CONGRESS

CONGRESS is 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.