242 Council. Division of legislature. [iV77 and vice-president of the Council were to be chosen annually by joint ballot of the legislature and Council, out of members of the Council. The president or vice-president, "with the Council," had power to appoint judges, naval and all other officers, civil and military, such as were not to be chosen by the legislature. They were to corre- spond with other States, and transact business with the officers of government, "and to prepare such business as may appear to them necessary to lay before the legislature." "They shall sit as judges, to hear and determine on impeachments, taking to their assistance, for advice only, the justices of the Supreme Court." By the constitution of New York (1777), the Council was to have important functions in relation to legislation. It was provided that the governor, the chancellor, and the judges of the Supreme Court, or any two of them with the governor, should constitute "a Council to revise all bills about to be passed into laws by the legislature 1 '; "and that all bills which have passed the Senate and Assembly shall, before they become laws, be presented to the said Council for their revisal and consideration ; and if, upon such revision and consideration, it should appear improper to the said Council... that the said bill should become a law... that they return the same, together with their objections thereto in writing, to the Senate or House of Assembly... who shall... reconsider the said bill." If the bill were then passed again by each house, by two-thirds of the members present, it should become a law. A Court was to be instituted for the trial of impeach- ments and the correction of errors, " to consist of the president of the Senate, and the senators, chancellor and judges of the Supreme Court, or the major part of them"; impeachment to be by the House of Assembly (Representatives). All the State constitutions, with one exception, provided that the legislature of their States, usually called the General Assembly, but in Massachusetts and New Hampshire the General Court, should be divided into two branches, the first to be called the House of Repre- sentatives, of Delegates, or of Assembly in North Carolina, the House of Commons ; the second, the Senate. In Delaware the second branch was to be called a Council; a body not to be confounded with the Council of other States. The members of both branches were to be elected by popular vote ; the suffrage being generally somewhat restricted, as for instance to freeholders, and often being more restricted in regard to the Upper than to the Lower House. The Lower House was generally the more numerous body, and was called the popular branch. In Delaware the Council was larger than the Lower House. Pennsylvania was the one exception ; in that State, as in the Continental Congresses and the Congress of the Confederation, there was but one Chamber of the legislature. The executive department of the State governments was generally
