impotence as that which it holds in the British system. It is accordingly asserted that the oligarchy of party leaders who determine the membership of the standing committees of the House and control their action are already the masters of the several executive departments, determining their very organization and policy through the power over appropriations which the present organization of the House lodges in the hands of its leaders; that the business of the Government is carried on more and more through conferences, as yet informal, between the President and this Congressional cabinet, while the great heads of departments tend to become advisers of the real masters of the situation, the Congressional leaders, rather than of their nominal chief, the President. It is not denied that a strong and popular executive may stay the rising tide of Congressional supremacy for a time, but it is claimed that the appeal to the people, by which he accomplishes this, is itself a confession of the real weakness of his position. To such observers, it seems highly probable that within the lifetime of many now living the vital differences still remaining between the British and American systems will have disappeared, and that the Government of the United States will have become to all intents and purposes a government of the parliamentary or congressional type, and that this will be accomplished without formal amendment of the Constitution, by the insidious and persistent process of Congressional usurpation.
Reference has been made to the great power wielded by certain committees of the House. It remains to be noticed that the large increase in the number of Representatives and the growth in volume and complexity of the matters with which they have to deal have necessitated the reference of all bills to standing committees. These conditions have made it impossible for the House to give any real consideration even to the most important measures of legislation, and it follows that the real processes of legislation—the discussion, the sifting, the shaping of bills—is done wholly in the committee-rooms. The committees, therefore, being deliberately made up with reference to the carrying out of party policy, have acquired virtual control over the legislation of the House, their action on bills submitted to them being usually final and conclusive.
The ‘committee system,’ as it is called, was adopted by the House of Representatives at an early period of its history. At present there are forty-eight standing committees, which are appointed by the Speaker for each Congress, and which hold office during the life of the Congress. These committees vary in size, and are made up of members of all parties, the dominant party having an effective majority in each. The principal committees of the House are those on Rules, Appropriations, Ways and Means, Foreign Affairs, Judiciary, Commerce, Elections, Military Affairs, and Naval Affairs. The Senate, because of its smaller membership, and its tradition of dignity and deliberation, has to a large extent retained the character of a deliberative assembly, and much of the work of legislation is still actually performed by it. It has also adopted the committee system; but its committees perform the more legitimate function of sifting and shaping the bills for their more convenient consideration by the Senate. They are appointed by vote of the Senate, and, like those of the House, hold office during the life of the Congress for which they are chosen. The most important of the Senate committees is that on Foreign Affairs, though those on Appropriations, Ways and Means, the Judiciary, and on Military and Naval Affairs, also play an important rôle in shaping legislation. For a history of the United States Congress, see the article United States.
The leading authorities on the position of Congress in the American scheme of government are: Woodrow Wilson, Congressional Government (Boston, 1885), and Bryce, The American Commonwealth (London, 1893). See, also, the authorities referred to in the article Constitution of the United States.
CONGRESSIONAL CEMETERY, A handsome cemetery near Washington containing monuments to such members of Congress as have died during their term of office. See Washington.
CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY, See Library of Congress.
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, The journal of the United States Congress. Up to 1799 the Senate sat with closed doors, and no reports of its proceedings were published. Since that time, an official record of the proceedings of each House is required to be published. The so-called ‘executive sessions’ of the Senate are secret. The journal now known as the Congressional Record was called from 1789 to 1824 the Annals of Congress; from 1825 to 1837 the Register of Debates; from 1834 to 1874 the Congressional Globe. Since 1875 its present name has been used. The Record, however, is not an accurate transcript of the actual proceedings. Members are allowed to revise their remarks before they appear in type; and they also frequently receive from the House ‘leave to print’ speeches which they have never delivered, but which appear in the Record as though a part of the proceedings of the session.
CONGRESSMAN AT LARGE. A member of the United States House of Representatives elected by the voters of the entire State, and not, as is customary, by those of Congressional districts. Such Congressmen are elected under the apportionment acts of Congress, and the election of a Congressman at large is merely a device adopted to give each State the proper number of representatives under the acts until the State should be redistributed. Some States have had two such members, and several one. According to a Congressional act of 1901, the ratio of Congressional representation is one Representative for every 194,182 of the population.
CONGREVE, kŏn′grē̇v, Richard (1819-99). An English philosophical writer and essayist, born at Leamington. He studied under Arnold at Rugby, and afterwards at Wadham College, Oxford, of which he became successively scholar, fellow, and tutor but resigned after having become definitely a disciple of Comte. In 1855 he published a good edition of Aristotle's Politics (1855). Among his other publications are: The Roman Empire of the West (1855); The Catechism of Positive Religion, translated from Comte (1858); Elizabeth of England (1862); and Essays Politi-
