CHAPTER VIII.

The Government of the United States; Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary Departments.

In the preceding chapter we have given a hurried history of the constitution of the United States, and a copy of that organic instrument. We now propose to explain a few formalities observed in its execution. In some respects this federal constitution was modelled after the priorexisting government of Virginia, and some of the other colonial states. It creates three distinct divisions-the legislative, executive, and judiciary.

THE LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT.

This body is called the Congress, and is composed of two branches-the senate and House of Representatives. It has two regular sessions, and exists for a term of two years, dating from the 4th of March, biennially. The first session begins on the first Monday in December succeeding a presidential inauguration, and is called the "long session," because it generally continues from six to eight months; and it legally exists until the first Monday of the next December, on which day the "second session" commences. This latter is called the "short session," because it terminates, by law, on the succeeding 3rd of March. At the close of the short session, every member

of the House of Representatives, and one-third of the senators, retire.

The senate is the upper branch of Congress, and consists of two members from each state, who are called "senators." They are elected by the legislatures of their respective states, for a term of six years. One-third of the senators retire every two years, as may have been decided by lot; but the terms of the senators of any one state do not expire at the same time. They are elected on joint ballot, by the senate and House of Representatives of the state. Thus, if the state senate consist of twenty-five members, and the house of a hundred members, the congressional senatorial candidate to be elected, must receive the vote of at least thirteen senators, and fifty-one representatives of the respective houses of the state legislature. Some states elect by a joint session of the two houses. The United States' senate, as thus organised, is composed of representatives from the states as sovereignties; and all the states, large and small, have the same powers, and equal representation. The state of Delaware, with its 59,096 population in 1790, had the same number of senators in Congress, as the great state of Virginia had with its 748,308 population. Rhode Island, with its 69,110, had the same number of senators as South Carolina, with its 249,073. At this time (1862), Oregon, with its 52,464 population, has two senators in Congress; the same that Virginia has, with its 1,596,083; the same that New York has, with its 3,887,543 people. Kansas, with its 107,110, has the same number of senators as Kentucky, with its 1,155,713; and Florida, with but 140,439 inhabitants, has

the same power, in the senate, as Pennsylvania has with its 2,906,370. With respect to territory, the states are considered as but equals. Thus Rhode Island, with an area of 1,306 square miles, had the same vote in the United States' senate, in 1790, as Virginia had with its 99,032 square miles; and the same, at the present time, as Texas, with its immense domain of 237,504 square miles. The senators, therefore, are the representatives immediately of the state sovereignty, and mediately of the people. At the present time there are thirty-four states forming the Union; and there are sixty-eight senators composing the senatorial branch of Congress. The vice-president of the United States presides over this body..

The House of Representatives is called the "lower house" of Congress, and is composed of representatives direct or immediately from the people. They are elected for a Congress a term of two years. The representation in this branch of the Congress is based upon population; the present ratio being 126,844. Every state is entitled to at least one representative, whether it possesses the ratio of population or not. Thus Oregon, with but 52,464 people, has one member in the lower house of Congress; and, at the same time, the state of Kentucky has an unrepresented surplus over the ratio for its eight members, of 50,765; and Vermont has 61,428 surplus over its two members. From these figures it will be seen that the lower house of Congress is not solely a representative assembly of the people, as common to the whole nation; but that the sovereignty of the state, the great corporate commonwealth, is therein represented. The members of this branch of

Congress, therefore, are the representatives immediately of the people, and mediately of the state sovereignty. The state of Delaware, with its 112,218 inhabitants, has the right to cast the same vote for president of the United States, as the state of New York, with its 3,887,542, in case the people should fail to elect a president, as was the case in 1824. Oregon, Florida, Delaware, and Rhode Island, as states, are entitled to one representative each, although neither of them has the ratio of inhabitants. The lower house, therefore, consists of a mixed representation.

The members of the House of Representatives are elected by the people, in each respective congressional district. Formerly they were elected by the aggregate vote of the state; but now they are elected by districts, which are formed by the legislature from time to time. Thus, suppose a state has a population of 1,268,440, it would be entitled to ten members upon the present ratio of 126,844. The state would, in this case, be divided into ten districts, each of which would elect a representative of the lower branch of Congress.

The house consists of 233 members, plus the representatives from the states admitted between the decennial apportionments; and the delegates from the organised territories. The delegates from the territories, however, have a right to speak through courtesy; but they cannot vote when the ayes and noes are called. In the preceding we have explained how the members of the two branches of Congress are elected. It remains for us to state, that these two divisions of the Congress are cooperative, and constitutionally co-ordinate: practically,

however, the senate is of pre-eminent rank in every respect, when compared with the house. Bills can originate in either house, excepting for the raising of revenue, as specified in the constitution. But no bill can become a law until passed by both houses, in conformity with their respective rules. The senate can be convened during the recess of the houses, for the purpose of ratifying treaties, and confirming presidential appointments; such as ministers to foreign courts, &c.

THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT.

The executive functions of the government of the United States, are performed by a president elected for a term of four years not by the people immediately, but by electors assembled in state electoral colleges. The people never voted for a president; nor is it possible for them to do so under the present constitution. Washington's electors were chosen, in nearly all the states, by the legislatures. The people never voted for him; and in South Carolina, the people never have voted for a presidential candidate, either direct or indirect. In each state except South Carolina, at the present time, the people ballot for their own state electors; and these electors elect the president and vice-president. A state is entitled to appoint as many electors as it has representatives in the two houses of Congress: thus, if it have ten members in the lower house, they, with the two senators, make twelve-the number of presidential electors the state is entitled to elect. Therefore, the number of electors for the whole United States, is equal to the numerical representation in Congress-at present, 233