, but is claimed as of necessity, on the ground that all public func tionaries are essentially invested with the powers of self-preservation, and that whenever authorities are given the means of carrying them into execu tion are given by necessary implication. Jefferson, Manual, 0 3, art. Privilege ; Duane's Case, Senate Proceedings, Gales and Seaton's Annals of Cong., 6th Congress, pp. 122-124, 184, and Index; Wol cott's Case, Journal lieu. Reps. 1st Sess. 35th Con gress, pp. 371-374, 386-389, 535-539. The oases in which the power has been exercised are numerous. See Barclay, Dig. Rules of lieu. Reps. U. S. tit. Privilege. This power, however. extends no further than imprisonment ; and that will continue no fur ther than the duration of the power that imprisons. The imprisonment will therefore terminate with the adjournment or dissolution of congress.