Manual of Parliamentary Practice - Rules of Proceeding and Debate in Deliberative Assemblies

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Title: Manual of Parliamentary Practice - Rules of Proceeding and Debate in Deliberative Assemblies
Author: Cushing, Luther S.
Language: English
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MANUAL OF PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE.

RULES
OF
PROCEEDING AND DEBATE
IN
DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLIES.

BY
LUTHER S. CUSHING.

REVISED BY
_FRANCES P. SULLIVAN._

NEW YORK:
M. J. IVERS & CO.
379 Pearl Street

AUTHOR’S STATEMENT.

The following treatise forms a part only of a much larger and more
comprehensive work, covering the whole ground of parliamentary law and
practice, which the author has for some time been engaged in
preparing; and which it is his intention to complete and publish, as
soon as possible. In the mean time, this little work has been
compiled, chiefly from the larger, at the request of the publishers,
and to supply a want which was supposed to exist to a considerable
extent.

The treatise, now presented to the public, is intended as a _Manual
for Deliberative Assemblies_ of every description, but more especially
for those which are not legislative in their character; though with
the exception of the principal points, in which legislative bodies
differ from others, namely, the several different stages or readings
of a bill, and conferences and amendments between the two branches,
this work will be found equally useful in legislative assemblies as in
others.

The only work which has hitherto been in general use in this country,
relating to the proceedings of legislative assemblies, is the
of the United States, for the use of the body over which he presided,
and which is familiarly known as _Jefferson’s Manual_. This work,
having been extensively used in our legislative bodies, and, in some
States, expressly sanctioned by law, may be said to form, as it were,
the basis of the common parliamentary law of this country. Regarding
it in that light, the author of the following treatise has considered
the principles and rules laid down by Mr. Jefferson (and which have
been adopted by him chiefly from the elaborate work of Mr. Hatsell) as
the established rules on this subject, and has accordingly made them
the basis of the present compilation, with an occasional remark, in a
note, by way of explanation or suggestion, whenever he deemed it
necessary.

Members of legislative bodies, who may have occasion to make use of
this work, will do well to bear in mind, that it contains only what
may be called the _common parliamentary law_; which, in every
legislative assembly, is more or less modified or controlled by
special rules.

L. S. C.
Boston, November 1, 1844.

PUBLISHER’S REMARKS.

This edition of Cushing’s _Manual of Parliamentary Practice_ has
annotations, etc., not to be found in any other edition of the Manual.
The old edition of course could not be improved upon, but there were
several passages in which the meaning could be brought out plainer by
notes illustrating them. This has been done, and the reader will find
that the notes will assist him materially.

In addition the Constitution of the United States has been added, and
as not a few references are made to it in the Manual, it will be found
to be an addition to the book not to be despised.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE
INTRODUCTION 9

CHAPTER I.—Of Certain Preliminary Matters 20
Sect. I. Quorum 20
Sect. II. Rules and Orders 22
Sect. III. Time of Meeting 23
Sect. IV. Principle of Decision 24

CHAPTER II.—Of the Officers 25
Sect. I. The Presiding Officer 26
Sect. II. The Recording Officer 28

CHAPTER III.—Of the Rights and Duties of Members 30

CHAPTER IV.—Of the Introduction of Business 34

CHAPTER V.—Of Motions in General 42

CHAPTER VI.—Of Motions To Suppress 45
Sect. I. Previous Question 46
Sect. II. Indefinite Postponement 50

CHAPTER VII.—Of Motions To Postpone 51

CHAPTER VIII.—Of Motions To Commit 52

CHAPTER IX.—Of Motions to Amend 54
Sect. I. Division of a Question 55
Sect. II. Filling Blanks 57
Sect. III. Addition—Separation—Transposition 60
Sect. IV. Modification, etc., by the Mover 61
Sect. V. General Rules relating to Amendments 62
Sect. VI. Amendments, by striking out 65
Sect. VII. Amendments, by inserting 69
Sect. VIII. Amendments, by striking out and inserting 71
Sect. IX. Amendments, changing the nature of a question 74

CHAPTER X.—Of the Order and Succession of Questions 79
Sect. I. Privileged Questions 80
Adjournment 81
Questions of Privilege 82
Orders of the Day 83
Sect. II. Incidental Questions 86
Questions of Order 86
Reading of Papers 88
Withdrawal of a Motion 91
Suspension of a Rule 91
Amendment of Amendments 92
Sect. III. Subsidiary Questions 93
Lie on the Table 95
Previous Question 96
Postponement 97
Commitment 98
Amendment 99

CHAPTER XI.—Of the Order of Proceeding 101

CHAPTER XII.—Of Order in Debate 108
Sect. I. As to the Manner of Speaking 109
Sect. II. As to the Matter in Speaking 112
Sect. III. As to Times of Speaking 115
Sect. IV. As to Stopping Debate 117
Sect. V. As to Decorum in Debate 119
Sect. VI. As to Disorderly Words 120

CHAPTER XIII.—Of the Question 124

CHAPTER XIV.—Of Reconsideration 135

CHAPTER XV.—Of Committees 138
Sect. I. Their Nature and Functions 138
Sect. II. Their Appointment 141
Sect. III. Their Organization, etc. 145
Sect. IV. Their Report 150
Sect. V. Committee of the Whole 155

CONCLUDING REMARKS 161

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 165

PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE.

INTRODUCTION.

1. The purposes, whatever they may be, for which a deliberative
assembly of any kind is constituted, can only be effected by
ascertaining the sense or will of the assembly, in reference to the
several subjects submitted to it, and by embodying that sense or will
in an intelligible, authentic, and authoritative form. To do this, it
is necessary, in the first place, that the assembly should be properly
constituted and organized; and, secondly, that it should conduct its
proceedings according to certain rules, and agreeably to certain
forms, which experience has shown to be the best adapted to the
purpose.

2. Some deliberative assemblies, especially those which consist of
permanently established bodies, such as municipal and other
corporations, are usually constituted and organized, at least, in
part, in virtue of certain legal provisions; while others, of an
occasional or temporary character, such as conventions and political
meetings, constitute and organize themselves on their assembling
together for the purposes of their appointment.

3. The most usual and convenient mode of organizing a deliberative
assembly is the following:—The members being assembled together, in
the place, and at the time appointed for their meeting, one of them
addressing himself to the others, requests them to come to order; the
members thereupon seating themselves, and giving their attention to
him, he suggests the propriety and necessity of their being organized,
before proceeding to business, and requests the members to nominate
some person to act as chairman of the meeting; a name or names being
thereupon mentioned, he declares that such a person (whose name was
first heard by him) is nominated for chairman, and puts a question
that the person so named be requested to take the chair. If this
question should be decided in the negative, another nomination is then
to be called for, and a question put upon the name mentioned (being
that of some other person) as before, and so on until a choice is
effected. When a chairman is elected, he takes the chair, and proceeds
in the same manner to complete the organization of the assembly, by
the choice of a secretary and such other officers, if any, as may be
deemed necessary.

4. An organization, thus effected, may be, and frequently is,
sufficient for all the purposes of the meeting; but if, for any
reason, it is desired to have a greater number of officers, or to have
them selected with more deliberation, it is the practice to organize
temporarily, in the manner above mentioned, and then to refer the
subject of a permanent organization, and the selection of persons to
be nominated for the several offices, to a committee; upon whose
report, the meeting proceeds to organize itself, conformably thereto,
or in such other manner as it thinks proper.

[“In Congress, and all the lower houses of the State legislatures, and
a few of the State senates, the presiding officer is called the
_Speaker_; while in the United States Senate and a number of State
senates the name _President_ is used.”—Ed.]

5. The presiding officer is usually denominated the _president_, and
the recording officer, the _secretary_; though, sometimes, these
officers are designated, respectively, as the _chairman_ and _clerk_.
It is not unusual, besides a president, to have one or more
vice-presidents; who take the chair, occasionally, in the absence of
the president from the assembly, or when he withdraws from the chair
to take part in the proceedings as a member; but who, at other times,
though occupying seats with the president, act merely as members. It
is frequently the case, also, that several persons are appointed
secretaries, in which case, the first named is considered as the
principal officer. All the officers are, ordinarily, members of the
assembly[1]; and, as such, entitled to participate in the proceedings;
except that the presiding officer does not usually engage in the
debate, and votes only when the assembly is equally divided.

6. In all deliberative assemblies, the members of which are chosen or
appointed to represent others, it is necessary, before proceeding to
business, to ascertain who are duly elected and returned as members;
in order not only that no person may be admitted to participate in the
proceedings who is not regularly authorized to do so, but also that a
list of the members may be made for the use of the assembly and its
officers.

7. The proper time for this investigation is after the temporary and
before the permanent organization; or, when the assembly is
permanently organized, in the first instance, before it proceeds to
the transaction of any other business; and the most convenient mode of
conducting it is by the appointment of a committee, to receive and
report upon the credentials of the members. The same committee may
also be charged with the investigation of rival claims, where any such
are presented.

8. When a question arises, involving the right of a member to his
seat, such member is entitled to be heard on the question, and he is
then to withdraw from the assembly until it is decided; but if, by the
indulgence of the assembly, he remains in his place, during the
discussion, he ought neither to take any further part in it, nor to
vote when the question is proposed; it being a fundamental rule of all
deliberative assemblies, that those members, whose rights as such are
not yet set aside, constitute a judicial tribunal to decide upon the
cases of those whose rights of membership are called in question. Care
should always be taken, therefore, in the selection of the officers,
and in the appointment of committees, to name only those persons whose
rights as members are not objected to.

9. The place where an assembly is held being in its possession, and
rightfully appropriated to its use, no person is entitled to be
present therein, but by the consent of the assembly; and,
consequently, if any person refuse to withdraw, when ordered to do so,
or conduct himself in a disorderly or improper manner, the assembly
may unquestionably employ sufficient force to remove such person from
the meeting.

10. Every deliberative assembly, by the mere fact of its being
assembled and constituted, does thereby necessarily adopt and become
subject to those rules and forms of proceeding, without which it would
be impossible for it to accomplish the purposes of its creation. It is
perfectly competent, however, for every such body—and where the
business is of considerable interest and importance, or likely to
require some time for its accomplishment, it is not unusual—to adopt
also certain special rules for the regulation of its proceedings.
Where this is the case, these latter supersede the ordinary
parliamentary rules, in reference to all points to which they relate;
or add to them in those particulars in reference to which there is no
parliamentary rule; leaving what may be called the common
parliamentary law in full force in all other respects.

11. The rules of parliamentary proceedings in this country are derived
from, and essentially the same with, those of the British parliament;
though, in order to adapt these rules to the circumstances and wants
of our legislative assemblies, they have, in some few respects, been
changed,—in others, differently applied,—and in others, again,
extended beyond their original intention. To these rules, each
legislative assembly is accustomed to add a code of its own, by which,
in conjunction with the former, its proceedings are regulated. The
rules, thus adopted by the several legislative assemblies, having been
renewed in successive legislatures,—with such extensions,
modifications and additions as have been from time to time, thought
necessary,—the result is, that a system of parliamentary rules has
been established in each State, different in some particulars from
those of every other State, but yet founded in and embracing all the
essential rules of the common parliamentary law.

12. The rules of proceeding, in each State, being of course best known
by the citizens of that State, it has sometimes happened in
deliberative assemblies, that the proceedings have been conducted not
merely according to the general parliamentary law, but also in
conformity with the peculiar system of the State in which the assembly
was sitting, or of whose citizens it was composed. This, however, is
erroneous; as no occasional assembly can ever be subject to any other
rules, than those which are of general application, or which it
specially adopts for its own government; and the rules adopted and
practised upon by a legislative assembly do not thereby acquire the
character of general laws.

13. The judgment, opinion, sense, or will of a deliberate assembly is
expressed, according to the nature of the subject, either by a
resolution, order, or vote. When it commands, it is by an _order_; but
facts, principles, its own opinions, or purposes, are most properly
expressed in the form of a _resolution_; the term _vote_ may be
applied to the result of every question decided by the assembly. In
whatever form, however, a question is proposed, or by whatever name it
may be called, the mode of proceeding is the same.

14. The judgment or will of any number of persons, considered as an
aggregate body, is that which is evidenced by the consent or agreement
of the greater number of them; and the only mode by which this can be
ascertained, in reference to any particular subject, is for some one
of them to begin by submitting to the others a proposition, expressed
in such a form of words, that, if assented to by the requisite number,
it will purport to express the judgment or will of the assembly. This
proposition will then form a basis for the further proceedings of the
assembly; to be assented to, rejected, or modified, according as it
expresses or not, or may be made to express the sense of a majority of
the members. The different proceedings which take place, from the
first submission of a proposition, through all the changes it may
undergo, until the final decision of the assembly upon it, constitute
the subject of the rules of debate and proceeding in deliberative
assemblies.

15. If the proceedings of a deliberative assembly were confined to the
making of propositions by the individual members, and their acceptance
or rejection by the votes of the assembly, there would be very little
occasion for rules in such a body. But this is not the case. The
functions of the members are not limited to giving an affirmative or
negative to such questions as are proposed to them. When a proposition
is made, if it be not agreed to or rejected at once, the assembly may
be unwilling to consider and act upon it at all; or it may wish to
postpone the consideration of the subject to a future time; or it may
be willing to adopt the proposition with certain modifications; or,
lastly, approving the subject-matter, but finding it presented in so
crude, imperfect, or objectionable a form, that it cannot in that
state be considered at all, the assembly may desire to have the
proposition further examined and digested, before being presented. In
order to enable the assembly to take whichever of the courses above
indicated it may think proper, and then to dispose of every
proposition in a suitable manner, certain motions or forms of question
have been invented, which are perfectly adapted for the purpose, and
are in common use in all deliberative assemblies.

1. In legislative bodies, the clerk is seldom or never a member; and,
in some, the presiding officer is not a member; as, for example,
in the Senate of the United States, the Senate of New York, and in
some other State senates.

CHAPTER I.

OF CERTAIN PRELIMINARY MATTERS.

16. Before entering upon the subject of the forms and rules of
proceeding, in the transaction of business, it will be convenient to
consider certain matters of a preliminary nature, which are more or
less essential to the regularity, dispatch, and efficiency of the
proceedings.

Section I. Quorum.[2]

17. In all councils, and other collective bodies of the same kind, it
is necessary, that a certain number, called a quorum, of the members,
should meet and be present, in order to the transaction of business.
This regulation has been deemed essential to secure fairness of
proceedings; and to prevent matters from being concluded in a hasty
manner, or agreed to by so small a number of the members, as not to
command a due and proper respect.

18. The number necessary to constitute a quorum of any assembly may be
fixed by law, as is the case with most of our legislative assemblies;
or by usage, as in the English House of Commons; or it may be fixed by
the assembly itself; but if no rule is established on the subject, in
any of these ways, a majority of the members composing the assembly is
the requisite number.

19. No business can regularly be entered upon until a quorum is
present; nor can any business be regularly proceeded with when it
appears that the members present are reduced below that number;
consequently, the presiding officer ought not to take the chair until
the proper number is ascertained to be present; and if, at any time,
in the course of the proceedings, notice is taken that a quorum is not
present, and, upon the members being counted by the presiding officer,
such appears to be the fact, the assembly must be immediately
adjourned.[3]

Sect. II. Rules and Orders.

20. Every deliberative assembly, as has already been observed, is, by
the fact alone of its existence, subject to those rules of proceeding,
without which it could not accomplish the purposes of its creation. It
may also provide rules for itself, either in the form of a general
code established beforehand, or by the adoption, from time to time,
during its sitting, of such special rules as it may find necessary.

