2. Must have been seven years a citizen of the United States. 3. When elected, must be an inhabitant of the State in which chosen. 4.

4. No United-States officer shall be a member of either house of Congress. 22. (See appendix to Analysis D.)

§ 1. That a member of the House of Representatives should be at least twenty-five years old was adopted in the Convention without debate. Few men before that age have had sufficient experience to fit them for so important a trust; and as it seemed necessary to specify some age before which a person should be held ineligible to this position, perhaps twenty-five may be regarded as the most suit

able.

§ 2. In order to be a representative, it is not necessary that he shall be a natural-born citizen. By the Constitution, however, he must have been a citizen of the United States seven years. If born under another government, he may become a citizen of this country by a process called naturalization. By a law of Congress, it requires five years' residence before this can be accomplished; which, added to seven years' citizenship, requires twelve years actual residence before an alien can become a representative in Congress. A much longer period than this, however, was strenuously insisted on by many of the members of the Convention.

§ 3. The Constitution requires that the member, when elected, shall be an inhabitant of the State in which he is chosen. This is a provision so reasonable as to admit of neither debate in the Convention, nor of difference of opinion among the people. The inhabitancy of the State in which chosen is limited to the particular time when chosen, not requiring the representative to continue it there. He may hold his seat in the House, therefore, even should he change his residence to another State during his continuance as a representative.

Nor is it necessary that he shall reside in the particular Congressional district in which, or by which, he is chosen.

§ 4. No person holding any office under the United States is eligible to a seat in either house of Congress. On this provision, there was no difference of opinion among the members of the Constitutional Convention; although many were in favor of carrying the

restriction much further. The Constitution limits the ineligibility to the period of continuance in office under the United States. Several of the members were in favor of extending this incompetency to hold a federal office for from one to three or four years beyond the expiration of the term of service for which a senator or representative should be elected.

§ 5. But their deliberations resulted in prohibiting any officer under the General Government from being a member of either house of Congress during his continuance in office. This provision originated in a deference to State jealousy, and fear that the General Government would obtain an undue influence in the national councils. If a Federal officer were allowed to be a member of either house, he might wield an undue influence over those with whom he would be associated in legislative deliberations.

ART. IV. TERM.

Members of the House of Representatives are chosen every second year. 3.

§ 1. There was much difference of opinion in the Convention as to what length of time ought to constitute a representative term. One class was in favor of limiting it to one year; urging that the people were, and would continue to be, in favor of frequent elections; that such was the only defense of the people against tyranny; and that this plan, bringing representative and constituency more frequently face to face, would be likely to give a stronger sense of official responsibility.

§ 2. Another class urged that a term of three years was preferable to one; that instability is one of the great vices of a republic; that time should be given for members to acquire a competent knowledge of the various interests of States to which they did not belong. It was claimed that one year would be almost consumed in preparing for official duty, and traveling to and from the seat of national business.

§ 3. It was also urged against the annual plan, that frequency of elections tended to make the people regardless of them, and to facilitate the success of little cabals. It had been found necessary

in some States, where the elections were annual, to force attendance and voting by severe regulations.

§ 4. But, as was usual in the Convention, a compromise of opinion prevailed; and it was accepted that members be chosen every second year. The representative term always expires in the years of odd numbers, as 1867, '69, '71, &c.

ART. V.- BY WHOM ELECTED.

By the people of the several States. 3.

§ 1. It was not easy for the Convention to agree on the question, "By whom shall the representatives be elected?" It was urged by some members, that the people were incapable of properly exercising this high and important trust; that they should have as little to do as possible about the government; that they were ignorant, and constantly liable to be misled; that great evils would result from such an excess of democracy; and that, while the people were not wanting in purity of motive, they were liable to become the dupes of pretended patriots.

§ 2. On the contrary, it was urged that the election of this branch of Congress should be by the people; that the House of Representatives was to be the grand depository of the democratic principle of the government; that it was to be our House of Commons; that it ought to know and sympathize with every part of the community, and ought, therefore, to be taken, not only from different parts of the whole republic, but from the various districts of the larger States.

§ 3. It was claimed that this was emphatically the people's own government; that, however elevated the situation of the more wealthy might be to-day, a few years not only might, but certainly would, distribute their posterity throughout the lowest classes of society. Every selfish motive, therefore, and every family attach ment, ought to lead the Convention to provide no less carefully for the rights and happiness of the lowest than of the highest order of citizens.

§ 4. The members of the Convention who were opposed to an election of representatives by the people were in favor of electing

them by the legislatures of the several States; maintaining that it would be utterly impracticable to elect them by the people. By a close vote, however, it was decided to place the election of members of the house in the hands of the people of the several States.

ART. VI.-ELECTORS.

The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislaturc. 3.

§ 1. The word "electors," as used here, is synonymous with voters. It was necessary to adopt some rule that would apply to all the States in determining or defining the qualifications of voters for members of the House of Representatives. On this subject, there were three classes of opinions:

§ 2. The first class proposed to require the same qualifications that were requisite to vote for members of the several State legislaThis was objected to on two grounds :

tures.

1st. That it would thus be left to the States to settle the question of qualifications.

2d. That it would be impracticable in many of the States, as the qualifications to vote for a State senator were higher than were required to vote for the members of the most numerous branch.

Another proposition was, that freeholders only should be allowed to vote for members of the House of Representatives. This found favor with many of the ablest members of that body, but failed.

§ 3. The test finally adopted was, perhaps, the best among the number proposed, or that could be proposed; which leaves it in the hands of the States themselves, with this limitation, that whatever test they see fit to adopt as a qualification to vote for the most numerous branch of their own legislatures respectively, shall settle the question as to whether the elector may vote for a member of the House of Representatives.

§ 4. No State, therefore, has the right to require any higher or different qualifications of its citizens, to vote for a member of the House of Representatives, than it requires of them to vote for the popular branch of its own legislature.

§ 5. Members of the House of Representatives are elected in the several States by Congressional districts. When it has been ascertained how many members each State is entitled to, the legis latures of the several States divide them respectively into as many Congressional districts as they are each entitled to members. These Congressional districts are numbered, for convenience, 1st, 2d, 3d, &c., and are known by their numbers.

The electors of each district vote for but one candidate, though that candidate need not necessarily be a resident of the voter's district. He must, however, as we have seen, be an inhabitant of the State in which he shall be chosen.

§ 6. Several of the States formerly elected their representatives by general ticket; that is, each elector voted for all the members to which the State was entitled, or for a number equal to that number. Until 1842, there was no act of Congress requiring elections of members by Congressional districts; but, June 25 of that year, a law was passed requiring the States to elect by districts, and allowing each district to elect but one representative.

ART. VII.- VACANCIES.

When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. 6.

§ 1. The writ of election is directed to the Congressional district in which the vacancy occurs. The election held in pursuance of

such writ is called a special election.

§ 2. The representative elected to fill a vacancy does not serve a full term, but the remainder of the term for which his predecessor was elected. Vacancies can happen only by death, resignation, or expulsion of the incumbent from his seat in the house.

ART. VIII.-CENSUS.

1. How MADE. In such manner as Congress shall by law direct. 2. WHEN MADE. 1st. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of Congress. 2d. It shall be made within every subsequent term

of ten years.