time of election, it is now established in both Houses that it is
sufficient if the requirements are met when the oath is administered.
Thus persons elected to either House before attaining the required age
or term of citizenship have been admitted as soon as they became
qualified.[126]


ENLARGEMENT OF QUALIFICATIONS

Writing in The Federalist[127] with reference to the election of Members
of Congress, Hamilton expressed the opinion that "the qualifications of
persons who may * * * be chosen * * * are defined and fixed in the
Constitution and are unalterable by the legislature." The question
remained academic until the Civil War, when Congress passed a law
requiring its members to take an oath that they had never been disloyal
to the Federal Government. In subsequent contests over the seating of
men charged with disloyalty, the right of Congress to establish by law
other qualifications for its members than those contained in the
Constitution was sharply challenged. Nevertheless, both the House and
Senate, relying on this act, did refuse to seat several persons.[128] At
this time the principal argument against the statute was that all
persons were eligible for the office of Representative unless the
Constitution made them ineligible. In Burton _v._ United States,[129]
the argument was given a new twist. A law providing that a Senator or
Representative convicted of unlawfully receiving money for services
rendered before a government department should be "rendered forever
thereafter incapable of holding any office of honor, trust or profit
under the Government of the United States," was assailed as an
unconstitutional interference with the authority of each House to judge
the qualifications of, or to expel, one of its own members. The Court