109. The rules of proceeding in each House are substantially the same; and are such as are essential to the transaction of business with order and safety.

110. The House of Representatives chooses its Speaker, or presiding officer, from amongst its own members; and it also chooses its other officers.

111. The Vice President of the United States is ex officio President of the Senate; but has no vote therein, unless the Senators be equally divided.

112. The Senate chooses its other officers; and also a President pro tempore, from its own body, in the absence of the Vice President, or when he executes the office of President of the United States.

113. The proceedings and debates in both Houses are conducted in public, except upon very special occasions, and in the transaction of Executive business by the Senate.

114. Bills, or the original drafts or projects of laws, are introduced into both Houses respectively, either upon the order of the House on the reports of standing, or select Committees, or upon leave granted to an individual member on motion, after due notice of his intention to move the House to grant it.

115. Standing Committees are appointed for the session upon all the usual subjects of ordinary legis lation, and upon the general matters incident to the proceedings of each House respectively.

116. Select Committees are appointed from time to time upon special subjects as they arise, and their powers cease upon the performance of the temporary duties assigned to them.

117. Both standing and select Committees are appointed in the House of Representatives on the nomination of the Speaker, and in the Senate most generally by ballot, but sometimes, and in some cases, on the nomination of the President of the Senate.

118. Bills are introduced by standing Committees upon the order of the House upon subjects embraced within the general objects of their appointment, either accompanied by a report upon those general objects, or upon a particular subject, relative thereto, or specially referred to them; or upon the mere motion of the Chairman, or any other member of the Committee under its direction, without previous notice.

119. Bills are in like manner introduced by select Committees, upon the order of the House on a report relative to the special matter referred to them, or upon motion, without previous notice, for leave to report by bill.

120. Every bill must receive three readings before it can be passed by either House; and these several readings must be on different days, unless upon a special order made by the unanimous consent of the House, to the contrary.

121. No bill can be committed or amended in either House, until it has been read twice; and upon the second reading of the bill, it is declared to be ready for commitment or engrossment; if committed, it is committed either to a standing, or a select Committee, or to a Committee of the whole House; or if the bill, instead of being committed, be ordered to be engrossed, the House then appoints the day on which it shall be read the third time.

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 adjournment, 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