Congress

An assembly of deputies convened from different governments to treat of peace or of other international affairs; as the Congress of Berlin to settle the terms of peace between Russia and Turkey in 1878; composed of representations of the great Powers of Europe. In theory a congress may conclude a treaty, while a conference is for consultation, and its result, ordinarily a protocol, prepares the way for a treaty. See Cent. Diet.; Encyc. Diet. But this is not always true, as the Berlin conference of l^s'.i was composed of plenipotentiaries and its deliberations resulted in a treaty. The legislative body of the United States, composed of the senate and house of representatives {q. v.). U. S. Const, art.

1, § 1.

Each house is the judge of the election and qualifications of its members. A majority of each house is a quorum; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and compel the attendance of absent members. Each house may make rules, punish its members, and by a two-thirds vote expel a member. Each house must keep a journal and publish the same, excepting such parts as may, in their judgment, require secrecy, and record the yeas and nays at the desire of one-fifth of the members present.

Art. 1, s. 5.

A court is bound to assume that the journal speaks the truth and cannot receive oral testimony to impeach its correctness; U. S. v. Ballin, 144 U. S. 1, 12 Sup. Ct. 607, 36 L. Ed. 321. The members of both houses are in all cases, except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, privileged from arrest while attending to and returning from the session of their respective houses; and no member can be questioned in any other place for any speech or debate in either house. U. S. Const, art.

1, s. 6.

Whether a senator of the United States has waived his privilege from arrest and whether such privilege is personal or given for the purpose of always securing the representation of his state in the senate are questions which can be raised by writ of error directly to the district court; Burton v. U. S., 196 U. S. 2S3, 25 Sup. Ct. 243, 49 L. Ed. 4S2. Each house of congress has claimed and exercised the power to punish contempts and breaches of its privileges, on the ground that all public functionaries are essentially invested with the powers of self-preservation, and that whenever authorities are given, the means of carrying them into execution are given by necessary implication.

Jefferson, Manual, § 3, art.

Privilege; Duane's Case, Senate Proceedings, Gales and Seaton's Annals of Cong., bourn's Case, 103 U. S. 168, 26 L. Ed. 377. it wa = held that although the house can punish its own members for disorderly conduct or for failure to attend its sessions, and can dectd if contested elections and determine the qualifications of its members, and exercise the sole power of Impeachment of officers of the government, and may, when the examination of witnesses is n- c< ssary to the performance of these duties, fine or contumacious witness,— there is not found In the constitution any general power vested In house to punish for contempt. The order of the house ordering the imprisonment of a witri' refusing to answer certain questions put to him by the house, concerning the business of a i hip of which he was a member, and to produce certain books in relation thereto, was held void and no defence on the part of the sergeant-atarms in an action by the witness for false imprisonment. The members of the committee, who took no actual part in the imprisonment, were held not liable to such action. The cases in which the power had been exercised are numerous. This power,.-, extends no further than Imprisonment; and that will continue no further than the duration of the power that imprisons. The imprisonment will therefore terminate with the adjournment or dissolution of congress. The rules of proceeding in each house are substantially the same: the house of representatives choose their own speaker; the vice-president of the United States is, ex officio, president of the senate. For rules of proceeding, see Hind's Precedents of the II. of R. When a bill Is engrossed, and has received the sanction of both houses, it is sent to the president for his approbation. If he approves of the bill, he signs it. If he does not. it is returned, with his ob-. jections, to the house in which it originated, and that house enters the objections at large on its journal and proceeds to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of the hous. to pass the bill, it is sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by which it Is like* considered, and, if approved by two-thirds of that house, it becomes a law. But in all such cases the votes of both houses are determined by yeas and nays, and. the names of the persons voting for and against the bill are to be entered on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the president within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had sigut d It, the congress by their adjournment prevent its return; in which case it shall not be a law. See Kent, Lect. XI. The right of the president to sign a bill after an adjournment of congress although within ten days of its passage, has been inferentially approved by the supreme, court on four different occasions, in connection with the captured and abandoned property act, which was signed by the presiu March 12, 1863, and after the adjournment of congress; Tobey v. Leonard, 2 Wall. (U. S.) 423, 17 L. Ed. 842; U. S. v. Anderson, 9 Wall. (U. S.) 50., 19 L. Ed. 615; U. S. v. Klein, 13 Wall. (U. S.) 128, Ed. 519. Upon this point the court of claims held that a bill signed by the president after the usual adjournment of congress for the winter holidays, but within ten days from the time when it was presented to him, was duly approved within the and meaning of the constitution; U. S. v. Alice Well, 29 Ct. CI.

52;'..

The house of representatives has the exclusive right of originating bills for raising revenue; and this is the only privilege that house enjoys in its legislative character which is not shared equally with the other; and even those bills are amendable by the senate in its discretion; Art. 1, s.

7.

One of the houses cannot adjourn, during the session of congress, for more than three days with- All the legislative powers granted by the constitution of the United States or necessarily implied from those granted, are vested in the congress. CONJECTIO CAUS/E. In Civil Law. A statement of the case. A brief synopsis of the case given by the advocate to the judge in opening the trial. Calvinus, Lex.