Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.

DEBATES OF CONGRESS. 745 MARCH, 1836.] Expunging Resolution. [SENATE. or four dozen meanings which belong to that inadequate keeper is provided; for, during one phrase, and which every Senator's recollection half the time, the two Houses are not in session, will readily recall to his mind. It is needless the keepers are not in existence, for the Secreto thread the labyrinth of all these meanings, tary is not the House; and during all that and to show, by multiplied dictionary quota- moiety of time, there can be no keeper of this tions, in how many instances the verb, to keep, thing which is to be kept all the time. displays a signification entirely foreign, and Again: if to keep the journal is to save old even contradictory, to the idea of preserving. ones, and not to make new ones, then the conA few examples will suffice to illustrate the posi- stitutional injunction could have had no applition, and to bring many other instances to the cation to the first session of the first Congress; recollection of Senators. Thus: to keep up, is for the two Houses, during that session, had no to maintain; to keep under, is to oppress; to pre-existing journal in their possession whereof keep house, is to eat and sleep at home; to to become the constitutional keepers. keep the door, is to let people in and out; to There are but two injunctions in the constikeep company, is to frequent one; to keep a tution on the subject of the journal; the one to mill, is to grind grain; to keep store, is to sell make it, the other to publish it; and both are goods; to keep a public house, is to sell enter- found in the same clause. There is no specific tainment; to keep bar, is to sell liquors; to command to preserve it; there is no keeper keep a diary, is to write a daily history of what provided to stand guard over it. The House you do; and to keep a journal is the same thing. is not the keeper, and never has been, and never It is to make a journal; and the phrase has the can be. The Secretary and the Clerk are the same meaning in the constitution that it has in keepers, and they are not the Houses. The common parlance. When we direct a person only preservation provided for is their custody in our employment to keep a journal, we direct and the publication; and that is the most effechim to make one; our intention is that he shall tual, and, in fact, the only safe preserver. What make one, and not that he shall preserve an is published is preserved, though no one is apold one already made by somebody else; and pointed to keep it; what is not published is this is the precise meaning of the phrase in the often lost, though committed to the custody of constitution. That it is so, is clear, not only special guardians. from the sense and reason of the injunction, but I have examined this word upon its literal from the words which follow next after: " and, meanings, as a verbal critic would do it; but I from time to time, publish the same, except am bound to examine it practically, as a statessuch parts as in their judgment require secre- man should see it, and as the framers of the cy." This injunction to publish follows im- Constitution used it. Those wise men did not mediately after the injunction to keep; it is invent phrases, but adopted them, and used part of the same sentence, and can only apply them in the sense known and accepted by the to the makers of the journal. They are to community; law terms, as understood in the keep a journal, and to publish the same. Which courts; technical, as known in science; parliasame? The new one made by themselves, or mentary, as known in legislation; and familiar the old one made by their predecessors? Cer- phrases, as used by the people. Strong examtainly, they are to publish their own, which ples of this occur twice more in the very clause they are daily making, and not the one which which we have been examining. There is the was both made and published by a former Con- word " house;' "each House shall keep," &c. gress; and in this sense has the injunction been Here the word " house " is used in the parliaunderstood and acted upon by the two Houses mentary sense, and means, not stone and mortar, from the date of their existence. but people; and not people generally, but the Again: if this injunction is to be interpreted representatives of the people; and these repreto signify preserve, and we are to be sunk to sentatives organized for action. Yet, with a the condition of mere keepers of the old jour- dictionary in hand, this word " house'" might nals, where is the injunction for making new be shown to be the habitation, and not the ones? Where is the injunction under which inhabitants; and the walls and roof of this our Secretary is now acting in writing down a Capitol might be proved to have received the history of your proceedings on this my pres- injunction of the constitution to keep a journal. ent motion? There is nothing else in the con- Again: the House is directed to publish the stitution upon the subject. There is no other journal, and under that injunction the journal clause directing a journal to be made; and, if is printed, because the popular sense of publishthis interpretation is to prevail, then the ab- ing is printing; while the legal sense is a mere surdity prevails of having an injunction to discovery of its contents in any manner whatsave what there is no injunction to create! — ever. The reading of the journal at the Secrethe absurdity of having each successive Con- tary's table every morning, the leaving it open gress bound to preserve the journals of its pre- in his office for the inspection of the public, is decessors, while neither its predecessors nor a publication in law; and this legal publication itself are required to make any journal what- would comply with the letter of the constituever. tion. But the common sense men who framed Again: if the Houses are to be the preservers, the constitution used the word in its popular and not the makers, of journals, then a most sense, as synonymous with printing; and in

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Title: Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.
Author: United States. Congress.
Canvas: Page 745
Publication: New York, [etc.]: D. Appleton and company [etc.]; 1857-61.
Subject terms: United States -- Politics and government

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Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.

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