21. When a code of rules is adopted beforehand, it is usual also to
provide therein as to the mode in which they may be amended, repealed,
or dispensed with. Where there is no such provision, it will be
competent for the assembly to act at any time, and in the usual
manner, upon questions of amendment or repeal; but in reference to
dispensing with a rule, or suspending it, in a particular case, if
there is no express provision on the subject, it seems that it can
only be done by general consent.[4]

22. When any of the rules, adopted by the assembly, or in force,
relative to its manner of proceeding, is disregarded or infringed,
every member has the right to take notice thereof and to require that
the presiding officer, or any other whose duty it is, shall carry such
rule into execution; and, in that case, the rule must be enforced, at
once, without debate or delay. It is then too late to alter, repeal,
or suspend the rule; so long as any one member insists upon its
execution, it must be enforced.

Sect. III. Time of Meeting.

23. Every assembly, which is not likely to finish its business at one
sitting, will find it convenient to come to some order or resolution
beforehand, as to the time of reassembling, after an adjournment; it
being generally embarrassing to fix upon the hour for this purpose, at
the time when the sitting is about to close, and in connection with
the motion to adjourn.

Sect. IV. Principle of Decision.

24. The principle, upon which the decisions of all aggregate bodies,
such as councils, corporations, and deliberative assemblies, are made,
is that of the majority of votes or suffrages; and this rule holds not
only in reference to questions and subjects, which admit only of an
affirmative on one side, and a negative on the other, but also in
reference to elections in which more than two persons may receive the
suffrages.

25. But this rule may be controlled by a special rule in reference to
some particular subject or question; by which any less number than a
majority may be admitted, or any greater number required to express
the will of the assembly. Thus, it is frequently provided, in
legislative assemblies, that one third or one fourth only of the
members shall be sufficient to require the taking of a question by
yeas and nays,[5] and, on the other hand, that no alteration shall
take place in any of the rules and orders, without the consent of at
least two thirds, or even a larger number.

2. [“The term _quorum_ (literally, _of whom_) is one of the words
used in England in the Latin form of the commission to justices of
the peace. The part of the document wherein the word occurs reads
thus: ‘We have assigned you, and every two or more of you, _quorum
aliquem vestrum_, A, B, C, D, etc., _unum esse volumus_.—i.e. _of
whom_ we will that any of you A, B or C, etc., shall be one.’ This
made it necessary that certain individuals, who, in the language
of the commission, were said to be of the _quorum_, should be
present during the transaction of business.”—_Blackstone’s
Commentaries_, I. 352.]

3. “Some legislative bodies have by law given a smaller number than a
quorum the power to compel the attendance of absent members.”—Ed.

4. “A motion to suspend the rules is not debatable.”—Ed.

5. “In the United States, the number of members competent to demand
that a question be taken by yeas and nays, is decided for Congress
and for State legislatures by constitutional provision.

In the Constitution of the United States, the number is one fifth;
some of the State constitutions give this power to one fifth, some
to three members; some to two, and some to one.”—Ed.

CHAPTER II.

OF THE OFFICERS.

26. The usual and necessary officers of a deliberative assembly are
those already mentioned, namely, a presiding, and a recording,
officer; both of whom are elected or appointed by the assembly itself,
and removable at its pleasure. These officers are always to be elected
by absolute majorities, even in those States in which elections are
usually effected by a plurality, for the reason, that, being removable
at the pleasure of the assembly, if any number short of a majority
were to elect, a person elected by any such less number would not be
able to retain his office for a moment; inasmuch as he might be
instantly removed therefrom, on a question made for that purpose, by
the votes of those who had voted for other persons on the election;
and it is essential to the due and satisfactory performance of the
functions of these officers, that they should possess the confidence
of the assembly, which they cannot be said to do, unless they have the
suffrages of at least a majority.

Sect. I. The Presiding Officer.

27. The principal duties of this officer are the following:—

To open the sitting, at the time to which the assembly is adjourned,
by taking the chair and calling the members to order;

To announce the business before the assembly in the order in which it
is to be acted upon;

To receive and submit, in the proper manner, all motions and
propositions presented by the members;

To put to vote all questions, which are regularly moved, or
necessarily arise in the course of the proceedings, and to announce
the result;

To restrain the members, when engaged in debate, within the rules of
order;

To enforce on all occasions the observance of order and decorum among
the members;

To receive all messages and other communications and announce them to
the assembly;

To authenticate, by his signature, when necessary, all the acts,
orders, and proceedings of the assembly;

To inform the assembly, when necessary, or when referred to for the
purpose, in a point of order or practice;

To name the members (when directed to do so in a particular case, or
when it is made a part of his general duty by a rule,) who are to
serve on committees; and, in general,

To represent and stand for the assembly, declaring its will, and, in
all things, obeying implicitly its commands.

28. If the assembly is organized by the choice of a president, and
vice-presidents, it is the duty of one of the latter to take the
chair, in case of the absence of the president from the assembly, or
of his withdrawing from the chair for the purpose of participating in
the proceedings.

29. Where but one presiding officer is appointed, in the first
instance, his place can only be supplied, in case of his absence, by
the appointment of a president or chairman _pro tempore_; and, in the
choice of this officer, who ought to be elected before any other
business is done, it is the duty of the secretary to conduct the
proceedings.

30. The presiding officer may read sitting, but should rise to state a
motion, or put a question to the assembly.

Sect. II. The Recording Officer.

31. The principal duties of this officer consists in taking notes of
all the proceedings and in making true entries in his journal of all
“the things done and past” in the assembly; but he is not, in general,
required to take minutes of “particular men’s speeches,” or to make
entries of things merely proposed or moved, without coming to a vote.
He is to enter what is done and past, but not what is said or moved.
This is the rule in legislative assemblies. In others, though the
spirit of the rule ought to be observed, it is generally expected of
the secretary, that his record shall be both a journal and in some
sort a report of the proceedings.

32. It is also the duty of the secretary to read all papers, etc.,
which may be ordered to be read; to call the roll of the assembly, and
take note of those who are absent, when a call is ordered; to call the
roll and note the answers of the members, when a question is taken by
yeas and nays; to notify committees of their appointment and of the
business referred to them; and to authenticate by his signature
(sometimes alone and sometimes in conjunction with the president) all
the acts, orders, and proceedings of the assembly.

33. The clerk is also charged with the custody of all the papers and
documents of every description, belonging to the assembly, as well as
the journal of its proceedings, and is to let none of them be taken
from the table by any member or other person, without the leave or
order of the assembly.

34. When but a single secretary or clerk is appointed, his place can
only be supplied, during his absence, by the appointment of some one
to act _pro tempore_. When several persons are appointed, this
inconvenience is not likely to occur.

35. The clerk should stand while reading or calling the assembly.

CHAPTER III.

OF THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF THE MEMBERS.

36. The rights and duties of the members of a deliberative assembly,
as regards one another, are founded in and derived from the principle
of their absolute equality among themselves. Every member, however
humble he may be, has the same right with every other, to submit his
propositions to the assembly,—to explain and recommend them in
discussion,—and to have them patiently examined and deliberately
decided upon by the assembly; and, on the other hand, it is the duty
of every one so to conduct himself, both in debate and in his general
deportment in the assembly, as not to obstruct any other member, in
the enjoyment of his equal rights. The rights and duties of the
members require to be explained only in reference to words spoken in
debate (whether spoken of a member or otherwise) and to general
deportment. The first will be most conveniently noticed in the chapter
on debate; the other will be considered in this place.

37. The observance of decorum, by the members of a deliberative
assembly, is not only due to themselves and to one another, as
gentlemen assembled together to deliberate on matters of common
importance and interest, but is also essential to the regular and
satisfactory proceeding of such an assembly. The rules on this
subject, though generally laid down with reference to decorum in
debate, are equally applicable whether the assembly be at the time
engaged in debate or not; and, therefore, it may be stated, generally,
that no member is to disturb another, or the assembly itself, by
hissing, coughing, or spitting; by speaking or whispering to other
members; by standing up to the interruption of others; by passing
between the presiding officer and a member speaking; going across the
assembly room, or walking up and down in it; taking books or papers
from the table, or writing there.

38. All these breaches of decorum are doubtless aggravated by being
committed while the assembly is engaged in debate, though equally
contrary to the rules of propriety, under any other circumstances.
Assaults, by one member upon another,—threats,—challenges,—affrays,
etc., are also high breaches of decorum.

39. It is also a breach of decorum for a member to come into the
assembly room with his head covered, or to remove from one place to
another with his hat on, or to put his hat on in coming in or
removing, or until he has taken his seat; and, in many assemblies,
especially those which consist of a small number of members, it is not
the custom to have the head covered at all.

40. In all instances of irregular and disorderly deportment it is
competent for every member, and is the special duty of the presiding
officer, to complain to the assembly, or to take notice of the
offence, and call the attention of the assembly to it. When a
complaint of this kind is made by the presiding officer, he is said to
_name_ the member offending; that is, he declares to the assembly,
that such a member, calling him by name, is guilty of certain
irregular or improper conduct. The member, who is thus charged with an
offence against the assembly, is entitled to be heard in his place in
exculpation, and is then to withdraw. Being withdrawn, the presiding
officer states the offence committed, and the assembly proceeds to
consider of the degree and amount of punishment to be inflicted. The
assembly may allow the member complained of to remain, when he offers
to withdraw; or, on the other hand, it may require him to withdraw, if
he do not offer to do so of his own accord. The proceedings are
similar, when the complaint is made by a member, except that the
offence is stated by such member, instead of being stated by the
presiding officer.

41. No member ought to be present in the assembly, when any matter of
business concerning himself is debating; nor, if present, by the
indulgence of the assembly, ought he to vote on any such question.
Whether the matter in question concern his private interest, or relate
to his conduct as a member,—as for a breach of order, or, for matter
arising in debate,—as soon as it is fairly before the assembly, the
member is to be heard in exculpation and then to withdraw, until the
matter is settled. If, notwithstanding, a member should remain in the
assembly and vote, his vote may and ought to be disallowed; it being
contrary, not only to the laws of decency, but to the fundamental
principle of the social compact, that a man should sit and act as a
judge in his own case.

42. The only punishments, which can be inflicted upon its members by a
deliberative assembly of the kind now under consideration, consist of
reprimanding,—exclusion from the assembly,—a prohibition to speak or
vote, for a specified time,—and expulsion; to which are to be added
such other forms of punishment, as by apology, begging pardon, etc.,
as the assembly may see fit to impose, and to require the offender to
submit to, on pain of expulsion.

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE INTRODUCTION OF BUSINESS.

43. The proceedings of a deliberative assembly, in reference to any
particular subject, are ordinarily set in motion, in the first
instance, by some one of the members either presenting a communication
from persons not members, or himself submitting a proposition to the
assembly.

44. Communications made to the assembly are of two kinds, namely,
those which are merely for its information in matters of fact, and
those which contain a request for some action on the part of the
assembly, either of a general nature, or for the benefit of an
individual. The latter only, as they alone constitute a foundation for
future proceedings, require to be noticed.

45. Propositions made by members are drawn up and introduced, by
motion, in the form which they are intended by the mover to bear, as
orders, resolutions, or votes, if they should be adopted by the
assembly. These propositions, of whatever nature they may be, are
usually denominated motions, until they are adopted; they then take
the name which properly belongs to them.

46. When a member has occasion to make any communication whatever to
the assembly,—whether to present a petition or other paper, or to make
or second a motion of any kind, or merely to make a verbal
statement,—as well as when one desires to address the assembly in
debate, he must in the first place, as the expression is, “obtain the
floor” for the purpose he has in view. In order to do this, he must
rise in his place,[6] and, standing uncovered, address himself to the
presiding officer, by his title; the latter, on hearing himself thus
addressed, calls to the member by his name; and the member may then,
but not before, proceed with his business.

47. If two or more members rise and address themselves to the
presiding officer, at the same time, or nearly so, he should give the
floor to the member, whose voice he first heard. If his decision
should not be satisfactory, any member may call it in question, saying
that in his opinion such a member (not the one named) was first up,
and have the sense of the assembly taken thereon, as to which of the
members should be heard. In this case, the question should be first
taken upon the name of the member announced by the presiding officer;
and, if this question should be decided in the negative, then upon the
name of the member for whom the floor was claimed in opposition to
him.

48. The mode of proceeding upon such communications from persons not
members, as are above alluded to, may be explained by that adopted on
the presentation of a petition, which may be considered as the
representative of the whole class to which it belongs.

49. A petition, in order to be received, should be subscribed by the
petitioner himself, with his own hand, either by name or mark, except
in case of inability from sickness, or because the petitioner is
attending in person; and should be presented or offered, not by the
petitioner himself, but by some member to whom it is intrusted for
that purpose.

50. The member, who presents a petition, should previously have
informed himself of its contents, so as to be able to state the
substance of it, on offering it to the assembly, and also to be
prepared to say, if any question should be made, that in his judgment
it is couched in proper language, and contains nothing intentionally
disrespectful to the assembly.

51. Being thus prepared, the member rises in his place, with the
petition in his hand, and informs the assembly that he has a certain
petition, stating the substance of it, which he thereupon presents or
offers to the assembly, and, at the same time, moves (which, however,
may be done by any other member) that it be received; the motion being
seconded, the question is put whether the assembly will receive the
petition or not. This is the regular course of proceeding; but, in
practice there is seldom any question made on receiving a petition;
the presiding officer usually taking it for granted, that there is no
objection to the reception, unless it be stated. If, however, any
objection is made to a petition, before it has been otherwise disposed
of, the presiding officer ought to retrace his steps and require a
motion of reception to be regularly made and seconded.

52. If the question of reception is determined in the affirmative, the
petition is brought up to the table by the member presenting it; and
is there read as of course by the clerk. It is then regularly before
the assembly, to be dealt with as it thinks proper; the usual course
being either to proceed to consider the subject of it immediately, or
to assign some future time for its consideration, or to order it to
lie on the table for the examination and consideration of the members
individually.

53. Whenever a member introduces a proposition of his own, for the
consideration of the assembly, he puts it into the form he desires it
should have, and then moves that it be adopted as the resolution,
order, or vote of the assembly. If this proposition so far meets the
approbation of other members, that one of them rises in his place and
seconds it, it may then be put to the question; and the result,
whether affirmative or negative, becomes the judgment of the assembly.

54. A motion must be submitted in writing; otherwise the presiding
officer will be justified in refusing to receive it; he may do so,
however, if he pleases, and is willing to take the trouble himself to
reduce it to writing. This rule extends only to principal motions,
which, when adopted, become the act and express the sense of the
assembly; but not to subsidiary or incidental motions[7] which merely
enable the assembly to dispose of the former in the manner it desires,
and which are always in the same form. In the case of a motion to
amend, which is a subsidiary motion, the rule admits of an exception,
so far as regards the insertion of additional words, which, as well as
the principal motion, must be in writing.

55. A motion must also be seconded, that is, approved by some one
member, at least, expressing his approval by rising and saying, that
he seconds the motion; and if a motion be not seconded, no notice
whatever is to be taken of it by the presiding officer; though, in
practice, very many motions, particularly those which occur in the
ordinary routine of business, are admitted without being seconded.
This rule applies as well to subsidiary as principal motions. The
seconding of a motion seems to be required, on the ground, that the
time of the assembly ought not to be taken up by a question, which,
for anything that appears, has no one in its favor but the mover.
There are some apparent exceptions to this rule, which will be stated
hereafter, in those cases, in which one member alone has the right of
instituting or giving direction to a particular proceeding; and an
actual exception is sometimes made by a special rule, requiring
certain motions to be seconded by more than one member.

