"llsr","042","00010000.tif","042","001","s","","S.R. 2","18710316","Mr. Davis, of Kentucky, asked by unanimous consent, obtained leave to bring in the following joint resolution; which was read and passed to a second reading. Joint Resolution Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States.",""
"llsr","042","00020002.tif","042","001","s","2","S.R. 2","18710316","",""
"llsr","042","00030000.tif","042","002","s","","S.R. 3","18711219","Mr. Stewart asked and, by unanimous consent, obtained leave to bring in the following joint resolution; which was read twice, referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and ordered to be printed. Joint Resolution Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States.","Committee on the Judiciary"
"llsr","042","00040002.tif","042","002","s","2","S.R. 3","18711219","",""
"llsr","042","00050000.tif","042","002","s","","S.R. 4","18711221","Agreeably to notice, Mr. Sumner asked and obtained leave to bring in the following joint resolution; which was read and passed to a second reading. Joint Resolution Proposing an amendment of the Constitution, confining the President to one term. Whereas for many years there has been an increasing conviction among the people, without distinction of party, that one wielding the vast patronage of the President should not be a candidate for re-election, and this conviction has found expression in solemn warnings of illustrious citizens, and in repeated propositions for an amendment of the Constitution confining the President to one term; and Whereas Andrew Jackson was so fully impressed by the peril to republican institutions from the temptations acting on a President who, wielding the vast patronage of his office, is a candidate for re-election, that, in his first annual message he called attention to it; that, in his second annual message, after setting forth the design of the Constitution "to secure the independence of each department of Government, and promote the healthful and equitable administration of all the trusts which it has created," he did not hesitate to say, "the agent most likely to contravene this design of the Constitution is the Chief Magistrate," and then proceeded to declare, "In order particularly, that this appointment may, as far as possible, be placed beyond the reach of any improper influences; in order that he may approach the solemn responsibilities of the highest office, the gift of a free people, uncommitted to any other course than the strict line of constitutional duty; and that the securities for this independence may be rendered as strong as the nature of the power and the weakness of its possessor will admit, I cannot too earnestly invite your attention to the propriety of promoting such amendments of the Constitution as will render him ineligible after one term of service;" and then, again, in his third annual message, the same President renewed this patriotic appeal; and Whereas William Henry Harrison, following in the footsteps of Andrew Jackson, felt it a primary duty, in accepting his nomination as President, to assert the one-term principle in these explicit words: "Among the principles proper to be adopted by an Executive sincerely desiring to restore the administration to its original simplicity and purity, I deem the following of importance: first, to confine his services to a single term;" and, then, in public speech during the canvass, which ended in his election, declared, "If the privilege of being President of the United States had been limited to one term, the incumbent would devote all his time to public interest, and there would be no cause to misrule the country;" and he concluded by pledging himself, "before Heaven and earth, if elected President of the United States, to lay down at the end of the term faithfully that high trust at the feet of the people;" and Whereas Henry Clay, though differing much from Andrew Jackson, united with him on the one-term principle, and publicly enforced it in a speech, June twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and forty, where, after asking for "a provision to render a person ineligible to the office of President of the United States after a service of one term," he explained the necessity of the amendment by saying, "Much observation and deliberate reflection have satisfied me that too much of the time, the thoughts, and the exertions of the incumbent are occupied during the first term in securing his re-election. The public business consequently suffers;" and then, again, in a letter dated September thirteenth, eighteen hundred and forty-two, while setting forth what he calls "principal objects engaging the common desire and common exertion of the whig party," the same statesman specifies, "An amendment to the Constitution, limiting the incumbent of the presidential office to a single term;" and Whereas the whig party, in its national convention at Baltimore, May first, eighteen hundred and forty-four, nominated Henry Clay as President and Theodore Frelinghuysen as Vice-President, with a platform where "a single term for the presidency" is declared to be among "the great principles of the whig party; principles inseparable from the public honor and prosperity, to be maintained and advanced by the election of these candidates;" which declaration was echoed at an immense meeting in Monument Square, addressed by Daniel Webster, where it was resolved that "the limitation of a President to a single term" was among the objects "for which the whig party will unceasingly strive until their efforts are crowned with a signal and triumphant success;" and Whereas in the same spirit and in harmony, with these authorities, another statesman, Benjamin F. Wade, at the close of his long service in the Senate, most earnestly urged an amendment of the Constitution confining the President to one term, and in his speech on that occasion, February twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, said: "The offering of this resolution is no new impulse of mine, for I have been an advocate of the principle contained in it for many years, and I have derived the strong impressions which I entertain on the subject from a very careful observation of the workings of our Government during the period that I have been an observer of them. I believe it has been very rare that we have been able to elect a President of the United States who has not been tempted to use the vast powers intrusted to him according to his own opinions to advance his re-election;" and then, after exposing at length the necessity of this amendment, the veteran senator further declared, "There are defects in the Constitution, and this is among the most glaring. All men have seen it, and now let us have the nerve, let us have the resolution to come up and apply the remedy;" and Whereas these testimonies, revealing intense and wide-spread convictions of the American people, are re-enforced by the friendly observations of De Tocqueville, the remarkable Frenchman, to whom our country is under such great and lasting obligations in his famous work on Democracy in America, where he says, in words of singular clearness and force, "Intrigue and corruption are vices natural to elective governments. But when the chief of the government can be re-elected, those vices extend indefinitely, and compromise even the existence of the country. When a simple candidate seeks success by intrigue, his maneuvers can operate only over a circumscribed space. When, on the contrary, the chief of the government himself enters the ranks of candidates, he borrows for his own proper use the force of the government. In the first case, it is one man with his feeble means; in the second, it is the government itself, with its immense resources, which intrigues and corrupts;" and then, again, the same writer, who had studied our country so closely, testifies: "It is impossible to consider the ordinary course of affairs in the United States without perceiving that the desire to be re-elected dominates the thoughts of the President; that all the policy of his administration tends to this point; that his least movements are subordinated to this object; that in proportion as the movement of crisis approaches, individual interest substitutes itself in his mind for the general interest;" and Whereas all these concurring voices, where patriotism, experience, and reason bear testimony, have additional value at a moment when the country is looking anxiously to a reform of the civil serivce, for the plain reason, that the peril from the Chief Magistrate, so long as he is exposed to temptation, surpasses that from any other quarter, and thus the first stage in this much-desired reform is the one-term principle, to the end that the President, who exercises the appointing power, reaching into all parts of the country and holding in subordination a multitudinous army of office-holders, shall be absolutely without motive or inducement to employ it for any other purpose than the public good; and Whereas the character of republican institutions requires that the Chief Magistrate shall be above all suspicion of using machinery of which he is the official head to promote his own personal aims: Therefore, ",""
"llsr","042","00060002.tif","042","002","s","2","S.R. 4","18711221","",""
"llsr","042","00070003.tif","042","002","s","3","S.R. 4","18711221","",""
"llsr","042","00080004.tif","042","002","s","4","S.R. 4","18711221","",""
"llsr","042","00090005.tif","042","002","s","5","S.R. 4","18711221","",""
"llsr","042","00100006.tif","042","002","s","6","S.R. 4","18711221","",""
"llsr","042","00110000.tif","042","002","s","","S.R. 5","18720122","Mr. Blair asked and, by unanimous consent, obtained leave to bring in the following joint resolution; which was read the first time and ordered to lie on the table and be printed. Joint Resolution In favor of the acquisition, by purchase, of the island of Cuba. Whereas the island of Cuba is no longer necessary to the safety of any continental dominions of Spain, and is of vast importance to secure the southern shores of the United States from invasion, and the commerce floated from the great rivers of the continent into the Gulf of Mexico from depredation; and Whereas the acquisition of Cuba by the United States could enhance its commercial importance, not only to the United States, but to all the commercial nations of the world, and especially to Spain, and for the same reason that the incorporation of the colonies of England, France, and Spain, under the Government of the United States, has promoted the development of their commerce with their mother countries; and Whereas the acquisition of Cuba would free the American continent from the last vestige of slavery by the operation of the Constitution of the United States, and would open for emigration, to the freemen of African descent now residing in the United States, a congenial climate and rich soil well adapted to their physical constitutions, where their intelligent labor would find its richest rewards promoting the improvement of the race and guaranteeing their prosperity and equality under free institutions: Therefore,",""
"llsr","042","00120002.tif","042","002","s","2","S.R. 5","18720122","",""
"llsr","042","00130000.tif","042","002","s","","S.R. 6","18720416","Mr. Cameron asked and, by unanimous consent, obtained leave to bring in the following joint resolution; which was read twice, referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, and ordered to be printed. Joint Resolution Permitting certain diplomatic and consular officers of the United States in France to accept testimonials from the Emperor of Germany for their friendly services to the subjects of the Emperor during the war between France and Germany.","Committee on Foreign Relations"
