1882, etc.), and the short session in odd years (1881 and 1883). Extra
sessions may be called by the President for urgent business.

In the early part of the November preceding the end of the short session
of Congress, occurs the election of Representatives. Congressmen then
elected do not take their seats until thirteen months later, that is, at
the reassembling of Congress in December of the year following, unless
an extra session is called. The Senate frequently holds secret, or, as
they are called, executive sessions, for the consideration of treaties
and nominations of the President, in which the House of Representatives
has no voice. It is then said to sit with closed doors.

An immense amount of business must necessarily be transacted by a
Congress that legislates for nearly sixty-three millions of people,
inhabiting a territory of over three and a half millions of square
miles.

Lack of time, of course, prevents a consideration of each bill
separately by the whole legislature. To provide a means by which each
subject may receive investigation and consideration, a plan is used by
which the members of both branches of Congress are divided into
committees. Each committee busies itself with a certain class of
business, and bills when introduced are referred to this or that
committee for consideration, according to the subjects to which the
bills relate. Thus, for example, affairs relating to Washington are
handed over to what is known as the District Committee, a regular
appropriation bill to the Committee on Appropriations, etc. These
committees consider these bills carefully, frequently taking the
testimony of outside persons to discover the advisability of each bill.
The regular course through which a bill has to go before becoming an