When a new State comes into the Union, its Representative or Representatives are added to the number previously constituting the House.1

348. Elections of Representatives. For fifty years Congress allowed the States to elect their Representatives in their own way. The State Legislatures fixed the times and the places and regulated the manner of holding the elections; the elections were conducted without any regulation or control whatever being exercised by the National Government. Very naturally there were considerable differences of practice. In 1842 Congress first exercised its power of regulation. Three points must be noted:

1. In 1842 Congress provided by law that, in every case where a State was entitled to more than one Representative, the members to which it was entitled should be elected by districts composed of contiguous territory equal in number to the number of Representatives to be chosen, no district electing more than one. It is, however, provided that when the number of Representatives to which a State is entitled has been diminished at any decennial apportionment, and the State Legislature has failed to make the districting conform to the change,

1 The Numbers of the House and the Ratios of Representation are set down in the following table, with the period:

the whole number shall be chosen by the State as a unit and not by districts. It is also provided that if the number apportioned to any State is increased, and the Legislature fails to district the State, the old districting shall stand, but that the additional member or members shall be elected by the State as a whole. Representatives elected on a general ticket, and not by district tickets, from States having more than one member, are called Representatives-at-large. Since 1872 Congress has prescribed that the districts in a State must, as nearly as practicable, contain an equal number of inhabitants. Congress has never constituted the Congressional districts, as they are called, but has always left that duty to the State Legislatures. As a rule the division of the States into districts, when once made, is allowed to stand for ten years, or until a new apportionment is made; but not unfrequently it is changed, or the State is re-districted, as the saying is, for the sake of obtaining some political advantage. The operation called "gerrymandering "1 is only too well known in American history.

2. In 1871 Congress enacted that all votes for members of the House of Representatives should be by printed ballots, and that rule has continued until the present day.

3. In 1872 Congress prescribed that the elections should be held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November in every even numbered year, 1874, 1876. . . 1896, 1898, etc. Later legislation exempted from the

'The Century Dictionary gives the following history of this word: "Gerrymander. In humorous imitation of Salamander, from a fancied resemblance of this animal to a map of one of the districts formed in the redistricting of Massachusetts by the Legislature in 1811, when Elbridge Gerry was Governor. The districting was intended (it was believed, at the instigation of Gerry), to secure unfairly the election of a majority of Democratic Senators. It is now known, however, that he was opposed to the measure."

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operation of this rule such States as had prescribed a different day in their constitutions. Accordingly Oregon. elects her Representatives the first Monday of June, Vermont hers the first Tuesday of September, and Maine hers the second Monday of the same month.

In nearly every case, if not indeed in every one, the State elects State officers at the same time that the elections of the National House of Representatives are held. Moreover, the elections of Representatives are conducted by the same officers that conduct the State elections. These officers count the votes and make the returns required by law. The Representative receives his certificate of election from the Governor of his State. If a vacancy occurs in any State, owing to any cause, the Governor issues a proclamation, called a writ of election, appointing a special election to fill the vacancy.

349. Compensation of Members of Congress.Senators and Representatives receive a compensation from the Treasury of the United States. Congress fixes by law the pay of its own members, subject only to the President's veto.1

1The compensation at different times is exhibited in the following table:

Save for a period of only two years, Senators and Representa. tives have always received a mileage or traveling allowance. At present this allowance is twenty cents a mile for the necessary distance traveled in going to and returning from the seat of government. The Vice-President, the President pro tempore of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives now receive each a salary of $8,000 a year.

350. Privileges of Members of Congress. In all cases but treason, felony, and breach of the peace, Senators and Representatives are exempt from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective houses and in going to and returning from the same. In other words, unless he is charged with one or more of the grave offenses just named, a member of either house cannot be arrested from the time he leaves his home to attend a session of Congress until he returns to it. Further, a Senator or Representative cannot be held responsible in any other place for any words that he may speak in any speech or debate in the house to which he belongs. This rule protects him against prosecution in the courts, even if his words are slanderous. Still more, speeches or debates, when published in the official report called "The Congressional Record," are also privileged matter, and the speakers cannot be held accountable for libel. This freedom from arrest and this exemption from responsibility in respect to words spoken in the discharge of public duty, are not privileges accorded to the Senator and Representative in their own interest and for their own sake, but rather in the interest and for the sake of the people whom they represent. If they were liable to arrest for any trivial offense, or if they could be made to answer in a court of law for what they might say on the floor of Congress, the business of the country might be interfered with most seriously. The rights of legislative bodies must be rigidly maintained. The one rule given above is necessary to protect the freedom of representation, the other to protect the freedom of debate.

351. Prohibitions Placed Upon Members of Congress.-No Senator or Representative can, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil

office under the United States that is created, or the pay of which is increased, during such time. Appointments to many offices, and to all of the most important ones, are made by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. Moreover, the President is always interested in the fate of measures that are pending before Congress, or are likely to be introduced into it. There is accordingly a certain probability that, if he were at liberty to do so, the President would enter into bargains with members of Congress, they giving him their votes and he rewarding them with offices created or rendered more lucrative for that very purpose. This would open up a

great source of corruption. A Senator or Representative may, however, be appointed to any office that existed at the time of his election to Congress, provided the compensation has not been since increased. Still he cannot hold such office while a member of Congress. On the other hand, the Constitution expressly declares: "No person holding any office under the United States shall be a member of either house during his continuance in office."

352. Length of Congress.-The term Congress, is used in two senses. It is the name of the National Legislature as a single body, and it is also the name of so much of the continuous life of that body as falls within the full term of office of the Representative. We speak of Congress, and of a Congress. Thus there are a First, Second, and Fifty-fourth Congress, filling

the periods 1789-1791, 1791-1793

1895-1897. The length of a Congress was fixed when the Convention of 1787 made the Representative's term two years. The time of its beginning and ending was due to an accident. The Old Congress provided in 1788 for setting the new Government in operation; it named