The speaker then administers the oath to the members, in groups of about forty, all standing in line before the speaker's desk.
3. The organization is completed by the election of a clerk, a sergeant-at-arms; a doorkeeper, a postmaster, and a chaplain. The vote is viva voce, and the term is "until their successors are chosen and qualified"—usually about two years, though all are subject to removal at the will of the house.
The delegates from the territories are then sworn in.
"At this stage it is usual for the house to adopt an order that a message be sent to the senate to inform that body that a quorum of the house of representatives has assembled, and that ————, one of the representatives from the state of ——, has been elected speaker, and ——- —-, a citizen of the state of —-, has been chosen clerk, and that the house is now ready to proceed to business." [Footnote: Manual of the House of Representatives.]
Each house then orders a committee of three members to be appointed, the joint committee "to wait upon the president of the United States and inform him that a quorum of the two houses has assembled, and that congress is ready to receive any communication he may be pleased to make." [Footnote: Manual of the House of Representatives.] It is in order then for the president to forward his message to congress.
The above are the usual proceedings, and they generally occur on the first day of the session.
The seating of the members is by lot, except in the case of certain members privileged by very long experience or otherwise, who are by courtesy permitted to make the first selection. Each member is numbered, and corresponding numbers are placed in a box "and thoroughly intermingled." Then the numbers are drawn from the box successively by a page, the member whose number is drawn first having first choice of seat, and so on. This may be done while the committees are waiting on the president, as above described.
HOW CONTESTED ELECTIONS ARE SETTLED.
"Each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members."—Constitution, I., 5, 5.
A contested election resembles very much in its mode of settlement the trial of a civil suit.