Thursday, July 26, 2007

The Eighth Article Papers, II.

Section 1, Clause 4: The House of the People shall in all times be sitting, and shall not adjourn for any reason, but does not need to gather physically in order to proceed in Session.
The House of the People is an entirely new and truly Revolutionary Idea: to give direct Powers to the People when they chuse to exercise that Power.

However the Idea of a direct democratic form of Government has often been plagued with the limitation of gathering the whole of the People together in one Place at one time. Historically, this has been accomplished by few Societies, but among Them has been the ancient Nation of Athens, and more recently the Sng’ois Peoples of Indonesia.

In a larger Nation, such as our own, consisting of some 300 million Population, gathering such a people over 3,000 Miles from Coast to Coast is likely impossible, and certainly impractical.

For this reason, it would seem that a House of the People should not need to gather physically in one Place in order to participate as Legislators. Because of modern Technology, this could quite easily be accomplished in each and every one of our Homes, participating when We see fit, and not when We are inclined to do so.

However, such a House, existing as such, since it would not gather physically, would not necessarily conduct Itself as the House of Representatives or Senate, such as calling forth a Quorum, and such. Such Procedure would be impractical itself. For this reason, it seems that the House of the People should be in all times sitting, always ready to conduct it’s own Business whenever it sees fit.

However, as the House of the People is a third House of Congress, this runs into some problems of already existing Constitutional Powers. For most appointments by the President, they need be approved by the Senate. The Fathers of our Constitution were wise in that they permitted the President to make short-term appointments for such Persons if the Senate was not in Session. This was established as an emergency Procedure, in case Congress needed to escape Washington in times of War.

Despite the obvious misuse of this Power of the Executive in recent times, it should be concluded that this is a very precise and much needed Safeguard to guarantee the smooth functioning of our Government in times of uncertainty. For this reason, The House of the People, being that they shall always be sitting, does not infringe upon the Executive to exercise such a Power, but it does give the People’s House the ability to reject such an exercise, in case the Executive oversteps it’s bounds.

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