56. When a motion has been made and seconded, it is then to be stated
by the presiding officer to the assembly, and thus becomes a question
for its decision; and, until so stated, it is not in order for any
other motion to be made,[8] or for any member to speak to it; but,
when moved, seconded, and stated from the chair, a motion is in the
possession of the assembly, and cannot be withdrawn by the mover, but
by special leave of the assembly, which must be obtained by a motion
made and seconded as in other cases.

57. When a motion is regularly before the assembly, it is the duty of
the presiding officer to state it if it be not in writing, or to cause
it to be read, if it be, as often as any member desires to have it
stated or read for his information.

58. When a motion or proposition is regularly before the assembly, no
other motion can be received, unless it be one which is previous in
its nature to the question under consideration, and consequently
entitled to take its place for the time being, and be first decided.

6. In the house of representatives of Massachusetts, where each
member’s seat is regularly assigned to him, and numbered, it has
been found useful, in deciding upon the claims of several
competitors for the floor, to prefer one who rises in his place,
to a member who addresses the speaker from the area, the
passageways, or the seat of any other member.

7. Such as, to adjourn,—lie on the table,—for the previous
question,—for postponement,—commitment, etc.

8. “A member can make but one motion at a time. The contrary has been
allowed in Congress, and has grown to be a common usage; e.g., as,
when a member makes a motion, and then moves in the same breath
that his own motion be laid on the table.

This is a great abuse; and the bad example of Congress should not
be followed by other assemblies. In such a case, the presiding
officer should entertain the former motion, and treat the latter
as if it had not been made.”

CHAPTER V.

OF MOTIONS IN GENERAL.

59. When a proposition is made to a deliberative assembly, for its
adoption, the proposition may be in such a form as to be put to the
question, and the assembly may be in such a state as to be willing to
come to a decision upon it, at once; and when this is the case,
nothing more can be necessary than to take the votes of the members,
and ascertain the result. But a different state of things may and
commonly does exist; the assembly may prefer some other course of
proceeding to an immediate decision of the question in the form in
which it is presented; and, as it is proper, that every parliamentary
body should have the means of fitly disposing of every proposition
which may be made to it, certain forms of question have from time to
time been invented, and are now in general use, for that purpose.
These forms of question may properly be called _subsidiary_, in order
to distinguish them from the principal motion or question to which
they relate.

60. The different states of mind, in which a proposition may be
received by a deliberative assembly, and the corresponding forms of
proceeding, or subsidiary motions, to which they give rise, in order
to ascertain the sense of the assembly, are the following:

_First._ The assembly may look upon the proposition as useless or
inexpedient; and may therefore desire to suppress it, either for a
time, or altogether. The subsidiary motions, for this purpose, are the
previous question, and indefinite postponement.

_Second._ The assembly may be willing to entertain and consider of a
proposition, but not at the time when it is made; either because more
information is wanted by the members individually; or because they
desire further time for reflection and examination: or because the
assembly is then occupied with some other matter, which has more
pressing claims upon its present attention. The usual motions, under
such circumstances, are postponement to some future day or time, and
to lie on the table.

_Third._ The subject-matter of a proposition may be regarded with
favor, but the form in which it is introduced may be so defective,
that a more careful and deliberate consideration, than can
conveniently be given to it in the assembly itself, may be necessary
to put it into a satisfactory form. In this case, it is most proper to
refer the proposition to a committee.

_Fourth._ The proposition may be acceptable, and the form in which it
is presented so far satisfactory, that the assembly may be willing to
consider and act upon it, with such alterations and amendments as may
be thought proper. The motion adapted to this case is to amend.

61. It is not to be supposed that the subsidiary motions above
specified are the only ones that have at any time been adopted or
used; or that it is not competent to a deliberative assembly to frame
new motions at pleasure; but these are the forms in most common use,
and are entirely sufficient for all practical purposes.[9] Neither is
it to be supposed, that these motions are always applied strictly to
the cases to which they most appropriately belong; several of them are
frequently used to effect purposes, for which others would be more
proper. These misapplications will be taken notice of, under the heads
of the several motions.

9. It is usual in legislative assemblies, to provide by a special
rule, both as to the particular motions to be used, and the order
in which they may be made. Thus, the rule in the house of
representatives of Congress (which is also adopted in the house of
representatives of Massachusetts), is, that, “when a question is
under debate, no motion shall be received, but to adjourn, to lie
on the table, for the previous question, to postpone to a day
certain, to commit, to amend, to postpone indefinitely, which
several motions shall have precedence in the order in which they
are arranged.”

CHAPTER VI.

OF MOTIONS TO SUPPRESS.

62. When a proposition is moved, which it is supposed may be regarded
by the assembly as useless or inexpedient, and which it may therefore
be desirous to get rid of, such proposition may be suppressed for a
time by means of the previous question, or altogether by a motion for
indefinite postponement.

Sect. I. Previous Question.

63. The original and proper parliamentary use of the previous question
being, as above stated, the suppression of a main question, it seems
proper to consider it as one of the subsidiary motions, for that
purpose; although, in this country, it has been perverted to a wholly
different use, namely, the suppression of debate. This consideration,
in connection with the difficulty of the subject, and the importance
of a correct understanding of it, makes it proper to devote more room
to the previous question, than needs to be given to most of the other
subsidiary motions. It will first be considered according to its
original use and intention: and, afterwards, as used in this country.

64. There are several motions, which give rise to questions previous
in their nature to other questions to which they relate; but the term
_previous_ has been applied exclusively to a motion denominated the
_previous question_, which has for its object the suppression of a
principal motion or question. This motion was introduced into the
house of commons in England, more than two centuries ago, for the
purpose of suppressing subjects of a delicate nature, relating to high
personages, or the discussion of which might call forth observations
of an injurious tendency. When first made use of, the form of the
motion was, _shall the main question be put?_ and the effect of a
decision of it in the negative was to suppress the main question for
the whole session. The form of it was afterwards changed to that which
it has at present, namely, _shall the main question be now put?_ and
the effect of a negative decision of it now is to suppress the main
question for the residue of the day only. The operation of this
motion, in suppressing the question to which it is applied, results
from the principle, that no further consideration or discussion can
regularly be had of a subject, which it has been decided shall not be
put to the question; and, therefore, when on the motion of the
previous question, it has been decided, that the principal question
shall not now be put, that question is disposed of for the day, and
cannot be renewed until the next or some succeeding day. This is the
purpose for which the previous question was originally invented, and
for which it is still used in the British parliament.

65. But the previous question may be decided in the affirmative, as
well as the negative, that is, that the main question shall now be
put; in which case, that question is to be put immediately, without
any further debate, and in the form in which it then exists. This
operation of the previous question, when decided affirmatively, has
led to the use of it for the purpose of suppressing debate on a
principal question, and coming to a vote upon it immediately; and this
is ordinarily the only object of the previous question as made use of
in the legislative assemblies of the United States.[10] The operation
of a negative decision is different in different assemblies; in some,
as, for example, in the house of representatives of Congress, it
operates to dispose of the principal or main question by suppressing
or removing it from before the house for the day; but in others, as in
the house of representatives of Massachusetts, and the house of
assembly of New York (in the former by usage only, and in the latter
by a rule), the effect of a negative decision of the previous question
is to leave the main question under debate for the residue of the
sitting, unless sooner disposed of by taking the question, or in some
other manner.

66. In England, the previous question is used only for suppressing a
main question; the object of the mover is to obtain a decision of it
in the negative; and the effect of such a decision, though in
strictness only to suppress the question for the day, is, practically
and by parliamentary usage, to dispose of the subject altogether. In
this country, the previous question is used chiefly for suppressing
debate on a main question; the object of the mover is to obtain a
decision of it in the affirmative; and the effect of a decision the
other way, though in some assemblies operating technically to suppress
the main question for the day only, is, in general, merely to suspend
the taking of the question for that day; either leaving the debate to
go on during the residue of the day, or the subject to be renewed on
the next or some other day. The operation of an affirmative decision
is the same, in both countries, namely, the putting of the main
question immediately, and without further debate, delay, or
consideration.

Sect. II. Indefinite Postponement.

67. In order to suppress a question altogether, without coming to a
direct vote upon it, in such a manner that it cannot be renewed, the
proper motion is for indefinite postponement; that is, a postponement
or adjournment of the question, without fixing any day for resuming
it. The effect of this motion, if decided in the affirmative, is to
quash the proposition entirely; as an indefinite adjournment is
equivalent to a dissolution, or the continuance of a suit, without
day, is a discontinuance of it. A negative decision has no effect
whatever.[11]

10. Mr. Jefferson (Manual, § xxxiv.) considers this extension of the
previous question as an abuse. He is of opinion that “its uses
would be as well answered by other more simple parliamentary
forms, and therefore it should not be favored, but restricted
within as narrow limits as possible.” Notwithstanding this
suggestion, however, the use of the previous question, as above
stated, has become so firmly established, that it cannot now be
disturbed or unsettled.

11. “The motion to indefinitely postpone cannot be amended. When a
motion to indefinitely postpone prevails, the proposition so
postponed con not be renewed during the session.”—Ed.

CHAPTER VII.

OF MOTIONS TO POSTPONE.

68. If the assembly is willing to entertain consider a question, but
not at the time when it is moved, the proper course is either to
postpone the subject to another day, or to order it to lie on the
table.

69. When the members individually want more information than they
possess, at the time a question is moved, or desire further time for
reflection and examination, the proper motion is, to postpone the
subject to such future day as will answer the views of the assembly.

70. This motion is sometimes used improperly, to get rid of a
proposition altogether, as would be done by an indefinite
postponement. This is effected by fixing upon a day, which, according
to the common course of things, will not arrive until after the
assembly has been brought to a close. But a motion, worded in this
manner, is precisely equivalent to a motion for indefinite
postponement, and should be so considered and treated.

71. If the assembly has something else before it, which claims its
present attention, and is therefore desirous to postpone a particular
proposition, until that subject is disposed of, such postponement may
be effected by means of a motion that the matter in question lie on
the table. If this motion prevails, the subject so disposed of may be
taken up, at any time afterwards, and considered, when it may suit the
convenience of the assembly.

72. This motion is also sometimes made use of for the final
disposition of a subject; and it always has that effect, when no
motion is afterwards made to take it up.[12]

12. “This motion (i.e., _to lie on the table_) is not debatable, and
is not subject to amendment.”—Ed.

CHAPTER VIII.

OF MOTIONS TO COMMIT.

73. The third case for the use of a subsidiary motion, as already
stated, occurs, when the subject-matter of a proposition is regarded
with favor, but the form in which it is introduced is so defective,
that a more careful and deliberate consideration is necessary, than
can conveniently be given to it in the assembly itself, in order to
put it into a satisfactory form. The course of proceeding then is, to
refer the subject to a committee; which is called a commitment, or, if
the subject has already been in the hands of a committee, a
recommitment.

74. If there is a standing committee of the assembly, whose functions
embrace the subject in question, the motion should be to refer it to
that committee; if there is no such committee, then the motion should
be to refer to a select committee. If it is a matter of doubt, whether
a particular standing committee is appropriate or not, and
propositions are made for a reference to that committee, and also for
a reference to a select committee, the former proposition should be
first put to the question.

75. When a subject is referred or recommitted, the committee may be
instructed or ordered by the assembly, as to any part or the whole of
the duties assigned them; or the subject may be left with them without
instructions. In the former case, the instructions must be obeyed, of
course; in the latter, the committee have full power over the matter,
and may report upon it, in any manner they please, provided they keep
within the recognized forms of parliamentary proceedings.

76. A part only of a subject may be committed, without the residue; or
different parts may be committed to different committees.

77. A commitment with instructions is sometimes made use of, as a
convenient mode of procuring further information, and, at the same
time, of postponing the consideration of a subject to a future though
uncertain day.

CHAPTER IX.

OF MOTIONS TO AMEND.

78. The last case, for the introduction of subsidiary motions, is when
the assembly is satisfied with the subject-matter of a proposition,
but not with the form of it, or with all its different parts, or
desires to make some addition to it. The course of proceeding then is,
to bring the proposition into the proper form, and make its details
satisfactory, by means of amendments, or of certain proceedings of a
similar character, and having the same general purpose in view. The
latter will be first considered.

Sect. I. Division of a Question.

79. When a proposition or motion is complicated, that is, composed of
two or more parts, which are so far independent of each other, as to
be susceptible of division into several questions, and it is supposed
that the assembly may approve of some but not of all these parts, it
is a compendious mode of amendment to divide the motion into separate
questions, to be separately voted upon and decided by the assembly.
This division may take place by the order of the assembly, on a motion
regularly made and seconded for the purpose.

80. When a motion is thus divided, it becomes a series of questions,
to be considered and treated each by itself, as an independent
proposition, in the order in which they stand; and when they have all
been gone through with and decided, the result will be the same, as if
motions to amend by striking out the several parts had been made and
put to the question. When a motion for a division is made, the mover
ought to specify in his motion the manner in which he proposes to make
the division; and this motion, like every other of the nature of an
amendment, is itself susceptible of amendment.

81. It is sometimes asserted, that it is the right of every individual
member to have a complicated question (provided it is susceptible of
division) divided into its several parts, and a question put
separately on each, on his mere demand, and without any motion or any
vote of the assembly for that purpose. But this is a mistake; there is
no such rule of parliamentary proceeding; a complicated question can
only be separated by moving amendments to it in the usual manner, or
by moving for a division of it in the manner above stated.

82. It is not unusual, however, for a deliberative assembly to have a
rule providing for the division of a complicated question (provided it
is susceptible of division) into its several parts, upon the demand of
a member. When this is the case, it is for the presiding officer
(subject of course to the revision of the assembly) to decide, when
the division of a motion is demanded, first, whether the proposition
is susceptible of division, and, secondly, into how many and what
parts it may be divided.

83. A proposition, in order to be divisible, must comprehend points so
distinct and entire, that, if one or more of them be taken away, the
others may stand entire and by themselves; but a qualifying paragraph,
as, for example, an exception or a proviso, if separated from the
general assertion or statement to which it belongs, does not contain
an entire point or proposition.

Sect. II. Filling Blanks.

84. It often happens, that a proposition is introduced with blanks
purposely left by the mover to be filled by the assembly, either with
times and numbers, or with provisions analogous to those of the
proposition itself. In the latter case, blanks are filled in the same
way, that other amendments by the insertion of words are made. In the
former, propositions to fill blanks are not considered as amendments
to the question, but as original motions, to be made and decided
before the principal question.

85. When a blank is left to be filled with a time or number, motions
may be made for that purpose, and the question taken on each by
itself, and before another is made; or several motions may be made and
pending before any of them are put to the question. This last mode of
proceeding, which is the most usual as well as convenient, requires
that the several propositions should be arranged, and the question
taken on them, in such order as will the soonest and with the most
certainty enable the assembly to come to an agreement.

86. In determining upon the order to be adopted, the object is not to
begin at that extreme, which and more being within every man’s wish,
no one can vote against it, and, yet, if it should be carried in the
affirmative, every question for more would be precluded; but, at that
extreme, which will be likely to unite the fewest, and then to advance
or recede, until a number or time is reached, which will unite a
majority.

