But it is argued by the Senator of New York [Mr. HARRIS], that the Constitution having provided for the expulsion of a Senator by a vote of two thirds, there can be no inquiry on the threshold, except with regard to the qualifications of age, citizenship, and inhabitancy of the State whose certificate he bears. If this be true, then open, flaunting treason is not a disqualification, and the traitor, if allowed to go at large, may present his certificate and proceed to occupy a seat among us. A proposition is sometimes answered simply by stating it; and it seems to me that this is done in the present case. The Constitution was the work of wise and practical men, and they were not guilty of the absurdity which such an interpretation attributes to them. They did not announce that a disloyal man, or, it may be, a traitor, may enter this Chamber without opposition, and then intrench himself securely behind the provision requiring a vote of two thirds for his expulsion; they did not declare that the mere certificate of a Senator is an all-sufficient passport to shield a hateful crime itself from every inquiry; nor did they insist that disloyalty in this high place is to be treated so tenderly as not even to be touched, until, perhaps, it is too late. This whole argument, that the claimant must be admitted to the Senate and then judged afterwards, is more generous to the claimant than just to the Senate; it is more considerate of personal pretensions than of public interests. To admit a claimant charged with disloyalty, in the hope of expelling him afterwards, is a voluntary abandonment of the right of self-defence, which belongs to the Senate as much as to any individual. The irrational character of such abandonment is aptly pictured in a Parliamentary speech reproduced in curious verses, more expressive than poetical, and once quoted by Mr. Webster:-- “I hear a lion in the lobby roar: Say, Mr. Speaker, shall we shut the door, And keep him there? or shall we let him in, To try if we can turn him out again?”[200] But the Senate is asked to do this very thing. Instead of shutting the door and keeping disloyalty out, we are asked to let it in and see if we can get it out again. If we look closely at the Constitution, we cannot hesitate. It is assumed by the Committee that there are but three qualifications for a Senator, and these words are quoted:-- “No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.”