Difference between revisions of "Congress"

== The Nuttall Encyclopedia <ref name="term_71438" /> ==

<p> A diplomatic conference at which the representatives of sovereign States discuss matters of importance to their several countries, the most celebrated of which are those of [[Münster]] and Osnabrück, which issued in the treaty of [[Westphalia]] in 1648, at the end of the [[Thirty]] Years' War; of Rastadt, at the end of [[Spanish]] [[Succession]] War, in 1797; of Vienna, at the end of Napoleon's wars, in 1815; of Paris, in 1856, at the end of [[Russian]] War; and of Berlin, in 1878, at the end of Russo-Turkish war; but the name has come to be applied in federal republics to the legislative assembly which directs national as distinct from [[State]] concerns. [[In]] the [[United]] States, [[Congress]] consists of the Senate, elected by the State legislatures and the [[House]] of Representatives, elected directly by the people. It meets on the first Monday in December, and receives the President's message for the year. It imposes taxes, contracts loans, provides for national defence, declares war, looks after the general welfare, establishes postal communication, coins money, fixes weights and measures, &c. &c., but it is prohibited from preferential treatment of the several States, establishing or interfering with religion, curtailing freedom of speech, or pursuing towards any citizen, even under legal forms, a course of conduct which is unjust or even oppressive. </p>

 

<ref name="term_71438"> [https://bibleportal.com/encyclopedia/the-nuttall-encyclopedia/congress Congress from The Nuttall Encyclopedia]</ref>