petent for the Senate to elect a President pro tempore, who shall hold office during the pleasure of the Senate and until another is elected, and shall execute the duties thereof during all future absences of the VicePresident until the Senate otherwise order." 5 It has been further held by the Senate that in the absence of express authority conferred by rule, neither the Vice-President nor the president pro tempore has the right to designate a senator to take the chair during his temporary absence. The rules now provide that: 997 "The President pro tempore shall have the right to name in open senate, or if absent, in writing, a senator to perform the duties of the chair; but such substitution shall not extend beyond an adjournment, except by unanimous consent.' "In the absence of the Vice-President, and pending the election of a President pro tempore, the Secretary of the Senate, or in his absence the Chief Clerk, shall perform the duties of the chair." 8 The president pro tempore may resign that office while retaining his office as senator. His resignation should be addressed to the Senate. The president pro tempore of the Senate retains his right to vote upon all questions before the Senate.10 In this, he differs from the Vice-President, who can only vote in case of a tie." The presiding officer of the House of Lords can never vote unless he is a peer.12 office of president of the State senate when there are two claimants elected by different bodies, each of which claims to be the true senate. State v. Rogers, 56 N. J. Law, 480; infra, Ch. XVI. 5 This resolution was drawn by Senator Evarts and reported by him from the Committee on Privileges and Elections; and was adopted by the Senate without a call of the yeas and nays, March 12th, 1890 (Congressional Report, 1st Session, 51st Congress, 2144-2150; Furber, Precedents Re lating to Privileges of the Senate, pp. 183, 184). 6 See Furber, Precedents Relating to Privileges of the Senate, pp. 186189. 7 Senate Rule I. 9 Furber's Precedents Relating to Privileges of the Senate, 184–186. 10 Resolution of March 19, 1792; Journal of Senate, vol. i, p. 429. 11 Constitution, Article I, Section 3. 12 May's Law of Parliament, 2d ed., p. 195. § 85. Other Officers of the Senate. The other officers of the Senate are in general the same as the officers of the House of Representatives, perform similar duties, and are subject to the same liabilities.1 They may be removed at the pleasure of the Senate at any time.2 The officer who performs the duties of clerk is termed the Secretary of the Senate. § 85. 1 Supra, § 73. 2 Cliff v. Parsons (Iowa), 57, N. W. Rep., 599. CHAPTER XIII. IMPEACHMENT. § 86. Provisions of the Constitution Concerning THE remainder of Section 3, of Article I, provides for the trial of impeachments. For convenience all the parts of the Constitution which relate to impeachments will be here grouped and discussed together. They are as follow: "The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment."1 "The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside; and no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two-thirds of the Members present. Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of Honor, Trust or Profit under the United States : but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law." "In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice-President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected." 3 "The President shall be Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officers of the Executive 3 Article II, Section 1. § 86. 1 Article I, Section 2. 2 Article I, Section 3. 4 Departments upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment." "The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”5 "The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury." 6 Similar provisions are found in most of the State constitutions, although some provide for the impeachment of former officers who are out of office; others, that the effect of an impeachment shall be to suspend from office the person affected; others prescribe the practice with more or less detail, and in New York there is a special Court for the Trial of Impeachments, which consists of the senate with its president and the judges of the Court of Appeals.9 § 87. Origin of Impeachments. Impeachment trials are a survival from the earliest times of jurisprudence when all cases were tried before an assembly of the citizens of the tribe or State. Later, ordinary cases, both civil and criminal, were assigned to courts created for that purpose, but matters of great public importance were still reserved for the decision of the whole body of citizens, or subsequently of the council of elders, heads of families, or holders of fiefs. This was due partly because in cases of this character there was danger of undue influence in the decisions by the ordinary courts and of resistance to the execution of their decrees, and partly because they affected public as well as private interests. In Athens, all citizens voted on the ostracism of a man, which was his exile. In Rome and in most other ancient cities, those charged with capital 4 Article II, Section 2. 5 Article II, Section 4. 6 Article III, Section 2. 7 New Jersey Constitution of 1844, Art. V, Sec. 11. See Vermont Constitution of 1786, Art. XXI; and infra. 8 North Dakota, Art. XIV, Sec. 190; South Dakota, Art. XVI, Sec. 5; Rhode Island, Art. XI, Sec. 1; South Carolina, Art. VII, Sec. 1; Texas, Art. XV, Sec. 5. 9 Art. VI, Sec. 1. For provisions concerning impeachments in the constitutions of other countries, see supra, § 77, note. offenses had the right to a trial by the people. The great councils of the Germans, in the time of Tacitus, tried capital cases by a proceeding analogous to an appeal before the English House of Lords. Such appeals by individuals seem to have been common under the first Norman kings. In the reign of Richard II, the Lord Chancellor was thus tried on the accusation of a fishmonger for taking bribes in the form of money, cloth and fish. These were abolished by the act of 1 Henry IV, c. 14. Meanwhile, impeachments instituted by the Commons and tried before the Lords had gradually come into use. The first instances occurred between the beginning of the reign of Edward I, and the fiftieth year of the reign of Edward III; but the practice was then irregular and is obscure.5 They seem more like bills of attainder than trials of impeachments. The first known case of a trial by the Lords upon a definite accusation by the Commons was in the Good Parliament, under Edward III, in 1356. Lords Latimer and Neville with several of their accomplices were then impeached and tried for frauds upon the revenue.6 Under Richard II there were a number of impeachments, of which the most important was that of Michael de la Pole, the Chancellor. Under Henry VI, we find two impeachments, that of the Duke of Suffolk for treason in 1451;8 and that of Lord Stanley for a similar offense in 1459.9 The next was that of Sir Giles Mompesson in 1621.10 Since then there have been fifty-four impeachments in England, which ended with the acquittal of Lord § 87. 1 Montesquieu, Livre XI, ch. vi; 4 Blackstone's Commentaries, 261. 2 Tacitus de Moribus Germanis, 12: "Licet apud consilium accusare, quoque et discrimen capitis intendere." 3 Rot. Parl., III, p. 168. • Clarendon's Case, 6 Howell's State Trials, 291, 311, 318; Hale's Pleas of the Crown, vol. ii, ch. xx, p. 150. 5 Stephens, History of the Criminal Law, vol. i, pp. 145-155; Taylor's Origin and Growth of the English Constitution, pp. 441, 442. 6 Rot. Parl., II, pp. 323-326, 328, 329; Rymer, p. 322; Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. iii, p. 56; Stubbs' Constitu tional History, vol. ii, ch. xvi; Taylor's Origin and Growth of the English Constitution, p. 441. 71 State Trials, 89; Rot. Parl., III, pp. 216-219. For other Impeachments in that reign, see Rot. Parl., III, pp. 10-12, 153, 156; Stephens, History of the Criminal Law, vol. i, pp. 145155; Taylor's Origin and Growth of the English Constitution, p. 442. 8 1 State Trials, 271. 9 Rot. Parl., V, p. 369; Taylor's Origin and Growth of the English Constitution, p. 442. 10 2 State Trials, 1119. |