Mr. DAVIS. I was going to state an objection or 2 that I have to the passage of this bill. The 1st section reads: That beforethe 1st meeting of the next Congress, and, of everysubsequentCongress, the Clerk of next precedingHoRep shall mathkee a roll of the RePresentatives elect, andplace thereon the names of all personsclaiming seats as RePresentatives elect from States which were rePresented in the next preceding Congress, and of such persons only; and whose credentials show that they were regularly elected in accordancewith the laws of States respectively, their or the laws of the U.S. My 1st objection to this bill is, that it proceeds by an act of Congress to designate an officer of the HoRep. My 2nd objection is, that it authorizes that officer to pass upon the returns of members of the House, a duty and a power which o the Constitution, is devolved upon the House alone, and which cannot be assumed by an act of Congress delegating the exercise of that power to any specified officer. The Constitution, in ofor the HoRep, declares: “The HoRep shall choosetheir Speaker and other. The HoRep and the senate each have the exclusive constitutional power to choose their own officers. What does this bill provide for? What does it intend to do? Simply to designate and name a most important. of the HoRep. What is that officer to do? He is to be the organ of the House in its organization. He is to exercise the important office of organizing the HoRep. Is an officer who is to perform that duty an officer of the House? Is any man, by whatever name or title of office he may be designated, who is to E. that duty an officer of the HoRep? Certainly he is, and one of the most important of the officers of the House. The Clerk by this bill is to make out the roll of the members elect. He is to perform that duty himself. He includes upon this roll the members of the House, every person that he chooses, and he may exclude. We had an instance of the manner in which that power will be executed under this law at the organization of the Present HoRep.. The Clerk there proceeded to make out a list of members, excluding the members from 11 States. Was not that the performance of an office in the organization of the House, and an office of the highest moment and importance? Was not the Clerk who performed that duty an officer defacto at least of the House at that time? And is it not sought by this bill to make the same officer, if he be Present, an officer dejure, and by operation of this act of the House on the organization of each subsequent House of Congress? Is it competent for Congress to o a bill for that purpose? Is not such a ill in direct conflict with the provision which I read, that “the House shall choose their Speaker and other officers?” Is it not the exclusive constitutional right of each House for itself to appoint its organ and to Prescribe the mode in which the roll of the House shall be made out and the other regulations by which the organization of the House is to take place? That is the constitutional function of each House. Each House has the power to act for itself in this matter, and the other House has no right and no power whatever to take part in it, even in the form of passing a law of Congress to regulate the matter. Suppose this bill was to become a law; when the next HoRep get together might it not and ought it not to disregard the point It would read this law and find it making a provision for the organization of the House and the manner and mode in which the roll of its members should be made out. The members of the House would turn to the Constitution and read that this was an office which each House was to perform for itself. The next House, or any other HoRep, might disregard this law, and in utter negation of it might proceed to organize the particular House according to its own discretion and order. Another provision of the Constitution says: “Each House shall be the judge of returns, and qualifications the election, of its own members.” The bill under consideration interferes with that clause of the Constitution also, because it withdraws, in the organization of the House, the question of the returns of its members from the House itself, the constitutional body to take cognizance of that question, and vests it in the Clerk of the previous Congress. What power or competency has Congress to pass a law authorizing the Clerk of a defunct HoRep to pass upon the returns of the members of a succeeding House upon its organization? That is what is proposed to be done by this bill; and it is exactly what Congress cannot pass a law to effect. This matter is not a subject of legislation; it is not a subject of congressional action. The election of theoS. cers of both branches of Congress, and the judgment upon the question of the returns, elections, and qualifications of their members, !. "; by the Constitution exclusively to the 2 Houses respectively. It cannot be made the subject of congressional legislation; no laws of Congress regulating these matters can be properly passed, and if they were passed they would be in derogation of those provisions of the Constitution, and they would have no obligation whatever upon either House. The 2 Houses might disregard them and proceed to the organization of their respective bodies as though this law never had passed, even if it does receive the forms of legislation. Sir, I am not opposed to this bill simply because it is introduced by the Republican majority of the Senate; I am not opposed to it because it would operate to the prejudice of the Democratic party or any other party. I am opposed to it because it is in