12.  Who are some of the best-known representatives and senators?  For what reasons are they noted?

13.  Who are the senators from your State?  When was each elected?

14.  Give the names of the speaker and of the president pro tempore.

15.  Would you have voted for the Seventeenth Amendment?  See Outlook, 67:559-604; 73:277-285; 386-392.  For other references, see James and Sanford, Government in State and Nation, p. 137.

CHAPTER VIII.

POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE SEPARATE HOUSES.

I. IMPEACHMENT.

Article II, Section 4. The President, Vice-President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

Article I, Section 2, Clause 5. The House of Representatives shall ... have the sole power of impeachment.

Section 3, Clause 6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments.  When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation.  When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside; and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present.

Section 3, Clause 7. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States; but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment according to law.

There have been but seven impeachment trials in the history of our government.  Section 4 of Article II declares who may be impeached.  The expression “civil officer” does not include military and naval officers.  They are subject to trial by court-martial.  Members of Congress may not be impeached, since the Constitution authorizes each house to bring to trial and punish its own members.  Clause 5 of Section 2, and Clauses 6 and 7 of Section 3, Article I, give the method of procedure against an officer who may be charged with “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”  The articles of impeachment preferred by the House of Representatives correspond to the indictment in a criminal trial.  The manner of conducting an impeachment trial, in the Senate, resembles also a trial by jury.[19] That the “Chief Justice shall preside” during the trial of the President of the United States is a wise provision, because it is easy to presume that a Vice-President might be personally interested in the conviction of a President.

[Footnote 19:  See “Government in State and Nation,” p. 159.]

II.  THE QUORUM, JOURNAL, AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH.

Determination of Membership and Quorums.—­Section 5, Clause 1. Each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as each house may provide.