The Pittsburgh Press (October 23, 1941)
Background of news –
Secrecy in Congress
By editorial research reports
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding its hearings on the armed-ships bill in secret, as did the House Foreign Affairs Committee previously in its own hearings. But the Senate voted for secret hearings by a vote of only 12–9, and Senator Clark (D-MO), anti-interventionist, declared that he would not be bound by the secrecy rule.
The framers of the Constitution were no foes of secrecy, for they not only held their sessions in 1787 in secret, but also kept no full official record of proceedings which might afterwards be made public. And in providing that the Senate, rather than Congress as a while, was to pass upon treaties, they thought that the smaller body would better preserve secrecy on foreign relations (the first House of Representatives under the Constitution has one-third fewer members than the Senate today).
After only a week, the first House of Representatives threw its sessions open to the public, but the Senate sessions remained secret for almost four years. Even then, the Senate rules provided for closed executive sessions as the normal procedure on treaties and nominations. But in June 1929, the Senate rules were changed so as to provide for open discussion, unless secrecy were especially ordered on a treaty, nomination, or any other matter. The Senate took this action largely because the secrets were not being kept.
The Senate rules still provide that any Senator may be expelled (two-thirds vote):
…who shall disclose the secret or confidential business of proceedings of the Senate.
And back in 1844, Senator Benjamin Tappan of Ohio escaped expulsion only by apologizing to the Senate for having caused to be published in a New York newspaper the text of the pending treaty for the annexation of Texas. As it was, the Senate passed a resolution severely condemning Tappan.
But in later days, a difficult question arose when newspapers published partly erroneous roll-calls of a secret vote. A Senator could then hardly be blamed if he announced how he had voted, in order not to leave a false impression with the public; and if certain Senators were to announce how they had voted, it seemed foolish for other Senators not to act likewise.
As for treaties, even in the early days of the republic, they were apt to leak out when supposed to be secret. That was true of the contentious Jay Treaty with England in 1794. Copies of the Treaty of Versailles circulated in the United States for a month before President Wilson submitted it to the Senate. In 1848, a Washington correspondent sent to his paper the text of the pending treaty with Mexico, still under injunction of Senate secrecy. For his pains, he was put in the custody of the Sergeant at Arms for a month for having committed:
…a contempt against the authority of the Senate.