The purpose of this provision is to prevent congress from passing a law under some other name.

The resolution to adjourn is excepted, because, as we have seen, the time for adjournment is generally a matter of agreement between the houses.

A resolution passed by the two houses, but not intended to have the force of law, such as an agreement to do something, is called a concurrent resolution, and does not require the president’s signature.

Pertinent Questions.

What is a “bill?” What is meant by entering the objections “at large?” Why is there no committee of ways and means in the Senate?

How many members in each house does it take for the first passage of a bill?  How many after the president’s veto?  Does the expression two-thirds refer to the entire number in a house, or to the number voting?

State three ways in which a bill may become a law.  Five ways in which it may fail.

During what time has the president the equivalent of an absolute veto?

Does a resolution merely expressing an opinion of either or both houses need the president’s signature?  Does a resolution proposing an amendment to the constitution?

Is the president bound to enforce a law passed over his veto?

A Summary.

“We have now completed the review of the structure and organization of the legislative department; and it has been shown that it is admirably adapted for a wholesome and upright exercise of the powers confided to it.  All the checks which human ingenuity has been able to devise, or at least all which, with reference to our habits, our institutions, and our diversities of local interests, to give perfect operation to the machinery, to adjust its movements, to prevent its eccentricities, and to balance its forces:  all these have been introduced, with singular skill, ingenuity and wisdom, into the arrangements.  Yet, after all, the fabric may fall; for the work of man is perishable.  Nay, it must fall, if there be not that vital spirit in the people, which alone can nourish, sustain and direct all its movements.  If ever the day shall arrive, in which the best talents and the best virtues, shall be driven from office by intrigue or corruption, by the denunciations of the press or by the persecution of party factions, legislation will cease to be national.  It will be wise by accident, and bad by system.” [Footnote:  Story’s Exposition of the Constitution of the United States.]

Review.

Compare the organization of congress under the constitution with that of congress under the confederation.  Show the superiority of our present organization.  Specify some of the “checks” referred to by Judge Story.

Read Woodrow Wilson’s Congressional Government, pp. 40, 41, 52, 219, 228, 283-5, 311.  Also, Among the Lawmakers, Chapter 33.

CHAPTER XXII.