"llsr","042","00140000.tif","042","002","s","","S.R. 7","18720530","Mr. Sumner asked and, by unanimous consent, obtained leave to bring in the following joint resolution; which was read the first and second times and ordered to be printed. Joint Resolution Proposing an amendment to the Constitution providing for the election of President by a direct vote of the people, and abolishing the office of Vice-President. Whereas, according to the existing system, the President of the United States, instead of being chosen directly by the people, is chosen by the intervention of electoral colleges in the several states; and Whereas this system, besides excluding the people from a direct vote in the choice of President, is operated by the caucus or convention, an irresponsible body, unknown to the law or Constitution, where a few persons, by combination, and sometimes by intrigue or corruption, succeed in putting forward a candidate who becomes forthwith the exclusive representative of the party assures his election; and Whereas the caucus or convention, after being the engine for nomination of President, allowing the people little more than to record its will, becomes the personal instrument of the President when elected, giving him a dictatorial power, which he may employ in reducing the people to conformity with his purposes, and promoting his re-election, all of which is hostile to good government, and of evil example; and Whereas the existing system of choosing President besides being highly artificial and cumbersome, is radically defective, and unrepublican, inasmuch as it fails to secure for each voter the opportunity of declaring for the candidate of his choice, and in its operation, substitutes therefor the dictation of a caucus or convention: Now therefore, in order to supersede the caucus or convention, so that it shall no longer be the engine for the nomination of the President, or, when he is elected, the instrument of his personal will, and to abolish the electoral college, so that the people shall vote directly for President,",""
"llsr","042","00150002.tif","042","002","s","2","S.R. 7","18720530","",""
"llsr","042","00160003.tif","042","002","s","3","S.R. 7","18720530","",""
"llsr","042","00170004.tif","042","002","s","4","S.R. 7","18720530","",""
"llsr","042","00180005.tif","042","002","s","5","S.R. 7","18720530","",""
"llsr","042","00190000.tif","042","002","s","","S.R. 8","18720531","Mr. Tipton asked and, by unanimous consent, obtained leave to bring in the following joint resolution; which was read twice, referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and ordered to be printed. Joint Resolution Proposing an amendment to the Constitution modifying the veto power.","Committee on the Judiciary"
"llsr","042","00200002.tif","042","002","s","2","S.R. 8","18720531","",""
"llsr","042","00210000.tif","042","003","s","","S.R. 10","18730107","Mr. Frelinghuysen asked and, by unanimous consent, obtained leave to bring in the following joint resolution; which was read twice, referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and ordered to be printed. Joint Resolution Submitting to the legislatures of the several States a proposition to amend the Constitution of the United States.","Committee on the Judiciary"
"llsr","042","00220000.tif","042","003","s","","S.R. 11","18730131","Mr. Harlan asked and, by unanimous consent, obtained leave to bring in the following joint resolution; which was read twice and ordered to be printed. Joint Resolution Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States.",""
"llsr","042","00230000.tif","042","003","s","","S.R. 13","18730211","Mr. Anthony, from the Committee on Printing, submitted a report (No. 419) accompanied by the following joint resolution; which was read and passed to a second reading. Joint Resolution Providing for the reporting and publication of the debates in Congress.","Committee on Printing"
"llsr","042","00240002.tif","042","003","s","2","S.R. 13","18730211","",""
"llsr","042","00250000.tif","042","003","s","","S.R. 14","18730214","Mr. Fenton asked and, by unanimous consent, obtained leave to bring in the following joint resolution; which was read twice, referred to the Committee on the Foreign Affairs, and ordered to be printed. Joint Resolution Authorizing the President to invite the International Statistical Congress to hold its next session in the United States. Whereas the governments of Belgium, Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, Italy, Holland, and Russia have heretofore extended invitations to the International Statistical Congress to hold sessions of the said congress at their respective capitals, and eight different sessions of the said congress have been held in accordance with said official invitations to the great advancement of the science of national and international statistics in its various departments, and to the uniformity of coinage, weights, and measures, and commercial regulations and statistical publications between the different nations; and Whereas the United States of America are favorable to all measures for promoting the advancement and of statistical science, and to all efforts for the social advancement and friendly intercourse of the people of all countries; and Whereas, also, the President of the United States, in his recent annual message to Congress, has submitted to this Congress the consideration of the propriety of extending an invitation to the International Statistical Congress to its next (ninth) meeting in the United States: Therefore,","Committee on Foreign Affairs"
"llsr","042","00260002.tif","042","003","s","2","S.R. 14","18730214","",""
"llsr","042","00270000.tif","042","003","s","","S.R. 15","18730214","Mr. Edmunds asked and, by unanimous consent, obtained leave to bring in the following joint resolution; which was read twice and ordered to be printed. Joint Resolution Expressing the sense of Congress upon the establishment of a republican government in Spain.",""