87. Hence, when several different propositions are made for filling
blanks with a time or number, the rule is, that if the _larger_
comprehends the _lesser_, as in a question to what day a postponement
shall take place,—the number of which a committee shall consist,—the
amount of a fine to be imposed,—the term of an imprisonment,—the term
of irredeemability of a loan,—or the _terminus in quem_ in any other
case, the question must begin _a maximo_, and be first taken upon the
greatest or farthest, and so on to the least or nearest, until the
assembly comes to a vote: But, if the _lesser_ includes the _greater_,
as in questions on the limitation of the rate of interest,—on the
amount of a tax,—on what day the session of a legislative assembly
shall be closed, by adjournment,—on what day the next session shall
commence,—or the _terminus a quo_ in any other case, the question must
begin _a minimo_, and be first taken on the least or nearest, and so
on to the greatest or most remote, until the assembly comes to a
vote.[13]

Sect. III. Addition,—Separation, Transposition.

88. When the matters contained in two separate propositions might be
better put into one, the mode of proceeding is to reject one of them,
and then to incorporate the substance of it with the other by way of
amendment. A better mode, however, if the business of the assembly
will admit of its being adopted, is to refer both propositions to a
committee, with instructions to incorporate them together in one.

89. So, on the other hand, if the matter of one proposition would be
more properly distributed into two, any part of it may be struck out
by way of amendment, and put into the form of a new and distinct
proposition. But in this, as in the former case, a better mode would
generally be to refer the subject to a committee.

90. In like manner, if a paragraph or section requires to be
transposed, a question must be put on striking it out where it stands,
and another for inserting it in the place desired.

91. The numbers prefixed to the several sections, paragraphs, or
resolutions, which constitute a proposition, are merely marginal
indications, and no part of the text of the proposition itself; and,
if necessary, they may be altered or regulated by the clerk, without
any vote or order of the assembly.

Sect. IV. Modification or Amendment by the Mover.

92. The mover of a proposition is sometimes allowed to modify it,
after it has been stated as a question by the presiding officer; but,
as this is equivalent to a withdrawal of the motion, in order to
substitute another in its place; and, since, as has already been seen,
a motion regularly made, seconded, and proposed, cannot be withdrawn
without leave; it is clear, that the practice alluded to rests only
upon general consent; and, that, if objected to, the mover of a
proposition must obtain the permission of the assembly, by a motion
and question, for the purpose, in order to enable him to modify his
proposition.

93. So, too, when an amendment has been regularly moved and seconded,
it is sometimes the practice for the mover of the proposition to which
it relates to signify his consent to it, and for the amendment to be
thereupon made, without any question being taken upon it by the
assembly. As this proceeding, however, is essentially the same with
that described in the preceding paragraph, it, of course, rests upon
the same foundation, and is subject to the same rule.

Sect. V. General Rules relating to Amendments.

94. All amendments, of which a proposition is susceptible, so far as
form is concerned, may be effected in one of three ways, namely,
either by inserting or adding certain words; or by striking out
certain words; or by striking out certain words, and inserting or
adding others. These several forms of amendment are subject to certain
general rules, which, being equally applicable to them all, require to
be stated beforehand.

95. _First Rule._ When a proposition consists of several sections,
paragraphs, or resolutions, the natural order of considering and
amending it is to begin at the beginning, and to proceed through it in
course by paragraphs; and when a latter part has been amended, it is
not in order to recur back, and make any alteration or amendment of a
former part.

96. _Second Rule._ Every amendment, which can be proposed, whether by
striking out, or inserting, or striking out and inserting, is itself
susceptible of amendment; but, there can be no amendment of an
amendment to an amendment: this would be such a piling of questions
one upon another, as would lead to great embarrassment; and as the
line must be drawn somewhere, it has been fixed by usage after the
amendment to the amendment. The object, which is proposed to be
effected by such a proceeding, must be sought by rejecting the
amendment to the amendment, in the form in which it is proposed, and
then moving it again in the form in which it is wished to be amended,
in which it is only an amendment to an amendment; and in order to
accomplish this, he who desires to amend an amendment should give
notice, that, if rejected, in the form in which it is presented, he
shall move it again in the form in which he desires to have it
adopted.

97. Thus, if a proposition consists of A B, and it is proposed to
amend by inserting C D, it may be moved to amend the amendment by
inserting E F; but it cannot be moved to amend this amendment, as, for
example, by inserting G. The only mode, by which this can be reached,
is to reject the amendment in the form in which it is presented,
namely, to insert E F, and to move it in the form in which it is
desired to be amended, namely, to insert E G F.

98. _Third Rule._ Whatever is agreed to by the assembly, on a vote,
either adopting or rejecting a proposed amendment, cannot be
afterwards altered or amended.

99. Thus, if a proposition consists of A B, and it is moved to insert
C; if the amendment prevail, C cannot be afterwards amended, because
it has been agreed to in that form; and, so, if it is moved to strike
out B, and the amendment is rejected, B cannot afterwards be amended,
because a vote against striking it out is equivalent to a vote
agreeing to it as it stands.

100. _Fourth Rule._ Whatever is disagreed to by the assembly, on a
vote, cannot be afterwards moved again. This rule is the converse of
the preceding, and may be illustrated in the same manner.

101. Thus, if it is moved to amend A B by inserting C, and the
amendment is rejected, C cannot be moved again; or, if it is moved to
amend A B by striking out B, and the amendment prevails, B cannot be
restored; because, in the first case, C, and, in the other, B, have
been disagreed to by a vote.

102. _Fifth Rule._ The inconsistency or incompatibility of a proposed
amendment with one which has already been adopted, is a fit ground for
its rejection by the assembly, but not for the suppression of it by
the presiding officer, as against order; for, if questions of this
nature were allowed to be brought within the jurisdiction of the
presiding officer, as matters of order, he might usurp a negative on
important modifications, and suppress or embarrass instead of
subserving the will of the assembly.

Sect. VI. Amendments by striking out.

103. If an amendment is proposed by striking out a particular
paragraph or certain words, and the amendment is rejected, it cannot
be again moved to strike out the same words or a part of them; but it
may be moved to strike out the same words with others, or to strike
out a part of the same words with others, provided the coherence to be
struck out be so substantial, as to make these, in fact, different
propositions from the former.

104. Thus, if a proposition consist of A B C D, and it is moved to
strike out B C; if this amendment is rejected, it cannot be moved
again; but it may be moved to strike out A B, or A B C, or B C D or
C D.

105. If an amendment by striking out is agreed to, it cannot be
afterwards moved to insert the same words struck out or a part of
them; but it may be moved to insert the same words with others, or a
part of the same words with others, provided the coherence to be
inserted make these propositions substantially different from the
first.

106. Thus, if the proposition A B C D is amended by striking out B C,
it cannot be moved to insert B C again; but it may be moved to insert
B C with other words, or B with others or C with others.

107. When it is proposed to amend by striking out a particular
paragraph, it may be moved to amend this amendment, in three different
ways, namely, either by striking out a part only of the paragraph, or
by inserting or adding words, or by striking out and inserting.

108. Thus, if it is moved to amend the proposition A B C D, by
striking out B C, it may be moved to amend this amendment by striking
out B only or C only, or by inserting E, or by striking out B or C,
and inserting E.

109. In the case of a proposed amendment by striking out, the effect
of voting upon it, whether it be decided in the affirmative or
negative according to the third and fourth rules above mentioned,
renders it necessary for those who desire to retain the paragraph to
amend it, if any amendment is necessary, before the vote is taken on
striking out; as, if struck out, it cannot be restored, and, if
retained, it cannot be amended.

110. As an amendment must necessarily be put to the question before
the principal motion; so the question must be put on an amendment to
an amendment before it is put on the amendment; but, as this is the
extreme limit to which motions may be put upon one another, there can
be no precedence of one over another among amendments to amendments;
and, consequently, they can only be moved, one at a time, or, at all
events, must be put to the question in the order in which they are
moved.

111. When a motion for striking out words is put to the question, the
parliamentary form always is, whether the words shall _stand as part_
of the principal motion, and not whether they _shall be struck out_.
The reason for this form of stating the question probably is, that the
question may be taken in the same manner on a part as on the whole of
the principal motion; which would not be the case, if the question was
stated on striking out; inasmuch as the question on the principal
motion, when it comes to be stated, will be on agreeing to it, and not
on striking out or rejecting it. Besides, as an equal division of the
assembly would produce a different decision of the question, according
to the manner of stating it, it might happen, if the question on the
amendment was stated on striking out, that the same question would be
decided both affirmatively and negatively by the same vote.[14]

112. On a motion to amend by striking out certain words, the manner of
stating the question is, first to read the passage proposed to be
amended, as it stands; then the words proposed to be struck out; and,
lastly, the whole passage as it will stand if the amendment is
adopted.

Sect. VII. Amendments by inserting.

113. If an amendment is proposed by inserting or adding a paragraph or
words, and the amendment is rejected, it cannot be moved again to
insert the same words or a part of them; but it may be moved to insert
the same words with others, or a part of the same words with others,
provided the coherence really make them different propositions.

114. Thus, if it is moved to amend the proposition A B by inserting
C D, and the amendment is rejected, C D cannot be again moved; but it
may be moved to insert C E, or D E, or C D E.

115. If it is proposed to amend by inserting a paragraph, and the
amendment prevails, it cannot be afterwards moved to strike out the
same words or a part of them; but it may be moved to strike out the
same words with others,[15] or a part of the same words with others,
provided the coherence be such as to make these propositions really
different from the first.

116. Thus, if in the example above supposed the amendment prevails,
and C D is inserted it cannot be afterwards moved to strike out C D,
but it may be moved to strike out A C or A C D, or D B, or C D B.

117. When it is proposed to amend by inserting a paragraph, this
amendment may be amended in three different ways, namely, either by
striking out a part of the paragraph; or by inserting something into
it; or by striking out and inserting.

118. Thus, if it is proposed to amend A B by inserting C D, this
amendment may be amended either by striking out C or D, or inserting
E, or by striking out C or D and inserting E.

119. When it is proposed to amend by inserting a paragraph, those who
are in favor of the amendment should amend it, if necessary, before
the question is taken; because if it is rejected, it cannot be moved
again, and, if received, it cannot be amended.

120. There is no precedence of one over another in amendments to
amendments by inserting, any more than in amendments to amendments by
striking out.

121. On a motion to amend by inserting a paragraph, the manner of
stating the question is, first, to read the passage to be amended, as
it stands; then the words proposed to be inserted; and lastly, the
whole passage as it will stand if the amendment prevails.

Sect. VIII. Amendments by striking out and inserting.

122. The third form of amending a proposition, namely, by striking out
certain words and inserting others in their place, is, in fact, a
combination of the other two forms; and may accordingly be divided
into those two forms, either by a vote of the assembly, or on the
demand of a member, under a special rule to that effect.[16]

123. If the motion is divided, the question is first to be taken on
striking out; and if that is decided in the affirmative, then, on
inserting; but if the former is decided in the negative, the latter
falls, of course. On a division, the proceedings are the same, in
reference to each branch of the question, beginning with the striking
out, as if each branch had been moved by itself.

124. If the motion to strike out and insert is put to the question
undivided, and is decided in the negative, the same motion cannot be
made again; but, it may be moved to strike out the same words, and,
1, insert nothing; 2, insert other words; 3, insert the same words
with others; 4, insert a part of the same words with others; 5, strike
out the same words with others, and insert the same; 6, strike out a
part of the same words with others, and insert the same; 7, strike out
other words and insert the same; and, 8, insert the same words,
without striking out anything.

125. If the motion to strike out and insert is decided in the
affirmative, it cannot be then moved to insert the words struck out or
a part of them, or to strike out the words inserted, or a part of
them; but, it may be moved, 1, to insert the same words with others;
2, to insert a part of the same words with others; 3, to strike out
the same words with others; or, 4, to strike out a part of the same
words with others.

126. When it is proposed to amend by striking out and inserting, this
amendment may be amended in three different ways in the paragraph
proposed to be struck out, and also in the paragraph proposed to be
inserted, namely, by, striking out, or inserting, or striking out and
inserting. And those who are in favor of either paragraph must amend
it, before the question is taken, for the reasons already stated,
namely, that, if decided in the affirmative, the part struck out
cannot be restored, nor can the part inserted be amended; and, if
decided in the negative, the part proposed to be struck out cannot be
amended, nor can the paragraph proposed to be inserted be moved again.

127. On a motion to amend, by striking out certain words and inserting
others, the manner of stating the question is first to read the whole
passage to be amended, as it stands; then the words proposed to be
struck out; next those to be inserted; and, lastly, the whole passage
as it will stand when amended.

Sect. IX. Amendments changing the Nature of a Question.

128. The term amendment is in strictness applicable only to those
changes of a proposition, by which it is improved, that is, rendered
more effectual for the purpose which it has in view, or made to
express more clearly and definitely the sense which it is intended to
express. Hence it seems proper, that those only should undertake to
amend a proposition, who are friendly to it; but this is by no means the
rule; when a proposition is regularly moved and seconded, it is in the
possession of the assembly, and cannot be withdrawn but by its leave;
it has then become the basis of the future proceedings of the
assembly, and may be put into any shape, and turned to any purpose,
that the assembly may think proper.

129. It is consequently allowable to amend a proposition in such a
manner as entirely to alter its nature, and to make it bear a sense
different from what it was originally intended to bear; so that the
friends of it, as it was first introduced, may themselves be forced to
vote against it, in its amended form.

130. This mode of proceeding is sometimes adopted for the purpose of
defeating a proposition, by compelling its original friends to unite
with those who are opposed to it, in voting for its rejection. Thus,
in the British Houses of Commons, Jan. 29, 1765, a resolution being
moved, “That a general warrant for apprehending the authors, printers,
or publishers of a libel, together with their papers, is not warranted
by law, and is an high violation of the liberty of the subject:”—it
was moved to amend this motion by prefixing the following paragraph,
namely: “That in the particular case of libels, it is proper and
necessary to fix, by a vote of this house only, what ought to be
deemed the law in respect of general warrants; and, for that purpose,
at the time when the determination of the legality of such warrants,
in the instance of a most seditious and treasonable libel, is actually
depending before the courts of law, for this house to declare”—_that a
general warrant for apprehending the authors, printers, or publishers
of a libel together with their papers, is not warranted by law, and is
an high violation of the liberty of the subject._ The amendment was
adopted, after a long debate, and then the resolution as amended was
immediately rejected without a division.[17]

131. But sometimes the nature of a proposition is changed by means of
amendments, with a view to its adoption in a sense the very opposite
of what it was originally intended to bear. The following is a
striking example of this mode of proceeding. In the house of commons,
April 10, 1744, a resolution was moved, declaring, “That the issuing
and paying to the Duke of Aremberg the sum of forty thousand pounds,
sterling, to put the Austrian troops in motion in the year 1742, was a
dangerous misapplication of public money, and destructive of the
rights of parliament.” The object of this resolution was to censure
the conduct of the ministers; and the friends of the ministry, being
in a majority, might have voted directly, upon the motion and rejected
it. But they preferred to turn it into a resolution approving of the
conduct of ministers on the occasion referred to; and it was
accordingly moved to amend, by leaving out the words “a dangerous
misapplication,” etc., to the end of the motion, and inserting instead
thereof the words, “necessary for putting the said troops in motion,
and of great consequence to the common cause.” The amendment being
adopted, it was resolved (reversing the original proposition) “That
the issuing and paying to the Duke of Aremberg the sum of forty
thousand pounds, to put the Austrian troops in motion, in the year
1742, was necessary for putting the said troops in motion, and of
great consequence to the common cause.”

