[111]. The Vice President of the United States presides over the Senate when trying impeachments, as at other times; but when the President is being impeached the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court serves as temporary presiding officer. Who would preside in case the Vice President were impeached? The constitution does not say. Presumably the president pro tempore of the Senate would preside.
[112]. Nine civil officers of the United States have been impeached at one time or another during the past hundred and twenty-five years. The most notable case was that of President Andrew Johnson in 1868. He was charged by the House of Representatives with having violated the laws relating to appointments (particularly the Tenure of Office Act), but was acquitted. The Senate voted thirty-five to nineteen for his conviction, but this was one vote short of the necessary two-thirds majority.
[113]. Despite the desirability of keeping the membership down, there is a constant temptation to increase it in order that no state shall have fewer representatives than it has become accustomed to having.
[114]. When Elbridge Gerry was governor of Massachusetts in 1812, the state legislature rearranged the congressional districts in such a way that one of them had a dragon-like appearance. The boundaries of this district had been marked on a map in a local newspaper office. Gilbert Stuart, the famous painter, happened to come in and with his pencil added a head, wings, and claws to the figure. “That will do for a Salamander,” he said. “Better say a Gerry-mander,” replied the editor, and the outlandish name, thus accidentally coined, passed into the English language.
[115]. The plan at present (1922) is as follows: the Republican members of the House from each state select one of their members to represent them in choosing the committees. This representative from each state becomes a member of the Committee on Committees and at meetings of this committee casts a vote equal to the number of Republican Representatives from his state. This Committee on Committees selects the Republican members of the various committees. A caucus of the Democratic members of the House, sometimes through the medium of a Committee on Committees, selects the Democratic members of the Committees. Then the House as a whole accepts the joint list.
[116]. On many bills the committees do not even hold hearings; if they did, they would never get through with their work. Measures by the hundred are introduced each year by congressmen simply to please people in their districts and without the slightest expectation that they will ever be passed.
[117]. When bills are introduced in the Senate, they are considered there first and then sent down to the House. Except in the case of bills relating to revenue and expenditure any measure may be introduced in either chamber.
[118]. Another way to delay business is to keep continually asking for roll-calls to see if a quorum is present. Calling the names of 435 members takes a lot of time. Some years ago a bill was introduced to provide for the installation of electric apparatus by means of which every member could register “Yes”, “No”, or “Present” by merely pressing a button at his seat. On the wall there were to be electric bulbs set opposite each congressman’s name. Pressing the button would indicate the congressman’s answer to a roll call by flashing a red or white or blue light on the wall. Congress did not adopt the plan.
[120]. On the question whether members of the American cabinet should sit in Congress, see p. [302].