20. A RESOLUTION relating to the publication of the Laws of the United States.

Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of State be authorized and directed to contract with Little and Brown to furnish their annual statutes at large, printed in conformity with the plan adopted by Congress in eighteen hundred and forty-five, instead of the edition usually issued by his order, under the act of Congress of April 20, 1818, and which conforms to an edition of the Laws now out of use.

Approved, 26 September, 1850.

CHAPTER 7.

EXPLANATORY NOTES OF THE FOLLOWING TABLES.

1. The tables of Electoral votes for President and Vice President of the United States, commencing with page 315, present an historical synopsis of the leading political sentiments of the American people, from the adoption of the Constitution to the present time, as indicated by the votes given for the distinguished individuals whose opinions were supposed to imbody, from time to time, those sentiments, and a biographical notice of the individuals themselves; the statement of whose names alone will recall to memory their meritorious public services and exalted characters.

2. The table commencing with page 336, of the terms of office and length of service, in the Senate, of the Vice Presidents and Presidents pro tempore, may be supposed, generally, to show, from time to time, the leading political sentiments of the majority of that honorable body, as indicated by the choice of Senators to occupy the station of President pro tempore, whose political sentiments were, at the time, well known. This table also shows the commencement and termination of, as well as the number of days in, each Session of Congress and special

session of the Senate, from the 4th March, 1789, to the termination of the second session of the thirty-first Congress, being the 3d March, 1851.

3. The table commencing with page 346 shows the names, and the commencement and termination of the service, of every Senator of the United States, from the 4th March, 1789, to the 3d March, 1851, being the termination of the second session, thirty-first Congress. A geographical, rather than an alphabetical, arrangement was preferred, for the reason that a regular succession may be traced in the service of the several classes of Senators of each State, from the commencement of the Government, or the admission of such State into the Union, to the present time.

This table practically illustrates that provision of the Constitution which directs the arrangement of the Senators into three classes, whose terms of service expire alternately every two years, exhibiting the progressive application of the principle to the Senators from new States as they become qualified, by which the three classes are preserved equal in number, or as nearly so as practicable -one-third being elected biennially, and two-thirds being, at all times, prepared to attend the call of their country for the transaction of Legislative, Executive, or Judicial business; or, indeed, by a provident arrangement of the State Legislatures (as is the prevailing practice) in reelecting the Senators whose terms of service are about

to expire, or electing others in anticipation of vacancies, the Senate may preserve a continued existence in full force.

4. The fourth table, page 385, contains the names and the commencement and termination of service of the secretaries of the Senate of the United States, there having been only four individuals in the occupancy of that responsible office from the commencement of the Government under the Constitution to the present time, a circumstance which has preserved to this Honorable Body the advantages of accumulated experience in the Officers in their service.

5. The table commencing with page 386, exhibits the names and terms of service of the Representatives in Congress who have been elected to, and have occupied, the distinguished station of Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States, from the 4th March, 1789, to the 3d March, 1851, and the names of the States of which they were Representatives.

6. The sixth table, page 388, contains the names, and the commencement and termination of service of the Clerks of the House of Representatives of the United States, from which it appears that thirteen changes have taken place in the occupancy of this office since the 4th March, 1789; making an average of less than five years' service to each individual, a circumstance which has sometimes. deprived that Honorable House of much of the advan