Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/597

 CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT. 56 1

days after it has been presented to him, it becomes a law, in like manner as if he had signed it.

Each of the two houses of Congress is made by the constitution the 'judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members ; ' and each of the houses may, ' with the concurrence of two- thirds, expel a member.'

By the 8th Section of the 1st Article of the Constitution of the United States, the Congress has power : —

1. To levy and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States ;

2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

3 To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes ;

4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalisation, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies, throughout the United States;

5. To coin money and regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures ;

6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States ;

7. To establish post-offices and post roads ;

8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries ;

9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court ;

10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations ;

11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water ;

12. To raise and support armies, but so that no appropriation of money to that use be made for a longer term than two years ;

13. To provide and maintain a navy ;

14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces ;

15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions ;

16. To provide for organising, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the States respec- tively the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress ;

17. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested in the Government of the United States.

The Congress of the United States has the power to alter the