your great office as President of the

United Plates Denaté has, for the last four years, brought us into an association with

close and constant

you, very

During this long period. we have observed the signal ability, fidelity and impar Kality. as well as the uniform courtesy and Kindness toward every member of this body, which have characterized your official action

Your frompt decision, degnified bearing, just interpretation and enforcement of This Chamber have much aided us in our deliberations, and have won. actinowledgment of that high respect and warm

very

to the conscientious performance of a public duty.

ciation

personal esteem always due

appare.

our

Desiring to give some expression to these sentiments, and to testifys of your valuable pervices to the Denaté and the country, we latte pleasure in tin. dering you the accompanying set of silver as a рекон silver as a memento mements of our continued friendship and

Jane Bars Motion to. Aldico hutullom

Gordon Glowworkrids.

G20 7 Hear
Justin S. Morrill

SENATE TESTIMONIAL TO MR. STEVENSON AS PRESIDENT OF

SENATE

the great officer to whom the founders of the government entrusted the delicate and responsible function of treating with foreign States; in whom was vested in time of peace and of war, chief command of the army and of the navy.

"An eminent writer has well said: "The ancient monarchs of France reigned and governed; the Queen of England reigns but does not govern; the President of France neither reigns nor governs; the President of the United States does not reign, but governs!'

"Experience has demonstrated the more than human wisdom of the framers of the great federal compact which for more than a century, in peace and amid the stress of war, has held States and people in indissoluble bond of union. In no part of their matchless handiwork has it been more clearly manifested than in the creation of a responsible executive. To secure in the largest measure the great ends of government, responsibility must attach to the executive office; and of necessity, with responsibility, power. The sooner France learns from the American Republic this important lesson, the sooner will government attain with her the stability to which it is now a stranger. Her statesmen might well recall the words of Lord Bacon: 'What men will not alter for the better, Time, the great innovator, will alter for the worse.'

"The splendid commonwealth in which we are assembled contains a population a million greater than did the entire country at the first inauguration of President Washington. The one hundred and nine years which have passed since that masterful hour in history have witnessed the addition of thirty-two States to our federal Union, and of seventy millions to our population. And yet, with but few amendments, our great organic law as fully meets the requirements of a self-governing people to-day as when it came from the hands of its framers. The builders of the Constitution wisely ordained the Presidential office a coördinate department of the Government. Moving in its own clearly defined orbit, without usurpation or lessening of prerogative, the great executive office, at the close as at the beginning of the century, is the recognized constitutional symbol of authority

and of power. The delegated functions and prerogatives that pertained in our infancy and weakness have proved ample in the days of our strength and greatness as a nation.

"It is well that to the people was entrusted the sovereign power of choosing their chief magistrate. It is our glory, in the retrospect of more than a century, that none other than patriots-statesmen well equipped for the discharge of its tireless duties-have ever been chosen to the Presidency. May we not believe that the past is the earnest of the future, and that during the rolling years and centuries the incumbents of the great office the chosen successors of Washington and of Lincoln - in the near and in the remote future, will prove the guardians and defenders of the Constitution, the guardians and defenders of the rights of all the people?

"Luminous will be the pages of history that tell to the ages the story of our recent conflict, of its causes and of its results. In brilliancy of achievement, the one hundred days' war with Spain is the marvel of the closing century. It was not a war of our seeking. It was the earnest prayer of all, from the President to the humblest in private life, that the horrors of war might be averted. Had our ears remained deaf to the cry of the stricken and starving at our doors, we would not have been guiltless in the high court of conscience, and before the dread judgment seat of history. The plea ‘Am I my brother's keeper?'- whether interposed by individual or by nation,- cannot be heard before the august tribunal of the Almighty.

"Justified then, as we solemnly believe, in the sight of God for our interposition, we rejoice over the termination of a struggle inwhich our arms knew no defeat. The dead hand of Spain has been removed forever from the throats of her helpless victims. Emphasizing our solemn declaration as a nation, that this was a war for humanity, not for self-aggrandizement, we demand no money indemnity from the defeated and impoverished foe.

"The sacrifice of treasure and of blood has not been in vain. However it may have been in the past, the United States emerges from the conflict with Spain a united people.

Sectional lines are forever obliterated. Henceforth, for all time, we present to foreign foe an unbroken front. In the words of Webster: 'Our politics go no farther than the water's edge.'

"No less important is the fact, that the United States of America to-day, as never before, commands the respect and admiration of the world. No foreign coalition, however formidable, can excite our serious apprehension or alarm. For all this, all honor to our brave soldiers and sailors; all honor to the helpful hands and sympathetic hearts of America's patriotic women.

"As in the early morning and in the noon of the nineteenth century, America gave to the world its best lessons in liberty and in law, so in its closing hours, it has given to all the nations a never-to-be-forgotten lesson in the dread art of war. In quick response to the splendid achievements of American valor comes from across the sea the startling proposal of despotic Russia for the disarmament of continental Europe- and in the end universal peace.

"Thankful to God for all he has vouchsafed to us in the past, and with the prayer that henceforth peace may be the priceless boon of all nations, we await the dawn of the new century, and turn our faces hopefully to the future."

IV

THE VICE-PRESIDENCY

ELECTION, POWERS, AND DUTIES

OF

THE VICE-PRESIDENT NAMES AND DATES OF ALL THE VICE-PRESIDENTS - - FOUR WHO BECAME PRESIDENTS BY ELECTION - FIVE WHO SUCCEEDED UPON THE DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT ATTEMPTS TO SECURE THE IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENTS - THE TWELFTH AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION REMARKS ON SOME OF THE VICE-PRESIDENTS THE WRITER'S FAREWELL ADDRESS ΤΟ

THE SENATE.

B

Y the provisions of the Federal Constitution, a VicePresident of the United States is elected at the same time, for the same term, and in like manner as the President by electors chosen in each of the States. A majority of the votes cast in the several electoral colleges is necessary to an election. The Vice-President is the President of the Senate, and in the event of an equal division in that body, he gives the deciding vote. Under no other contingency has he a vote. The powers and duties of the office of President devolve upon the Vice-President in case of the death, resignation, or removal from office of the President. The Vice-President is included in the list of public officers liable to removal from office on impeachment, on conviction for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. By the twelfth amendment to the Constitution no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President can be elected to that of Vice-President. In the event of a vacancy occurring in the office of Vice-President, the Senate is presided over by a member of that body. In such contingency the death of the President would, under existing law, devolve the office of President upon the Secretary of State.

Twenty-seven persons have held the office of Vice-President; the dates of their respective elections are as follows: John Adams of Massachusetts, in 1788, reëlected in 1792; Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, in 1796; Aaron Burr of New