conflict with the Constitution and the rights and powers of the 2 Houses of Congress in the organization of their respective bodies. It attempts to grasp and to bring within the vortexof congressional legislation matters that belong exclusively by the Constitution to the 2 Houses themselves. Sir, a law of this kind ought not to be passed for the benefit of party interests. The tables may be turned, and will be turned, if not in favor of the Democratic party, to the prejudice of the Republican party, and in favor of g. some other party. The reparty is not the party of permanence. ooner or later it must go into the minority and must become itself subject to the rule of another dominant political party. In this view of the subject, without regard to the rights of the 2 Houses of Congress generally and to the proper restraint of all parties, those that are now in the ascendenc and those that may hereafter be in the ascend ency, I want this bill voted down, and I want the Senate to adhere faithfully and rigorously to the constitutional rule, that the 2 Houses of Congress alone shall elect their own officers; that no officers shall be provided by an act of Congress for either House, because each House has the exclusive right to elect its own officers, and especially that an officer of a past HoRep designated by an act of Congress shall not be clothed with the all important power of passing upon the rights of members of the HoRep. It is a vast power, and it is just such a power as is proposed to be vested by this bill in the defunct Clerk of a preceding Congress. It cannot be said that he is not to judge of the returns of the members; he is made so in explicit language. The provision is that The Clerk of the next preceding HoRep shall make a roll of the RePresentatives elect and place thereon the names of all persons claiming seats as RePresentatives electfrom States which were rePresented in gress, the next precedingConand: persons only, and whose credentials show that they were regularly elected in accordance wofit the U.S. ir. Statesrespectivelyor the laws No man's name is to go upon this roll of the members of the House unless his credentials shall show that he was regularly elected in accordance with the laws of his State or the laws of the U.S. Is not the decision of that question a judicial or a quasi judicial decision?. it not involve the very material and the existence of the HoRep? Doesit not clothe a defunct officer of a former Housewith, the power of passing upon the returnsof the members of the new House? It certainlydoes. We have seen this power oncein the course of execution, and we have seenhow magisterially, a defunct Clerk of the preceding House did exercise it; and all this in defiance of the power of each House to judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members, to organize the body itselfand to elect its own officers. Again: "Each House may determine the rules of its proceeding punish its members for disorderly behavior, tou the concurrence of 2/3rds expel a T. mem. Here is an important rule of proceeding, one of the most important rules of proceeding in the organization of the House, which is sought by this bill to be wrested from the House and to be reposed, not in the House, but in a dead officer of a former House. I ask the honorable chairman of the ComJudiciary if the Democratic party or any party hostile to the Republican party was now in power, and had possession of such a bill as this is, and were urging it upon the acceptance of the senate with a view to partisan and party advan tage, would he or any member of his party give their support to such a measure? I suppose he would not. I do not think that I j. I do notbelieve that to subserve the interests of any party in existence or that ever had existence or that ever may be in existence while I was a member of the Senate could I be brought to vote for such a bill as this. No, sir; the vice of the times, the rage of the demon of faction, is now to disregard Constitution and law and to warp both to party purposes. It is a system of legislation that is not only vicious but it is revolutionary; it is subversive of the Constitution, of the frame of our Government, and it is time that the party in power should turn their backs upon such a course of legislation as that. A bill of this importance ought not to be voted for, according to my judgment, by any gentleman when in a majority ".he would not be willing to give the same vote if in a minority. No gentleman is so credulous as to believe that the majority in the Senate would vote for this measure if the condition and the power of their party and of the Democratic party was reversed. But whatever party may offer such a measure, whatever it may be denomi nated, Democratic, Republican, Whig, it is a principle entirely new in the practice of the government, in plain and direct conflict with the Constitution, and impinging the powers and the rights of both Houses in the selection of their officers, in judging upon the returns, elections, and qualifications of their members, and in declaring the rules and regulations by which they will proceed in their action. And what more important point of action is there than the organization of the House? I invoke gentlemen to awake from the delusion and from the frenzy of passion and of partisanship, and to allow to each House in the organization of that House at the beginning of each Congress, in the election of its officers, in judging of the returns of its members, all the powers which the Constitution so explicitly and exclusively guaranties to them. "I trust, sir, this measure will not pass.