122. If a bill be committed to a Committee of the whole, the House determines on what day the Committee shall consider it; and when the House resolves itself into such Committee, the Speaker leaves the chair, after appointing another member to preside as chairman of the Committee; and the Speaker may take part in the debates of the Committee as an ordinary member.

123. In the Senate, the Committee of the whole is called a quasi Committee, because the President of the Senate acts as chairman of the Committee.

124. Important bills are generally referred to a Committee of the whole House; and every motion or proposition for a tax or charge upon the People, or for a variation in the sum or quantum of a tax or duty, and for an appropriation of money, is required first to be discussed in a Committee of the whole.

125. The object of referring any matter to a Committee of the whole, is to allow greater latitude and freedom in discussing its merits, and settling the details, than is generally allowed by the rules of either House when the proceeding is in the House itself.

126. After commitment and report to the House, and at any time before its passage, a bill may be recommitted at the pleasure of the House: and when a bill, either upon a report of a Committee, or after full discussion and amendment in the House, stands for the next stage of its progress, the question is, whether it shall be engrossed and read a third time; and this is the proper time for those who are opposed to the principle of the bill, to take their stand against it as it is now supposed to be as perfect, or as little exceptionable, as it can be made. E

127. When a bill has been engrossed for a third reading, and, upon being read the third time, has passed one House, it is transmitted for concurrence to the other, in which it is subjected to similar forms of examination and discussion.

128. If it be altered or amended, or agreed to without amendment, or totally rejected, in the House to which it has been transmitted for concurrence, it is, in either case, returned to the House in which it originated, with a message communicating the result.

129. If amendments are made in one House which are not agreed to in the other, a message to that effect is sent to the former, which may either recede from, or insist on, its amendments; and if the two Houses cannot agree, they appoint Committees of conference, and upon receiving their report, either House may recede from its amendment, or from its vote of concurrence therein, or accept a compromise suggested by the Committee; or it may adhere to its former vote of disagreement; in which last case the bill falls to the ground.

130. These checks and formalities, which are intended to guard against surprise or imposition, were originally borrowed, although much contracted and simplified, from the proceedings of the British Parliament; and they prevailed substantially in the Colonial Assemblies, from which they were immediately adopted by the State Legislatures, and from them, by each house of Congress.

131. When a bill, or any other vote or resolution, to which the concurrence of both Houses is necessary, (except the question on the adjournment of the Congress), is passed by both branches of the Legislature, it is required by the Constitution to be pre

sented to the President of the United States for his approval.

132. If he approve of the bill or resolution, he signs it; but if not, he must return. it, with his objections, to the House in which it originated, which must enter the objections at large on its journal, and proceed to reconsider it.

133. If, after such reconsideration, two thirds of that House agree to pass the bill or resolution, it must be sent, together with the objections, to the other House, by which it must likewise be reconsidered; and if approved by two thirds of that House also, it becomes a Law, notwithstanding the objections of the President.

134. In all such cases, the votes of both Houses must be determined by yeas and nays, or openly ascertained; and the names of the persons voting for, or against the bill or resolution, must be entered on the journal of each House respectively.

135. If a bill is not returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it is presented to him, it becomes a Law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless Congress, by their adjourn ment, prevent its return.

136. Congress must assemble at least once in every year for the despatch of the public business, and such meeting is fixed by the Constitution for the first Monday in December, unless Congress shall by Law appoint a different day.

137. Until the day fixed by the Constitution or appointed by Law, the action of Congress cannot commence, unless the President, in the exercise of

his Constitutional power, sooner convene it, on some extraordinary occasion.

138. Congress, by a concurrent resolution, to which the assent of the President is not required, fixes the times of its own adjournments within the period of its dissolution; but during a session, neither House can adjourn for more than three days without the assent of the other; nor can they agree to adjourn to any other place than that in which they shall be sitting. And in cases of disagreement between the two Houses, as to the time of their adjournment, the President may adjourn them to such time as he may think proper.

139. But as the term for which the House of Representatives and one third of the Senate are elected, expires at the end of every second year, Congress must of necessity adjourn at the expiration of that period; as the Congress, for the time being, is in fact dissolved by the operation of the Constitution and Laws, on the third day of March in every alternate year.

CHAPTER II.

OF THE EXECUTIVE POWER.

140. The object of this department is the execution of the Laws; and good policy requires that itshould be organized in the mode best calculated to effect that end with fidelity and precision.

141. No discretion is vested in the Executive Magistrate in regard to the wisdom and expediency of the Laws after they are duly made and promulgated.

It is his duty then to execute them, whatever may be his opinion as to their justice or policy.

142. What has once been declared under the forms prescribed by the Constitution to be the meaning and intention of the Legislature, must be carried into prompt execution, and due effect continued to be given to it by the Executive department, until repealed by the Legislature, or pronounced by the Judicial department to be repugnant to the Constitution.

143. Every individual is bound to obey a Constitutional Law, however objectional in other respects it may appear to him; and whosoever refuses obedience to a Law on the ground of its unconstitutionality, does so at his peril, and is liable to the legal consequence of disobedience, if the Law be judicially declared to be warranted by the Constitution.

144. The legal presumption is always in favour of an act passed by the Legislature according to the forms of the Constitution; and where the Chief Executive Magistrate possesses a negative upon those acts, the presumption is stronger against him than against an inferior officer, or a private person.

145. As the Executive power is not only bound to obey, but to execute, the Law, the essential qualities required in this department are promptness, vigour, and responsibility.

146. A prompt submission to the Law, and a prompt preparation to enforce it, are requisite both in respect to the authority from which it emanates, and in order to give it due operation and effect, which should be immediate and decisive.

147. The Executive power must also be endowed