The second clause of Section VI of Article I of the Constitution provides that: "No Senator or Representative shall - during the time for which he was elected - be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased, during such time, and no person holding any office under the United States shall be a member of either House during his continuance in office."

In pursuance of this provision members of Congress have had their seats declared vacant for accepting commissions as officers of the volunteer and regular army forces of the United State-. Visitors to academies, directors and trustees of public federal institutions appointed by law, are not held disqualified. In a House Report on this subject,19 the committee say: "It is not contended that every position held by a member of Congress is an office within the meaning of the Constitution, even though the term office may usually be applied to many of these positions. . . . In United States v. Hartwell (6 Wall. 385; 18 L. ed. 830), it is laid down that 'an office is a public station or employment conferred by the appointment of government. The term embraces the ideas of tenure, duration, emolument, and duties.' Elsewhere it is held that an office is 'an employment on behalf of the government, in any station of public trust, nor merely transient, occasional or incidental' (20 Johns. Rep. 492). A careful consideration of all the positions above referred to will show that they are merely transient, occasional or incidental in their nature, and none of them possess the elements of duration, tenure or emolument. All of these appointees were but instruments to procure detailed information for the better information and guidance of Congress and are wholly lacking in the essential elements of an office within the meaning of the Constitution."

18 For historical accounts of the manner in which contested' elections in Congress have been considered, see Journal of Social Science, 1870, pp. 56, and Political Science Quarterly, XX, 421.

19 55th Cong. 3d Sess. Rpt, No. 2205.

The House has also held that a contractor under the Federal Government is not constitutionally disqualified as a member.

A state office does not disqualify for membership. Thus, for example, Senator La Follette held the office of Governor of Wisconsin until January, 1906, although the Senate, after his election to that body, met in extra session the preceding March. Senator La Follette did not, however, appear in the Senate or take the oath until January 4, 1906.

Members-elect, it has been held, may defer until the meeting of Congress their choice between their seats and incompatible offices to which they may have been elected or appointed.20

The seat of a member who has accepted an incompatible office may be declared vacant by a majority vote.21