All impeachments are tried in the Senate, and a majority of two-thirds is requisite for a conviction.  If the President be on trial, the Chief Justice, or head of the Supreme Court, presides.  While power of trial rests with the Senate, the power of impeachment rests solely with the House of Representatives.  In addition to the ordinary functions of an Upper House, the Senate has also what is called “an Executive Session,” which is held with closed doors; at this Session all treaties and high appointments are discussed, and the appointments are not held to be valid till ratified by them.  Whenever fresh land becomes sufficiently populous, the general Government admit it as territory, and appoint an administration.  This was the case with Nebraska and Kansas in 1853; and the “Missouri Compromise” (which confined slavery south of the 36 3’ parallel of latitude) having been repealed, it became optional with them to adopt slavery or not.  Kansas fought barbarously for the dishonourable privilege, and with temporary success:  Nebraska has declined the honour as yet.  The interests of territories are watched over at Washington by delegates in the House of Representatives, who have a seat, but no vote.  This sensible arrangement might, in my humble opinion, be adopted in this country with reference to our colonies, whose wants at present have no interpreter intimately acquainted with colonial affairs in either branch of the Legislature.

Each State in the Union has its own Governor, House of Representatives, Senate, and Judiciary, and is in every respect a sovereign State—­they like the word as much as they pretend to dislike the reality—­acting perfectly independently within its limits, except in such cases as were mutually agreed upon by the terms of the Union, and to some of which we shall refer by and by.  This sovereignty of individual States renders the elective franchise different in different States.

At the date of the first elections after the Declaration of Independence, no State admitted mere citizenship as a qualification for the elective franchise.  The great men who appeared upon the stage at that period, profiting by the experience of past ages, threw certain guards around the franchise in every State in the Union, varying in different States, but all bearing unmistakeable testimony to the fact, that a perfect democracy was not the basis on which they ever contemplated building up the Republic.  A few short years have rolled by; the 13 States are increased to 33, and according to Mr. Tremenheere, “a grave departure from the theory of the Constitution, as it existed in the eyes and expectations of its careful and prudent founders, has taken place, in the gradual lowering throughout nearly all the States of the Union, and the entire abandonment in two-thirds of them, of those qualifications for the exercise of the franchise which existed when the Constitution was adopted.”  In one State—­Illinois—­aliens being residents are entitled to vote.  Now, if