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XXXIV

Senators required" The provision is, not, that the two branches, as such, shall meet and fill the vacancies, but the members of the House, and such Senators as have been elected, shall meet for this purpose. If the Constitution had provided that the two Branches of the Legislature should meet and fill the vacancies, this could not be done, till both branches had become organized. But suppose it should so happen, that a Quorum of the Senate should not be chosen and summoned, that Branch could not be organized till the vacancies should be filled, and this could not be done except by pursuing the course adopted on this occasion, or suppose that eleven Senators (that number constituting a Quorum) should be elected and appear, but should neglect or refuse to organize should, for political or other reasons, refuse to count the votes and declare the vacancies; or having done this, should refuse, by vote, to go into convention, or meet the other branch for the purpose of filling the vacancies; in all these cases it will be perceived, the Government could not become organized by filling the vacancies in the Senate, and choosing Councillors. From this, it is apparent, that if six of the eleven Senators, in the case suppossed [supposed], should be politically opposed to a majority of the House, they have only to refuse to organize by choosing a President, or when organized, to neglect or refuse to count the votes, or having counted them to refuse to declare the vacancies; or if all these things have been done, to decline to meet the House to fill the vacancies, and the Constitution will thus be suffered to be run down, and the Government be dissolved. The same results will take place, whenever