This view will be sustained by an examination of all the instances in which the votes of "two thirds" in either body are required. Thus, "each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, _with the concurrence of two thirds_, expel a member." (Art. I. § 5.) The context of the same article defines what is to constitute a "house," and makes it clear that two thirds of a "house" may expel. That this was the intention is also clear from what took place in the Convention. Mr. Madison objected to the provision as it stood on the report of the committee, by which a mere _majority_ of a quorum was empowered to expel, and, on his motion, the words "with the concurrence of two thirds" were inserted. (Elliot, V. 406, 407.) In like manner, the fifth Article of the Constitution empowers Congress, "_whenever two thirds of both_ HOUSES _shall deem it necessary_," to propose amendments to the Constitution. The term "house" is here used as synonymous with a quorum. It has been suggested, however, that the use of a positive expression, in relation to the action of the Senate upon treaties, throws some doubt upon the meaning of the term "two thirds," as used in other parts of the Constitution. A treaty requires the concurrence of "two thirds of the senators _present_"; and it has been argued that the omission of this term in the other cases shows that two thirds of all the members are required in those cases. But it is to be remembered, that the Constitution makes a general provision as to what shall constitute a house for the transaction of business; that when it means that a particular function shall not be performed by such a house, or quorum, it establishes the exception by a particular provision, as when it requires two thirds of all the States to be present in the House of Representatives on the choice of a President, and makes a majority of all the States necessary to a choice; and that whether the function of the Senate in approving treaties is or is not a part of the business which under the general provision is required to be done in a "house" or quorum consisting of a majority of all the members, the Constitution does not speak of this function as being done by a "house," but it speaks of the "advice and consent of the _Senate_," to be given "by two thirds of the senators _present_." The use of the term "present" was necessary, therefore, in this connection, because no term had preceded it which would guide the construction to the conclusion intended; but in the other cases, the previous use of the term "house," defined to be a majority of all the members, determines the sense in which the term "two thirds" is to be understood, and makes it, as I humbly conceive, two thirds of a constitutional quorum. [200] _Ante_, Vol. I. 220, note, 226, note. [201] October 6, 1783, Journals, VIII. 423. [202] October 8. Ibid. 424, 425. [203] December 10, 11, 1784. Journals, X. 16-18.