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346 the two Branches of the Legislature should meet & 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 & summoned that Branch could not be organized till the vacancies should be filled & this could not be done except by pursuing the course adopted on this occasion - or suppose Eleven Senators that number constituting a quorum should be elected & appear but should neglect or refuse to organize by choosing a presiding officer - or having become organized should for political or other reasons refuse to count the votes & declare the vacancies - in all these cases it will be perceived the Government could not become organized by filling the vacancies in the Senate & choosing Councillors. From this it is apparent that if six of the eleven Senators in the case 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 & the Constitution will thus be suffered to run down & the Government be dissolved. The same results will take place whenever a majority of the House shall happen to be politically opposed to a majority of the Senate & by meeting in convention for filling vacancies might be thrown into a minority. These contingencies or some of them are likely to occur if not every year at least every few years. But the framers of the Constitution anticipated that such contingencies might & probably should occur & therefore did not leave it to depend for its existence on the consciences of the members of either Branch strongly tempted as they might be by party considerations to prevent an organization of the Government but wisely inserted this life preserving provision that "the members of the House of Representatives & such Senators as shall have been elected shall elect by joint ballot the number of Senators required" - we therefore feel entirely justified