132. It is a mode of defeating a proposition, somewhat similar to that
above mentioned, to carry out or extend the principle of it, by means
of amendments, so as to show the inconvenience, absurdity, or danger
of its adoption, with such evident clearness, that it becomes
impossible for the assembly to agree to it. Thus, a motion having been
made in the house of commons, “for copies of all the letters written
by the lords of the admiralty to a certain officer in the navy,” it
was moved to amend the motion by adding these words:—“which letters
may contain orders, or be relative to orders, not executed, and still
subsisting.” This amendment being adopted, the motion as amended was
unanimously rejected.

133. It will be seen, from the foregoing examples, that as the mover
of a proposition is under no restriction as to embracing incongruous
matters under the same motion; so, on the other hand, the assembly may
engraft upon a motion, by way of amendment, matter which is not only
incongruous with, but entirely opposed to, the motion as originally
introduced; and, in legislative assemblies, it is not unusual to amend
a bill by striking out all after the enacting clause, and inserting an
entirely new bill; or to amend a resolution by striking out all after
the words “Resolved that,” and inserting a proposition of a wholly
different tenor.

13. The above is the rule as laid down by Mr. Jefferson (§ 33), and
holds where it is not superseded by a special rule, which is
generally the case in our legislative assemblies; as, for example,
in the senate of the United States, the rule is, that in filling
blanks, the LARGEST sum and LONGEST time shall be first put. In
the house of commons, in England, the rule established by usage
is, that the SMALLEST sum and the LONGEST time shall be first put.

14. The common, if not the only, mode of stating the question, in the
legislative assemblies of this country, is on “striking out.”

15. This is the common case of striking out a paragraph, after it has
been amended by inserting words.

16. Mr. Jefferson (§ xxxv.) says, “the question, if desired, is then
to be divided,” etc.; but, as he makes no exception of a motion to
strike out and insert, when treating of the subject of division,
and does not here state it as an exception, he undoubtedly
supposes the division in this case to be made in the regular and
usual manner.

17. This mode of defeating a measure, however, is not always
successful. In 1780, Mr. Dunning having made a motion, in the
house of commons “that, in the opinion of this house, the
influence of the crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to
be diminished,” Dundas, lord-advocate of Scotland, in order to
defeat the motion, proposed to amend, by inserting, after the
words, IN THE OPINION OF THIS HOUSE, the words IT IS NOW NECESSARY
TO DECLARE THAT, ETC. But this amendment, instead of intimidating
the friends of the original motion was at once adopted by them,
and the resolution passed as amended.

CHAPTER X.

OF THE ORDER AND SUCCESSION OF QUESTIONS.

134. It is a general rule, that, when a proposition is regularly
before a deliberative assembly, for its consideration, no other
proposition or motion can regularly be made or arise, so as to take
the place of the former, and be first acted upon, unless it be either,
_first_, a privileged question; _secondly_, a subsidiary question; or,
_thirdly_, an incidental question or motion.

135. All these motions take the place of the principal motion, or main
question, as it is usually called, and are to be first put to the
question; and, among themselves, also, there are some, which, in like
manner, take the place of all the others. Some of these questions
merely supersede the principal question, until they have been decided;
and, when decided, whether affirmatively or negatively, leave that
question as before. Others of them also supersede the principal
question, until they are decided; and, when decided one way, dispose
of the principal question; but, if decided the other way, leave it as
before.

Sect. I. Privileged Questions.

136. There are certain motions or questions, which, on account of the
superior importance attributed to them, either in consequence of a
vote of the assembly, or in themselves considered, or of the necessity
of the proceedings to which they lead, are entitled to take the place
of any other subject or proposition, which may then be under
consideration, and to be first acted upon and decided by the assembly.
These are called privileged questions, because they are entitled to
precedence over other questions, though they are of different degrees
among themselves. Questions of this nature are of three kinds, namely,
_first_, motions to adjourn; _secondly_, motions or questions relating
to the rights and privileges of the assembly, or of its members
individually; and, _thirdly_, motions for the orders of the day.

Adjournment.

137. A motion to adjourn takes the place of all other questions
whatsoever;[18] for, otherwise, the assembly might be kept sitting
against its will, and for an indefinite time; but, in order to entitle
this motion to precedence, it must be simply to “adjourn,” without the
addition of any particular day or time. And, as the object of this
motion, when made in the midst of some other proceeding, and with a
view to supersede a question already proposed, is simply to break up
the sitting, it does not admit of any amendment by the addition of a
particular day, or in any other manner; though, if a motion to adjourn
is made, when no other business is before the assembly, it may be
amended like other questions.

138. A motion to adjourn is merely “that this assembly do now
adjourn;” and, if it is carried in the affirmative, the assembly is
adjourned to the next sitting day; unless it has previously come to a
resolution, that, on rising, it will adjourn to a particular day; in
which case, it is adjourned to that day.

139. An adjournment without day, that is, without any time being fixed
for reassembling, would, in the case of any other than a legislative
assembly, be equivalent to a dissolution.[19]

140. When a question is interrupted by an adjournment, before any vote
or question has been taken upon it, it is thereby removed from before
the assembly, and will not stand before it, as a matter of course, as
its next meeting, but must be brought forward in the usual way.

Questions of Privilege.

141. The questions, next in relative importance, and which supersede
all others for the time being except that of adjournment, are those
which concern the rights and privileges of the assembly, or of its
individual members; as, for example, when the proceedings of the
assembly are disturbed or interrupted, whether by strangers or
members; or where a quarrel arises between two members; and, in these
cases, the matter of privilege supersedes the question pending at the
time, together with all subsidiary and incidental ones, and must be
first disposed of. When settled, the question interrupted by it is to
be resumed, at the point where it was suspended.

Orders of the Day.

142. When the consideration of a subject has been assigned for a
particular day, by an order of the assembly, the matter so assigned is
called the order of the day for that day. If, in the course of
business, as commonly happens in legislative assemblies, there are
several subjects assigned for the same day, they are called the orders
of the day.

143. A question, which is thus made the subject of an order for its
consideration on a particular day, is thereby made a privileged
question for that day; the order being a repeal, as to this special
case, of the general rule as to business. If, therefore, any other
proposition (with the exception of the two preceding[20]) is moved or
arises, on the day assigned for the consideration of a particular
subject, a motion for the order of the day will supersede the question
first made, together with all subsidiary and incidental questions
connected with it, and must be first put and decided; for if the
debate or consideration of that subject were allowed to proceed, it
might continue through the day and thus defeat the order.

144. But this motion, to entitle it to precedence, must be for the
orders generally, if there is more than one, and not for any
particular one; and, if decided in the affirmative, that is, that the
assembly will now proceed to the orders of the day, they must then be
read and gone through with, in the order in which they stand; priority
of order being considered to give priority of right.

145. If the consideration of a subject is assigned for a particular
hour on the day named, a motion to proceed to it is not a privileged
motion, until that hour has arrived; but, if no hour is fixed, the
order is for the entire day and every part of it.

146. Where there are several orders of the day, and one of them is
fixed for a particular hour, if the orders are taken up before that
hour, they are to be proceeded with as they stand, until that hour,
and then the subject assigned for that hour is the next in order; but,
if the orders are taken up at that time or afterwards, that particular
subject must be considered as the first in order.

147. If the motion for the orders of the day is decided in the
affirmative, the original question is removed from before the
assembly, in the same manner as if it had been interrupted by an
adjournment, and does not stand before the assembly, as a matter of
course, at its next meeting, but must be renewed in the usual way.

148. If the motion is decided in the negative, the vote of the
assembly is a discharge of the orders, so far as they interfere with
the consideration of the subject then before it, and entitles that
subject to be first disposed of.

149. Orders of the day, unless proceeded in and disposed of on the day
assigned, fall, of course, and must be renewed for some other day. It
may be provided, however, by a special rule, as in the legislative
assemblies of Massachusetts, that the orders for a particular day
shall hold for every succeeding day, until disposed of.

Sect. II. Incidental Questions.

150. Incidental questions are such as arise out of other questions,
and are consequently to be decided before the questions which give
rise to them. Of this nature are, _first_, questions of order;
_second_, motions for the reading of papers, etc.; _third_, leave to
withdraw a motion; _fourth_, suspension of a rule: and, _fifth_,
amendment of an amendment.

Questions of Order.

151. It is the duty of the presiding officer of a deliberative
assembly, to enforce the rules and orders of the body over which he
presides, in all its proceedings; and this without question, debate,
or delay, in all cases, in which the breach of order, or the departure
from rule, is manifest. It is also the right of every member, taking
notice of the breach of a rule, to insist upon the enforcement of it
in the same manner.

152. But, though no question can be made, as to the enforcement of the
rules, when there is a breach or manifest departure from them, so long
as any member insists upon their enforcement; yet questions may and do
frequently arise, as to the fact of there being a breach of order, or
a violation of the rules in a particular proceeding; and these
questions must be decided before a case can arise for the enforcement
of the rules. Questions of this kind are denominated questions of
order.

153. When any question of this nature arises, in the course of any
other proceeding, it necessarily supersedes the further consideration
of the subject out of which it arises, until that question is disposed
of; then the original motion or proceeding revives, and resumes its
former position, unless it has been itself disposed of by the question
of order.

154. When a question of order is raised, as it may be by any one
member, it is not stated from the chair, and decided by the assembly,
like other questions; but is decided, in the first instance, by the
presiding officer, without any previous debate or discussion by the
assembly. If the decision of the presiding officer, is not
satisfactory, any one member may object to it, and have the question
decided by the assembly. This is called _appealing_ from the decision
of the chair. The question is then stated by the presiding officer on
the appeal, namely: _shall the decision of the chair stand as the
decision of the assembly?_ and it is thereupon debated and decided by
the assembly, in the same manner as any other question; except that
the presiding officer is allowed to take a part in the debate, which;
on ordinary occasions, he is prohibited from doing.

Reading Papers.

155. It is, for obvious reasons, a general rule, that, where papers
are laid before a deliberative assembly, for its action, every member
has a right to have them once read at the table, before he can be
compelled to vote on them; and, consequently, when the reading of any
paper, relative to a question before the assembly, is called for under
this rule, no question need be made as to the reading; the paper is
read by the clerk, under the direction of the presiding officer, as a
matter of course.

156. But, with the exception of papers coming under this rule, it is
not the right of any member to read himself, or to have read, any
paper, book, or document whatever, without the leave of the assembly,
upon a motion made and a question put for the purpose. The delay and
interruption, which would otherwise ensue from reading every paper
that might be called for, show the absolute necessity of restricting
the rule within the narrowest possible limits, consistently with
permitting every member to have as much information as possible, on
the subjects in reference to which he is about to vote.

157. When, therefore, a member desires that any paper, book, or
document, on the table, whether printed or written (except as above
mentioned) should be read for his own information, or that of the
assembly; or desires to read any such paper, book, or document, in his
place, in the course of a debate, or otherwise; or even to read his
own speech which he has prepared beforehand and committed to writing;
in all these cases, if any objection is made, he must obtain leave of
the assembly, for the reading, by a motion and vote for the purpose.

158. When the reading of a paper is evidently for information, and not
for delay, it is the usual practice for the presiding officer to allow
of it, unless objection is made, in which case leave must be asked;
and this is seldom refused, where there is no intentional or gross
abuse of the time and patience of the assembly.

159. It is not now the practice, as it once was, in legislative
assemblies, to read all papers that are presented, especially when
they are referred to committees immediately on their presentation;
though the right of every member to insist upon one reading is still
admitted. It would be impossible, with the amount of business done by
legislative bodies, at the present day, to devote much of their time
to the reading of papers.

160. When in the course of a debate or other proceeding, the reading
of a paper is called for, and a question is made upon it, this
question is incidental to the former, and must be first decided.

Withdrawal of a Motion.

161. A motion, when regularly made, seconded, and proposed from the
chair, is then in the possession of the assembly, and cannot be
withdrawn by the mover, or directly disposed of in any manner, but by
a vote; hence, if the mover of a question wishes to modify it, or to
substitute a different one in its place, he must obtain the leave of
the assembly for that purpose; which leave can only be had, if
objection is made, by a motion[21] and question in the usual mode of
proceeding.

162. If this motion is decided in the affirmative, the motion to which
it relates is thereby removed from before the assembly, as if it had
never been moved; if in the negative, the business proceeds as before.

Suspension of a Rule.

163. When any contemplated motion or proceeding is rendered
impracticable, by reason of the existence of some special rule by
which it is prohibited, it has become an established practice in this
country, to suspend or dispense with the rule, for the purpose of
admitting the proceeding or motion which is desired. This can only be
done by a motion and question; and, where this course is taken in
order to a motion having reference to a proposition then under
consideration, a motion to suspend the rule supersedes the original
question for the time being, and is first to be decided.[22]

164. It is usual, in the code of rules adopted by deliberative
assemblies, and especially legislative bodies, to provide that a
certain number exceeding a majority, as two thirds or three fourths,
shall be competent to the suspension of a rule in a particular case;
where this is not provided, there seems to be no other mode of
suspending or dispensing with a rule than by general consent.

Amendment of Amendments.

165. In treating of amendments, it has already been seen, that it is
allowable to amend a proposed amendment; and that the question on such
sub-amendment must necessarily be put and decided before putting the
question on the amendment. The former is incidental to the latter, and
supersedes it for the time being.

Sect. III. Subsidiary Questions.

166. Subsidiary, or secondary, questions or motions, as has already
been stated, are those which relate to a principal motion, and are
made use of to enable the assembly to dispose of it in the most
appropriate manner. These motions have the effect to supersede, and,
in some cases, when decided one way, to dispose of, the principal
question. They are also of different degrees among themselves, and,
according to their several natures, supersede, and sometimes dispose
of, one another.

167. The subsidiary motions in common use are the following,
namely:—lie on the table,—the previous question,—postponement, either
indefinite or to a day certain,—commitment,—and, amendment.

168. It is a general rule, with certain exceptions which will be
immediately mentioned, that subsidiary motions cannot be applied to
one another; as for example, suppose a motion to postpone, commit or
amend a principal question, it cannot be moved to suppress the motion
to postpone, etc., by putting a previous question on it; or, suppose
the previous question is moved, or a commitment, or amendment, of a
main question, it cannot be moved to postpone the previous question,
or the motion for commitment or amendment. The reasons for this rule
are: 1. It would be absurd to separate the appendage from its
principal; 2. It would be a piling of questions one on another, which,
to avoid embarrassment, is not allowed; and 3, The same result may be
reached more simply by voting against the motion which it is attempted
to dispose of by another secondary motion.

169. The exceptions to the rule above stated are, that motions to
postpone (either to a day certain or indefinitely), to commit, or to
amend, a principal question, may be amended, for the reason, that the
useful character of amendment gives it a privilege of attaching itself
to a secondary and privileged motion; that is, a subsidiary motion to
carry out and improve another may be applied to that other, but a
subsidiary motion to dispose of or suppress another is not admissible.
Hence, the subsidiary motions above mentioned may be amended.

170. A previous question, however, cannot be amended; the nature of it
not admitting of any change. Parliamentary usage has fixed its form to
be, shall the main question be now put? that is at this instant; and,
as the present instant is but one, it cannot admit of any
modifications; and to change it to the next day or any other moment is
without example or utility. For the same reasons, also, that the form
of it is fixed by parliamentary usage, and is already as simple as it
can be, a motion to lie on the table cannot be amended.

Lie on the Table.

171. This motion is usually resorted to, when the assembly has
something else before it, which claims its present attention, and
therefore desires to lay aside a proposition for a short but
indefinite time, reserving to itself the power to take it up when
convenient. This motion takes precedence of and supersedes all the
other subsidiary motions.

