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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 118:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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