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��CONGRESSIONAL PAPERS. NO. II— THE SENATE.
��CONGRESSIONAL PAPERS. NO. II— THE SENATE.
��BY G. H. JENNESS.
��The Senate differs from the Honse in numbers, in membership, and in the character and methods ©f its legislation. Comparatively small when measured with the House, it is free from the turbu- lence and disorder so frequent at the oth- er end of the Capitol. In the House the Speaker pounds the desk with his mallet until he seems exhausted with his efforts to preserve even the semblance of order. In the Senate a slight tap of the Vice President's gavel is sufficient to repress any undue excitement among the honor- able Senators. As a whole, good order and parliamentary courtsey reign su- preme in the Senate chamber. Sometimes in an animated partisan debate an ill- timed remark may evoke a personal rejoin- der and lead to hot and hasty words ; but a night's sleep, and a friendly reminder of the "dignity" of an American Senator, sets everything right again, after the usual ••personal explanations."'
In all of its visible surroundings the Senate resembles the House. The pre- siding officers, the clerks, the Sergeant- at-Arms, the official stenographers, each occupy the same relative positions, and perforin nearly similar duties. The Chamber is simply the Hall of the House made smaller. There is the same gor- geous gilding, the heavy cornices, the beautifully-designed, richly-painted glass panels overhead, the mellow light from above, the paintings, the frescoes, the uncomfortable desks, the lounges, the ante-rooms, the galleries, the diplomatic gallery conspicuously empty amid sur- rounding crowds, the newspaper report- ers' perch in the rear above the Vice President's chair, these, and other points of similarity are held in common by the two rooms of our American Parliament. Of the manner of election and duration of the term of service of Senators it is
��not my purpose to speak, that being a subject upon which all intelligent citi- zens are presumably well informed. It is to the differences in the character and methods of legislation of the Senate, to which attention is particularly invited, and to which the bulk of this article will be devoted. Briefly, then, the action of the Senate is revisory in matters of busi- ness, and practically paramount in mat- ters of law. The House originates all appropriation bills. The Senate revises, suggests and amends. The Senate takes care of international affairs, negotiates foreign treaties, gives or withholds its approval to the men selected by the President to represent our government abroad, and exercises a fatherly and supervisory care over the Revised Stat- utes. Either House may be obstinate, and can, if it chooses, put the other to much inconvenience and delay; but the constitution and common consent pre- scribes the course that, under ordinary circumstances, each will pursue. Under our system of government, which has been aptly termed a system of "checks and balances," neither the President, the Senate, or the House can change a law or appropriate a dollar, without the other's consent. AVith these existing conditions, certain legislative amenities must be re- garded — else all the machinery of gov- ernment would stop. No party dare take the responsibility of allowing the eleven regular appropriation bills to fail in either or both houses of Congress. The result would be, simply, that at the close of the fiscal year there would be no money that could be legally used to run any branch of the government. As long as our country comprises its present vast extent of territory, its commercial inter- course, and its multiplied and varied in- dustries, it must have the services of at
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