172. If decided in the affirmative, the principal motion, together
with all the other motions, subsidiary and incidental, connected with
it, is removed from before the assembly, until it is again taken up;
which it may be, by motion and vote, at any time, when the assembly
pleases.

173. If decided in the negative, the business proceeds in the same
manner as if the motion had never been made.

Previous Question.

174. This motion has already been described (63), and the nature and
effect of it fully stated. It stands in an equal degree with all the
other subsidiary motions, except the motion to lie on the table; and,
consequently, if first moved, is not subject to be superseded by a
motion to postpone, commit or amend.

175. If the previous question is moved before the others above
mentioned, and put to the question, it has the effect to prevent those
motions from being made at all; for, if decided affirmatively, to wit,
that the main question shall now be put, it would of course be
contrary to the decision of the assembly, and therefore against order,
to postpone, commit, or amend; and if decided negatively, to wit, that
the main question shall not now be put, this takes the main question
out of the possession of the assembly, for the day, so that there is
then nothing before it to postpone, commit, or amend.[23]

Postponement.

176. The motion to postpone is either indefinite, or to a day certain;
and, in both these forms, maybe amended; in the former, by making it
to a day certain,—in the latter, by substituting one day for another.
But, in the latter case, propositions to substitute different days for
that originally named, bear more resemblance to propositions for
filling blanks, than they do to amendments, and should be considered
and treated accordingly.

177. If, therefore, a motion is made for an indefinite postponement,
it may be moved to amend the motion, by making it to a day certain. If
any other day is desired, it may be moved as an amendment to the
amendment; or it may be moved as an independent motion, when the
amendment has been rejected.

178. If a motion is made for a postponement to a day certain, it may
be amended by the substitution of a different day; but in this case, a
more simple and effectual mode of proceeding is to consider the day as
a blank, to be filled in the usual manner, beginning with the longest
time.

179. This motion stands in the same degree with motions for the
previous question,—to commit,—and to amend; and, if first made, is not
susceptible of being superseded by them.

180. If a motion for postponement is decided affirmatively, the
proposition to which it is applied is removed from before the
assembly, with all its appendages and incidents, and consequently
there is no ground for either of the other subsidiary motions; if
decided negatively, that the proposition shall not be postponed, that
question may then be suppressed by the previous question, or
committed, or amended.

Commitment.

181. A motion to commit, or recommit (which is the term used when the
proposition has already been once committed), may be amended, by the
substitution of one kind of committee for another, or be enlarging or
diminishing the number of the members of the committee, as originally
proposed, or by instructions to the committee.

182. This motion stands in the same degree with the previous question
and postponement—and, if first made, is not superseded by them—but it
takes precedence of a motion to amend.

183. If decided affirmatively, the proposition is removed from before
the assembly; and, consequently, there is no ground for the previous
question, or for postponement, or amendment; if negatively, to wit,
that the principal question shall not be committed, that question may
then be suppressed by the previous question, or postponed, or amended.

Amendment.

184. A motion to amend, as has been seen, may be itself amended. It
stands in the same degree only with the previous question and
indefinite postponement, and neither, if first moved, is superseded by
the other.

185. But this motion is liable to be superseded by a motion to
postpone to a day certain; so that amendment and postponement
competing, the latter is to be first put. The reason is, that a
question for amendment is not suppressed by postponing or adjourning
the principal question, but remains before the assembly, whenever the
main question is resumed; for otherwise, it might happen, that the
occasion for other urgent business might go by and be lost by length
of debate on the amendment, if the assembly had no power to postpone
the whole subject.

186. A motion to amend may also be superseded by a motion to commit;
so that the latter, though subsequently moved, is to be first put;
because, “in truth, it facilitates and befriends the motion to amend.”

187. The effect of both a negative and an affirmative decision of
amendments has already been considered (94 to 127).

18. It is commonly said, that a motion to adjourn is always in order,
but this is not precisely true. The question of adjournment may be
moved repeatedly on the same day; yet, in strictness, not without
some intermediate question being proposed, after one motion to
adjourn is disposed of, and before the next motion is made for
adjourning; as, for example, an amendment to a pending question,
or for the reading of some paper. The reason of this is, that,
until some other proceeding has intervened, the question already
decided is the same as that newly moved.

19. It is quite common, when the business of a deliberative assembly
has been brought to a close, to adjourn the assembly without day.
A better form is to dissolve it; as an adjournment without day, if
we regard the etymology of the word adjourn, is a contradiction in
terms.

20. “A motion to adjourn and a question of privilege, take precedence
of a motion for the orders of the day.”—Ed.

21. “This motion is not debatable.”—Ed.

22. “A motion to suspend the rules is not debatable.”—Ed.

23. In the house of representatives of Massachusetts, as the effect of
a negative decision of the previous question is not to remove the
principal question from before the house, that question is still
open to postponement, commitment, or amendment, notwithstanding
such negative decision.

CHAPTER XI.

OF THE ORDER OF PROCEEDING.

188. When several subjects are before the assembly; that is, on the
table for consideration (for there can be but a single subject _under_
consideration at the same time), and no priority has been given to any
one over another, the presiding officer is not precisely bound to any
order, as to what matters shall be first taken up; but is left to his
own discretion, unless the assembly on a question decide to take up a
particular subject.

189. A settled order of business, however, where the proceedings of an
assembly are likely to last a considerable time, and the matters
before it are somewhat numerous, is useful if not necessary for the
government of the presiding officer, and to restrain individual
members from calling up favorite measures, or matters under their
special charge, out of their just time. It is also desirable, for
directing the discretion of the assembly, when a motion is made to
take up a particular matter to the prejudice of others, which are of
right entitled to be first attended to, in the general order of
business.

190. The order of business may be established in virtue of some
general rule, or by special orders relating to each particular
subject, and must, of course, necessarily depend upon the nature and
amount of the matters before the assembly.

191. The natural order, in considering and amending any paper, which
consists of several distinct propositions, is, to begin at the
beginning, and proceed through it by paragraphs; and this order of
proceeding, if strictly adhered to, as it should always be in numerous
assemblies, would prevent any amendment in a former part, from being
admissible, after a latter part had been amended; but this rule does
not seem to be so essential to be observed in smaller bodies, in which
it may often be advantageous to allow of going from one part of a
paper to another, for the purpose of amendments.

192. To this natural order of beginning at the beginning, there is one
exception according to parliamentary usage, where a resolution or
series of resolutions, or other paper, has a preamble or title, in
which case, the preamble or title is postponed, until the residue of
the paper is gone through with.

193. In considering a proposition consisting of several paragraphs,
the course is, for the whole paper to be read entirely through, in the
first place by the clerk; then a second time, by the presiding
officer, by paragraphs; pausing at the end of each, and putting
questions for amending, if amendments are proposed; and, when the
whole paper has been gone through with, in this manner, the presiding
officer puts the final question on agreeing to or adopting the whole
paper, as amended or unamended.

194. When a paper which has been referred to a committee, and reported
back to the assembly, is taken up for consideration, the amendments
only are first read, in course, by the clerk. The presiding officer
then reads the first, and puts it to the question, and so on until the
whole are adopted or rejected, before any other amendment is admitted,
with the exception of an amendment to an amendment. When the
amendments reported by the committee have been thus disposed of, the
presiding officer pauses, and gives time for amendments to be proposed
in the assembly to the body of the paper (which he also does, if the
paper has been reported without amendments, putting no questions but
on amendments proposed); and when through the whole, he puts the
question on agreeing to or adopting the paper, as the resolution,
order, etc., of the assembly.

195. The final question is sometimes stated merely on the acceptance
of the report, but a better form is on agreeing with the committee in
the resolution, order, or whatever else the conclusion of the report
may be, as amended, or without amendment, and the resolution or order
is then to be entered in the journal as the resolution, etc., of the
assembly, and not as the report of the committee accepted.

196. When the paper referred to a committee is reported back, as
amended, in a new draft (which may be and often is done, where the
amendments are numerous and comparatively unimportant), the new draft
is to be considered, as an amendment, and is to be first amended, if
necessary, and then put to the question as an amendment reported by
the committee; or, the course may be, first to accept the new draft,
as a substitute for the original paper, and then to treat it as such.

197. It often happens, that, besides a principal question, there are
several others connected with it, pending at the same time, which are
to be taken in their order; as, for example, suppose, _first_, a
principal motion; _second_, a motion to amend; _third_, a motion to
commit; _fourth_, the preceding motions being pending, a question of
order arises in the debate, which gives occasion, _fifth_, to a
question of privilege, and this leads, _sixth_, to a subsidiary
motion, as, to lie on the table. The regular course of proceeding
requires the motion to lie on the table to be first put; if this is
negatived, the question of privilege is then settled; after that comes
the question of order; then the question of commitment; if that is
negatived, the question of amendment is taken; and, lastly, the main
question. This example will sufficiently illustrate the manner in
which questions may grow out of one another, and in what order they
are to be decided.[24]

198. When a motion is made and seconded, it is the duty of the
presiding officer to propose it to the assembly; until this is done,
it is not a question before the assembly, to be acted upon or
considered in any manner; and consequently it is not then in order for
any member to rise either to debate it, or to make any motion in
relation to it whatever.

199. It is therefore a most unparliamentary and abusive proceeding to
allow a principal motion and a subsidiary one relating to it to be
proposed and stated together, and to be put to the question in their
order; as is done, when a member moves a principal question, a
resolution, for example, and, at the same time, the previous question,
or that the resolution lie on the table. In such a case, the presiding
officer should take no notice whatever of the subsidiary motion, but
should propose the principal one by itself in the usual manner, before
allowing any other to be made. Other members, then, would not be
deprived of their rights of debate, etc., in relation to the subject
moved.

200. When a member has obtained the floor, he cannot be cut off from
addressing the assembly, on the question before it; nor, when
speaking, can he be interrupted in his speech, by any other member
rising and moving an adjournment, or for the orders of the day, or by
making any other privileged motion of the same kind; it being a
general rule, that a member in possession of the floor, or proceeding
with his speech, cannot be taken down or interrupted, but by a call to
order; and the question of order being decided, he is still to be
heard through. A call for an adjournment, or for the orders of the
day, or for the question, by gentlemen in their seats, is not a
motion; as no motion can be made, without rising and addressing the
chair, and being called to by the presiding officer. Such calls for
the question are themselves breaches of order, which, though the
member who has risen may respect them, as an expression of the
impatience of the assembly at further debate, do not prevent him from
going on if he pleases.

24. The order of motions, for the disposal of any question, is usually
fixed by a special rule, in legislative assemblies. See note to
paragraph 61.

CHAPTER XII.

OF ORDER IN DEBATE.

201. Debate in a deliberative assembly must be distinguished from
forensic debate, or that which takes place before a judicial tribunal;
the former being, in theory, at least, more the expression of
individual opinions among the members of the same body; the latter
more a contest for victory, between the disputants, before a distinct
and independent body; the former not admitting of replies; the latter
regarding reply as the right of one of the parties.[25]

202. It is a general rule, in all deliberative assemblies, that the
presiding officer shall not participate in the debate, or other
proceedings, in any other capacity than as such officer. He is only
allowed, therefore, to state matters of fact within his knowledge; to
inform the assembly on points of order or the course of proceeding,
when called upon for that purpose, or when he finds it necessary to do
so; and on appeals from his decision on questions of order, to address
the assembly in debate.

Sect. I. As to the Manner of Speaking.

203. When a member desires to address the assembly, on any subject
before it (as well as to make a motion), he is to rise and stand up in
his place, uncovered, and to address himself not to the assembly, or
any particular member, but to the presiding officer, who, on hearing
him, calls to him by his name, that the assembly may take notice who
it is that speaks, and give their attention accordingly. If any
question arises, as to who shall be entitled to the floor, where
several members rise at or nearly at the same time, it is decided in
the manner already described (47), as to obtaining the floor to make a
motion.

204. It is customary, indeed, for the presiding officer, after a
motion has been made, seconded, and proposed, to give the floor to the
mover,[26] in preference to others, if he rises to speak; or, on
resuming a debate, after an adjournment, to give the floor, if he
desires it, to the mover of the adjournment, in preference to other
members; or, where two or more members claim the floor, to prefer him
who is opposed to the measure in question; but, in all these cases,
the determination of the presiding officer may be overruled by the
assembly.

205. It is sometimes thought, that, when a member, in the course of
debate, breaks off his speech, and gives up the floor to another for a
particular purpose, he is entitled to it again, as of right, when that
purpose is accomplished; but, though this is generally conceded, yet,
when a member gives up the floor for one purpose, he does so for all;
and it is not possible for the presiding officer to take notice of and
enforce agreements of this nature between members.

206. No person, in speaking, is to mention a member then present by
his name; but to describe him by his seat in the assembly, or as the
member who spoke last, or last but one, or on the other side of the
question, or by some other equivalent expression. The purpose of this
rule is to guard as much as possible against the excitement of all
personal feeling, either of favor or of hostility, by separating, as
it were, the official from the personal character of each member, and
having regard to the former only in the debate.

207. If the presiding officer rises up to speak, any other member, who
may have risen for the same purpose, ought to sit down, in order that
the former may be first heard; but this rule does not authorize the
presiding officer to interrupt a member, whilst speaking, or to cut
off one to whom he has given the floor; he must wait like other
members until such member has done speaking.

208. A member, whilst speaking, must remain standing in his place,
uncovered; and, when he has finished his speech, he ought to resume
his seat; but if unable to stand without pain or inconvenience, in
consequence of age, sickness, or other infirmity, he may be indulged
to speak sitting.

Sect. II. As to the Matter in Speaking.

209. Every question, that can be made in a deliberative assembly, is
susceptible of being debated,[27] according to its nature; that is,
every member has the right of expressing his opinion upon it. Hence,
it is a general rule, and the principal one relating to this matter,
that, in debate, those who speak are to confine themselves to the
question, and not to speak impertinently, or beside the subject. So
long as a member has the floor, and keeps within the rule, he may
speak for as long a time as he pleases; though, if an uninteresting
speaker trespasses too much upon the time and patience of the
assembly, the members seldom fail to show their dissatisfaction in
some way or other, which induces him to bring his remarks to a close.

210. It is also a rule, that no person, in speaking, is to use
indecent language against the proceedings of the assembly, or to
reflect upon any of its prior determinations, unless he means to
conclude his remarks with a motion to rescind such determination; but
while a proposition under consideration is still pending, and not
adopted, though it may have been reported by a committee, reflections
on it are no reflections on the assembly. The rule applies equally to
the proceedings of committees; which are, indeed, the proceedings of
the assembly.

211. Another rule in speaking is, that no member is at liberty to
digress from the matter of the question, to fall upon the person of
another, and to speak reviling, nipping, or unmannerly words of or to
him. The nature or consequences of a measure may be reprobated in
strong terms; but to arraign the motives of those who advocate it, is
a personality and against order.

212. It is very often an extremely difficult and delicate matter to
decide whether the remarks of a member are pertinent or relevant to
the question; but it will, in general, be safe for the presiding
officer to consider them so, unless they very clearly reflect, in an
improper manner, either upon the person or motives of a member, or
upon the proceedings of the assembly; or the member speaking digresses
from or manifestly mistakes the question.

213. It often happens in the consideration of a subject, that, whilst
the general question remains the same, the particular question before
the assembly is constantly changing; thus, while, for example, the
general question is on the adoption of a series of resolutions, the
particular question may, at one moment, be on an amendment; at another
on postponement; and, again, on the previous question. In all these
cases, the particular question supersedes, for the time, the main
question; and those who speak to it must confine their remarks
accordingly. The enforcement of order, in this respect, requires the
closest attention on the part of the presiding officer.

214. When a member is interrupted by the presiding officer, or called
to order by a member,[28] for irrelevancy or departing from the
question, a question may be made as to whether he shall be allowed to
proceed in his remarks, in the manner he was speaking when he was
interrupted; but, if no question is made, or if one is made and
decided in the negative, he is still to be allowed to proceed in
order, that is, abandoning the objectionable course of remark.

Sect. III. As to Times of speaking.

215. The general rule, in all deliberative assemblies, unless it is
otherwise specially provided, is, that no member shall speak more than
once to the same question;[29] although the debate on that question
may be adjourned and continued through several days; and, although a
member, who desires to speak a second time, has, in the course of the
debate, changed his opinion.

216. This rule refers to the same question, technically considered;
for, if a resolution is moved and debated, and then referred to a
committee, those who speak on the introduction of the motion may speak
again on the question presented by the report of the committee, though
it is substantially the same question with the former; and, so,
members, who have spoken on the principal or main question, may speak
again on all the subsidiary or incidental questions arising in the
course of the debate.

217. The rule, as to speaking but once on a question, if strictly
enforced, will prevent a member from speaking a second time without
the general consent of the assembly, so long as there is any other
member who himself desires to speak; but, when all who desire to speak
have spoken, a member may speak a second time by leave of the
assembly.

218. A member may also be permitted to speak a second time, in the
same debate, in order to clear a matter of fact; or merely to explain
himself in some material part of his speech; or to the orders of the
assembly, if they be transgressed (although no question may be made),
but carefully keeping within that line and not falling into the matter
itself.

219. It is sometimes supposed, that, because a member has a right to
explain himself, he therefore has a right to interrupt another member
whilst speaking, in order to make the explanation: but this is a
mistake; he should wait until the member speaking has finished; and if
a member, on being requested, yields the floor for an explanation, he
relinquishes it altogether.

Sect. IV. As to stopping Debate.

220. The only mode in use, in this country, until recently, for the
purpose of putting an end to an unprofitable or tiresome debate, was
by moving the previous question; the effect of which motion, as
already explained, if decided in the affirmative, is to require the
main or principal question to be immediately taken. When this question
is moved, therefore, it necessarily suspends all further consideration
of the main question, and precludes all further debate or amendment of
it; though, as has been seen, it stands in the same degree with
postponement, amendment, and commitment; and, unless in virtue of a
special rule, cannot be moved while either of those motions is
pending.

221. The other mode of putting an end to debate, which has recently
been introduced into use, is for the assembly to adopt beforehand a
special order in reference to a particular subject, that, at such a
time specified, all debate upon it shall cease, and all motions or
questions pending in relation to it shall be decided.

222. Another rule, which has lately been introduced for the purpose of
shortening rather than stopping debate, is, that no member shall be
permitted to speak more than a certain specified time on any question;
so that, when the time allotted has expired, the presiding officer
announces the fact, and the member speaking resumes his seat.[30]

Sect. V. As to Decorum in Debate.

223. Every member having the right to be heard, every other member is
bound to conduct himself in such a manner, that this right may be
effectual. Hence, it is a rule of order, as well as of decency, that
no member is to disturb another in his speech by hissing, coughing,
spitting; by speaking, or whispering; by passing between the presiding
officer and the member speaking; by going across the assembly-room, or
walking up and down in it; or by any other disorderly deportment,
which tends to disturb or disconcert a member who is speaking.

224. But, if a member speaking finds, that he is not regarded with
that respectful attention, which his equal right demands,—that it is
not the inclination of the assembly to hear him,—and that by
conversation or any other noise they endeavor to drown his voice,—it
is his most prudent course to submit himself to the pleasure of the
assembly, and to sit down; for it scarcely ever happens, that the
members of the assembly are guilty of this piece of ill-manners,
without some excuse or provocation, or that they are so wholly
inattentive to one, who says anything worth their hearing.

225. It is the duty of the presiding officer, in such a case, to
endeavor to reduce the assembly to order and decorum; but, if his
repeated calls to order, and his appeals to the good sense and decency
of the members, prove ineffectual, it then becomes his duty to call by
name any member who obstinately persists in irregularity; whereupon
the assembly may require such member to withdraw; who is then to be
heard, if he desires it, in exculpation, and to withdraw; then the
presiding officer states the offence committed, and the assembly
considers of the kind and degree of punishment to be inflicted.

226. If, on repeated trials, the presiding officer finds that the
assembly will not support him in the exercise of his authority, he
will then be justified, but not till then, in permitting, without
censure, every kind of disorder.

Sect. VI. As to Disorderly Words.

227. If a member, in speaking, makes use of language, which is
personally offensive to another, or insulting to the assembly, and the
member offended, or any other, thinks proper to complain of it to the
assembly, the course of proceedings is as follows:

228. The member speaking is immediately interrupted in the course of
his speech, by another or several members rising and calling to order;
and, the member, who objects or complains of the words, is then called
upon by the presiding officer to state the words which he complains
of, repeating them exactly as he conceives them to have been spoken,
in order that they may be reduced to writing by the clerk; or the
member complaining, without being so called upon, may proceed at once
to state the words either verbally or in writing, and desire that the
clerk may take them down at the table. The presiding officer may then
direct the clerk to take them down; but if he sees the objection to be
a trivial one, and thinks there is no foundation for their being
thought disorderly, he will prudently delay giving any such
directions, in order not unnecessarily to interrupt the proceedings;
though if the members generally seem to be in favor of having the
words taken down, by calling out to that effect, or by a vote, which
the assembly may doubtless pass, the presiding officer should
certainly order the clerk to take them down, in the form and manner in
which they are stated by the member who objects.

229. The words objected to being thus written down, and forming a part
of the minutes in the clerk’s book, they are next to be read to the
member who was speaking, who may deny that those are the words which
he spoke, in which case, the assembly must decide by a question,
whether they are the words or not.[31] If he does not deny that he
spoke those words, or when the assembly has itself determined what the
words are, then the member may either justify them, or explain the
sense in which he used them, so as to remove the objection of their
being disorderly; or he may make an apology for them.

230. If the justification, or explanation, or apology, of the member,
is thought sufficient by the assembly, no further proceeding is
necessary; the member may resume and go on with his speech, the
assembly being presumed, unless some further motion is made, to be
satisfied; but if any two members (one to make and the other to second
the motion) think it necessary to state a question, so as to take the
sense of the assembly upon the words, and whether the member in using
them has been guilty of any offence towards the assembly, the member
must withdraw before that question is stated; and then the sense of
the assembly must be taken, and such further proceedings had in
relation to punishing the member, as may be thought necessary and
proper.

231. The above is the course of proceeding established by the writers
of greatest authority,[32] and ought invariably to be pursued; it
might however be improved, by the member who objects to words writing
them down at once, and thereupon moving that they be made a part of
the minutes; by which means, the presiding officer would be relieved
from the responsibility of determining, in the first instance, upon
the character of the words.

232. If offensive words are not taken notice of at the time they are
spoken,[33] but the member is allowed to finish his speech, and then
any other person speaks, or any other matter of business intervenes,
before notice is taken of the words which gave offence, the words are
not to be written down, or the member using them censured. This rule
is established for the common security of all the members; and to
prevent the mistakes which must necessarily happen, if words
complained of are not immediately reduced to writing.

25. An exception to this rule is sometimes made in favor of the mover
of a question, who is allowed, at the close of the debate, to
reply to the arguments brought against his motion; but this is a
matter of favor and indulgence, and not of right.

26. Sometimes a member, instead of proposing his motion, at first,
proceeds with his speech; but in such a case, he is liable to be
taken down to order, unless he states that he intends to conclude
with a motion, and informs the assembly what that motion is, and
then he may be allowed to proceed.

27. In legislative bodies, it is usual to provide, that certain
questions as, for example, to adjourn, to lie on the table, for
the previous question, or, as to the order of business, shall be
decided without debate.

28. “In the latter event, the member will rise, and addressing himself
to the presiding officer, will say, ‘I rise to a point of order.’
When requested by the chair to state it, he will specify the thing
he objects to. If the chair rules that the member is out of order
in his remarks, and no appeal is taken from the decision, he will
abandon the line of remark condemned, and, if permitted, proceed
in order.

“Should an appeal be taken, it will be decided without
debate.”—Ed.

29. The mover and seconder, if they do not speak to the question, at
the time when the motion is made and seconded, have the same right
with other members to address the assembly.

30. “In the House of Commons, England, ever since the Irish
Parliamentary Party proved strong enough to combat with the
Opposition by obstructing all bills in the endeavor to procure
‘Home Rule’ for Ireland there has been nothing but turmoil over
every bill proposed; to stop this the ‘Government Party’ passed a
rule which was applied whenever obstruction or debate was carried
too far; this was called ‘Cloture.’ It is used as a ‘gag’ law, as
when ‘Cloture’ is moved every thing or motion is subordinated to
the motion in favor of which ‘Cloture’ was applied.”—Ed.

—Also see note on page 163.

31. The words, as written down, may be amended, so as to conform to
what the assembly thinks to be the truth.

32. Mr. Hatsell, in England, and Mr. Jefferson, in this country.

33. Mr. Jefferson (§ 17) lays it down, that “disorderly words are not
to be noticed till the member has finished his speech.” But in
this, he is contradicted by Hatsell, as well as by the general
practice of legislative bodies.

CHAPTER XIII.

OF THE QUESTION.

233. When any proposition is made to a deliberative assembly, it is
called a _motion_; when it is stated or propounded to the assembly,
for their acceptance or rejection, it is denominated a _question_;
and, when adopted, it becomes the _order_, _resolution_, or _vote_, of
the assembly.

234. All the proceedings, which have thus far been considered, have
only had for their object to bring a proposition into a form to be put
to the question; that is, to be adopted as the sense, will, or
judgment, of the assembly, or to be rejected; according as such
proposition may be found to unite in its favor, or to fail of uniting
a majority of the members.

235. When any proposition, whether principal, subsidiary, or
incidental, or of whatever nature it may be, is made, seconded, and
stated, if no alteration is proposed,—or if it admits of none, or if
it is amended,—and the debate upon it, if any, appears to be brought
to a close, the presiding officer then inquires, whether the assembly
is ready for the question? and, if no person rises, the question is
then stated, and the votes of the assembly taken upon it.

236. The question is not always stated to the assembly, in the precise
form in which it arises or is introduced; thus, for example, when a
member presents a petition, or the chairman of a committee offers a
report, the question which arises, if no motion is made, is, _Shall
the petition or the report be received?_ and, so, when the previous
question is moved, it is stated in this form, _Shall the main question
be now put?_—the question being stated, in all cases, in the form in
which it will appear on the journal, if it passes in the affirmative.

237. In matters of trifling importance, or which are generally of
course, such as receiving petitions and reports, withdrawing motions,
reading papers, etc., the presiding officer most commonly supposes or
takes for granted the consent of the assembly, where no objection is
expressed, and does not go through the formality of taking the
question by a vote. But if, after a vote has been taken in this
informal way and declared, any member rises to object, the presiding
officer should consider every thing that has passed as nothing, and,
at once, go back and pursue the regular course of proceeding. Thus, if
a petition is received, without a question, and the clerk is
proceeding to read it, in the usual order of business, if any one
rises to object, it will be the safest and most proper course, for the
presiding officer to require a motion for receiving it to be regularly
made and seconded.

238. The question being stated by the presiding officer, he first puts
it in the affirmative, namely: _As many as are of opinion
that_—repeating the words of the question,—_say aye_; and,
immediately, all the members who are of that opinion answer _aye_; the
presiding officer then puts the question negatively: _As many as are
of a different opinion say no_; and, thereupon, all the members who
are of that opinion answer _no_. The presiding officer judges by his
ear which side has “the more voices,” and decides accordingly, that
_the ayes have it_, or _the noes have it_, as the case may be. If the
presiding officer is doubtful as to the majority of voices, he may put
the question a second time, and if he is still unable to decide, or,
if, having decided according to his judgment, any member rises and
declares that he believes the _ayes_ or the _noes_ (whichever it may
be) _have it_, contrary to the declaration of the presiding
officer,[34] then the presiding officer directs the assembly to
divide, in order that the members on the one side and the other may be
counted.

239. If, however, any new motion should be made, after the presiding
officer’s declaration, or, if a member, who was not in the
assembly-room when the question was taken, should come in, it will
then be too late to contradict the presiding officer, and have the
assembly divided.

240. The above is the parliamentary form of taking a question, and is
in general use in this country; but, in some of our legislative
assemblies, and especially in those of the New England states, the
suffrages are given by the members holding up their right hands, first
those in the affirmative, and then those in the negative, of the
question. If the presiding officer cannot determine, by the show of
hands, which side has the majority, he may call upon the members to
vote again, and if he is still in doubt, or if his declaration is
questioned, a division takes place. When the question is taken in this
manner, the presiding officer directs the members, first on the
affirmative side, and then on the negative, to manifest their opinion
by holding up the right hand.

241. When a division of the assembly takes place, the presiding
officer sometimes directs the members to range themselves on different
sides of the assembly-room, and either counts them himself, or they
are counted by tellers appointed by him for the purpose, or by
monitors permanently appointed for that and other purposes; or the
members rise in their seats, first on the affirmative and then on the
negative, and (standing uncovered) are counted in the same manner.
When the members are counted by the presiding officer, he announces
the numbers and declares the result. When they are counted by tellers
or monitors, the tellers must first agree among themselves, and then
the one who has told for the majority reports the numbers to the
presiding officer, who, thereupon, declares the result.

242. The best mode of dividing an assembly, that is at all numerous,
is for the presiding officer to appoint tellers for each division or
section of the assembly-room, and then to require the members, first
those in the affirmative, and then those in the negative, to rise,
stand uncovered, and be counted; this being done, on each side, the
tellers of the several divisions make their returns, and the presiding
officer declares the result.

243. If the members are equally divided, the presiding officer may, if
he pleases, give the casting vote; or, if he chooses, he may refrain
from voting, in which case, the motion does not prevail, and the
decision is in the negative.

244. It is a general rule, that every member, who is in the
assembly-room at the time when the question is stated, has not only
the right but is bound to vote; and, on the other hand, that no member
can vote, who was not in the room at that time.

245. The only other form of taking the question, which requires to be
described, is one in general use in this country, by means of which
the names of the members voting on the one side and on the other are
ascertained and entered in the journal of the assembly. This mode,
which is peculiar to the legislative bodies of the United States, is
called taking the questions by yeas and nays. In order to take a
question in this manner, it is stated on both sides at once, namely:
_As many as are or opinion, that, etc., will when their names are
called, answer yes_; and _As many as are of a different opinion will,
when their names are called, answer no_; the roll of the assembly is
then called over by the clerk, and each member, as his name is called,
rises in his place, and answers _yes_ or _no_, and the clerk notes the
answer as the roll is called. When the roll has been gone through the
clerk reads over first the names of those who have answered in the
affirmative and then the names of those who have answered in the
negative, in order that if he has made any mistake in noting the
answer, or if any member has made a mistake in his answer, the mistake
of either may be corrected. The names having been thus read over, and
the mistakes, if any, corrected, the clerk counts the numbers on each
side, and reports them to the presiding officer, who declares the
result to the assembly.

246. The following is the mode practised in the house of
representatives of Massachusetts, (which is by far the most numerous
of all the legislative bodies in this country,) of taking a question
by yeas and nays. The names of the members being printed on a sheet,
the clerk calls them in their order; and as each one answers, the
clerk (responding to the member, at the same time) places a figure in
pencil, expressing the number of the answer, at the left or right of
the name, according as the answer is yes or no; so that the last
figure or number, on each side, shows the number of the answers on
that side; and the two last numbers or figures represent the
respective numbers of the affirmatives and negatives on the division.
Thus, at the left hand of the name of the member who first answers
_yes_, the clerk places a figure 1; at the right hand of the first
member who answers _no_, he also places a figure 1; the second member
that answers _yes_ is marked 2; and so on to the end of the list; the
side of the name, on which the figure is placed, denoting whether the
answer is _yes_ or _no_, and the figure denoting the number of the
answer on that side. The affirmatives and negatives are then read
separately, if necessary, though this is usually omitted, and the
clerk is then prepared, by means of the last figure on each side, to
give the numbers to the speaker to be announced to the house. The
names and answers are afterwards recorded on the journal.

247. In any of the modes of taking a question, in which it is first
put on one side, and then on the other, it is no full question, until
the negative as well as the affirmative has been put. Consequently,
until the negative has been put, it is in order for any member, in the
same manner as if the division had not commenced, to rise and speak,
make motions for amendment, or otherwise, and thus renew the debate;
and this, whether such member was in the assembly-room or not, when
the question was put and partly taken. In such a case, the question
must be put over again on the affirmative as well as the negative
side; for the reason, that members who were not in the assembly-room,
when the question was first put, may have since come in, and also that
some of those who voted, may have since changed their minds. When a
question is taken by yeas and nays, and the negative as well as the
affirmative of the question is stated, and the voting on each side
begins and proceeds at the same time, the question cannot be opened
and the debate renewed, after the voting has commenced.

248. If any question arises, in a point of order, as, for example, as
to the right or the duty of a member to vote, during a division, the
presiding officer must decide it peremptorily, subject to the revision
and correction of the assembly, after the division is over. In a case
of this kind, there can be no debate, though the presiding officer may
if he pleases receive the assistance of members with their advice,
which they are to give sitting, in order to avoid even the appearance
of a debate; but this can only be with the leave of the presiding
officer, as otherwise the division might be prolonged to an
inconvenient length; nor can any question be taken, for otherwise
there might be division upon division without end.

249. When, from counting the assembly on a division, it appears that
there is not a quorum present, there is no decision; but the matter in
question continues in the same state, in which it was before the
division; and, when afterwards resumed, whether on the same or on some
future day, it must be taken up at that precise point.

34. The most common expression is: “I doubt the vote,” or, “that vote
is doubted.”

CHAPTER XIV.

OF RECONSIDERATION.

250. It is a principle of parliamentary law, upon which many of the
rules and proceedings previously stated are founded, that when a
question has once been put to a deliberative assembly, and decided,
whether in the affirmative or negative, that decision is the judgment
of the assembly, and cannot be again brought into question.

251. This principle holds equally, although the question proposed is
not the identical question which has already been decided, but only
its equivalent; as, for example, where the negative of one question
amounts to the affirmative of the other, and leaves no other
alternative, these questions are the equivalents of one another, and a
decision of the one necessarily concludes the other.

252. A common application of the rule as to equivalent questions
occurs in the case of an amendment proposed by striking out words; in
which it is the invariable practice to consider the negative of
striking out as equivalent to the affirmative of agreeing; so that to
put a question on agreeing, after a question on striking out its
negatived, would be, in effect, to put the same question twice over.

253. The principle above stated does not apply so as to prevent
putting the same question in the different stages of any proceeding;
as, for example, in legislative bodies, the different stages of a
bill; so, in considering reports of committees, questions already
taken and decided, before the subject was referred, may be again
proposed; and, in like manner, orders of the assembly, and
instructions or references to committees, may be discharged or
rescinded.

254. The inconvenience of this rule, which is still maintained in all
its strictness in the British parliament (though divers expedients are
there resorted to to counteract or evade it),[35] has led to the
introduction into the parliamentary practice of this country of the
motion for _reconsideration_; which, while it recognizes and upholds
the rule in all its ancient strictness, yet allows a deliberative
assembly, for sufficient reasons, to relieve itself from the
embarrassment and inconvenience, which would occasionally result from
a strict enforcement of the rule in a particular case.

255. It has now come to be a common practice in all our deliberative
assemblies, and may consequently be considered as a principle of the
common parliamentary law of this country, to reconsider a vote already
passed, whether affirmatively or negatively.

256. For this purpose, a motion is made and seconded, in the usual
manner, that such a vote be reconsidered; and, if this motion
prevails, the matter stands before the assembly in precisely the same
state and condition, and the same questions are to be put in relation
to it, as if the vote reconsidered had never been passed. Thus, if an
amendment by inserting words is moved and rejected, the same amendment
cannot be moved again; but, the assembly may reconsider the vote by
which it was rejected, and then the question will recur on the
amendment, precisely as if the former vote had never been passed.

257. It is usual in legislative bodies, to regulate by a special rule
the time, manner, and by whom, a motion to reconsider may be made;
thus, for example, that it shall be made only on the same or a
succeeding day,—by a member who voted with the majority,—or at a time
when there are as many members present as there were when the vote was
passed; but, where there is no special rule on the subject, a motion
to reconsider must be considered in the same light as any other
motion, and as subject to no other rules.

35. “The English Parliament rigidly maintains the principle that when
a subject has been once decided, either in the affirmative or
negative, it is to remain permanently as the judgment of the
house. To remedy the inconveniences that sometimes occur, it
resorts to various expedients; as, by passing an explanatory act,
or an act to rectify mistakes in an act, etc.”—Ed.

CHAPTER XV.

OF COMMITTEES.

Sect. I. Their Nature and Functions.

258. It is usual in all deliberative assemblies, to take the
preliminary (sometimes, also, the intermediate) measures, and to
prepare matters to be acted upon, in the assembly, by means of
committees, composed either of members specially selected for the
particular occasion, or appointed beforehand for all matters of the
same nature.

259. Committees of the first kind are usually called _select_, the
others _standing_; though the former appellation belongs with equal
propriety to both, in order to distinguish them from another form of
committee, constituted either for a particular occasion, or for all
cases of a certain kind, which is composed of all the members of the
assembly, and therefore denominated a _committee of the whole_.

260. The advantages of proceeding in this mode are manifold. It
enables a deliberative assembly to do many things, which, from its
numbers, it would be otherwise be unable to do;—to accomplish a much
greater quantity of business, by dividing it among the members, than
could possibly be accomplished, if the whole body were obliged to
devote itself to each particular subject;—and to act in the
preliminary and preparatory steps, with a greater degree of freedom,
than is compatible with the forms of proceeding usually observed in
full assembly.

261. Committees are appointed to consider a particular subject, either
at large or under special instructions: to obtain information in
reference to a matter before the assembly, either by personal inquiry
and inspection, or by the examination of witnesses; and to digest and
put into the proper form, for the adoption of the assembly, all
resolutions, votes, orders, and other papers, with which they may be
charged. Committees are commonly said to be the “eyes and ears” of the
assembly; it is equally true, that, for certain purposes, they are
also its “head and hands.”

262. The powers and functions of committees depend chiefly upon the
general authority and particular instructions given them by the
assembly, at the time of their appointment; but they may also be, and
very often are, further instructed, whilst they are in the exercise of
their functions; and, sometimes, it even happens, that these
additional instructions wholly change the nature of a committee, by
charging it with inquiries quite different from those for which it was
originally established.

Sect. II. Their Appointment.

263. In the manner of appointing committees, there is no difference
between standing and other select committees, as to the mode of
selecting the members to compose them; and, in reference to committees
of the whole, as there is no selection of members, they are appointed
simply by the order of the assembly.

264. In the appointment of select committees, the first thing to be
done is to fix upon the number. This is usually effected in the same
manner that blanks are filled, namely, by members proposing, without
the formality of a motion, such members as they please, which are then
separately put to the question, beginning with the largest and going
regularly through to the smallest, until the assembly comes to a vote.

265. The number being settled, there are three modes of selecting the
members, to wit, by the appointment of the presiding officer,—by
ballot,—and by nomination and vote of the assembly; the first,
sometimes in virtue of a standing rule, sometimes in pursuance of a
vote of the assembly in a particular case; the second always in
pursuance of a vote; the last is the usual course where no vote is
taken.

266. In deliberative assemblies, whose sittings are of considerable
length, as legislative bodies, it is usual to provide by a standing
rule, that, unless otherwise ordered in a particular case, all
committees shall be named by the presiding officer. Where this is the
case, whenever a committee is ordered, and the number settled, the
presiding officer at once names the members to compose it. Sometimes,
also, the rule fixes the number, of which, unless otherwise ordered,
committees shall consist. This mode of appointing a committee is
frequently resorted to, where there is no rule on the subject.

267. When a committee is ordered to be appointed by ballot, the
members are chosen by the assembly, either singly or altogether, as
may be ordered, in the same manner that other elections are made; and,
in such elections, as in other cases of the election of the officers
of the assembly, a majority of all the votes given in is necessary to
a choice.

268. When a committee is directed to be appointed by nomination and
vote, the names of the members proposed are put to the question
singly, and approved or rejected by the assembly, by a vote taken in
the usual manner. If the nomination is directed to be made by the
presiding officer, he may propose the names in the same manner, or all
at once; the former mode being the most direct and simple; the latter
enabling the assembly to vote more understandingly upon the several
names proposed. When the nomination is directed to be made at large,
the presiding officer calls upon the assembly to nominate, and names
being mentioned accordingly, he puts to vote the first name he hears.

269. It is also a compendious mode of appointing a committee, to
revive one which has already discharged itself by a report; or by
charging a committee appointed for one purpose with some additional
duty, of the same or a different character.

270. In regard to the appointment of committees, so far as the
selection of the members is concerned, it is a general rule in
legislative bodies, when a bill is to be referred, that none who speak
directly against the body of it are to be of the committee, for the
reason, that he who would totally destroy will not amend; but that,
for the opposite reason, those who only take exceptions to some
particulars in the bill are to be of the committee. This rule supposes
the purpose of the commitment to be, not the consideration of the
general merits of the bill, but the amendment of it in its particular
provisions, so as to make it acceptable to the assembly.

271. This rule, of course, is only for the guidance of the presiding
officer, and the members, in the exercise of their discretion; as the
assembly may refuse to excuse from serving, or may itself appoint, on
a committee, persons who are opposed to the subject referred. It is
customary, however, in all deliberative assemblies, to constitute a
committee of such persons (the mover and seconder of a measure being
of course appointed), a majority of whom, at least, are favorably
inclined to the measure proposed.[36]

272. When a committee has been appointed, in reference to a particular
subject, it is the duty of the secretary of the assembly to make out a
list of the members, together with a certified copy of the authority
or instructions under which they are to act, and to give the papers to
the member first named on the list of the committee, if convenient,
but, otherwise, to any other member of the committee.

Sect. III. Their Organization and Manner of Proceeding.

273. The person first named on a committee acts as its chairman, or
presiding officer, so far as relates to the preliminary steps to be
taken, and is usually permitted to do so, through the whole
proceedings; but this is a matter of courtesy; every committee having
a right to elect its own chairman, who presides over it, and makes the
report of its proceedings to the assembly.

274. A committee is properly to receive directions from the assembly,
as to the time and place of its meeting, and cannot regularly sit at
any other time or place; and it may be ordered to sit immediately,
whilst the assembly is sitting, and make its report forthwith.

275. When no directions are given, a committee may select its own time
and place of meeting; but, without a special order to that effect, it
is not at liberty to sit whilst the assembly sits; and, if a committee
is sitting, when the assembly comes to order after an adjournment, it
is the duty of the chairman to rise, instantly, on being certified of
it, and, with the other members, to attend the service of the
assembly.

276. In regard to its forms of proceeding, a committee is essentially
a miniature assembly;—it can only act when regularly assembled
together, as a committee, and not by separate consultation and consent
of the members; nothing being the agreement or report of a committee,
but what is agreed to in that manner;—a vote taken in committee is as
binding as a vote of the assembly;—a majority of the members is
necessary to constitute a quorum for business, unless a larger or
smaller number has been fixed by the assembly itself;—and a committee
has full power over whatever may be committed to it, except that it is
not at liberty to change the title or subject.

277. A committee, which is under no directions as to the time and
place of meeting, may meet when and where it pleases, and adjoin
itself from day to day, or otherwise, until it has gone through with
the business committed to it; but, if it is ordered to meet at a
particular time, and it fails of doing so, for any cause, the
committee is closed, and cannot act without being newly directed to
sit.

278. Disorderly words spoken in a committee must be written down in
the same manner as in the assembly; but the committee, as such, can do
nothing more than report them to the assembly for its animadversion;
neither can a committee punish disorderly conduct of any other kind,
but must report it to the assembly.

279. When any paper is before a committee whether select or of the
whole, it may either have originated with the committee, or have been
referred to them; and, in either case, when the paper comes to be
considered, the course is for it to be first read entirely through, by
the clerk of the committee, if there is one, otherwise by the
chairman; and then to be read through again by paragraphs by the
chairman, pausing at the end of each paragraph, and putting questions
for amending, either by striking out or inserting, if proposed. This
is the natural order of proceeding in considering and amending any
paper, and is to be strictly adhered to in the assembly; but the same
strictness does not seem necessary in a committee.

280. If the paper before a committee is one which has originated with
the committee, questions are put on amendments proposed, but not on
agreeing to the several paragraphs of which it is composed,
separately, as they are gone through with; this being reserved for the
close, when a question is to be put on the whole, for agreeing to the
paper, as amended, or unamended.

281. If the paper be one, which has been referred to the committee,
they proceed as in the other case to put questions of amendment, if
proposed, but no final question on the whole; because all the parts of
the paper, having been passed upon if not adopted by the assembly as
the basis of its action, stand, of course, unless altered or struck
out by a vote of the assembly. And even if the committee are opposed
to the whole paper, and are of opinion, that it cannot be made good by
amendments, they have no authority to reject it; they must report it
back to the assembly, without amendments, (specially stating their
objections, if they think proper,) and there make their opposition as
individual members.[37]

282. In the case of a paper originating with a committee, they may
erase or interline it as much as they please; though, when finally
agreed to, it ought to be reported in a clear draft, fairly written,
without erasure or interlineation.

283. But, in the case of a paper referred to a committee, they are not
at liberty to erase, interline, blot, disfigure, or tear it, in any
manner; but they must, in a separate paper, set down the amendments
they have agreed to report, stating the words which are to be inserted
or omitted, and the place where the amendments are to be made, by
references to the paragraph or section, line, and word.

284. If the amendments agreed to are very numerous and minute, the
committee may report them altogether, in the form of a new and amended
draft.

285. When a committee has gone through the paper, or agreed upon a
report on the subject, which has been referred to them, it is then
moved by some member, and thereupon voted, that the committee rise,
and that the chairman, or some other member, make their report to the
assembly.

Sect. IV. Their Report.

286. When the report of a committee is to be made, the chairman, or
member appointed to make the report, standing in his place, informs
the assembly, that the committee, to whom was referred such a subject
or paper, have, according to order, had the same under consideration,
and have directed him to make a report thereon, or to report the same
with sundry amendments, or without amendment, as the case may be,
which he is ready to do, when the assembly shall please; and he or any
other member may then move that the report be now received. On this
motion being made, the question is put whether the assembly will
receive the report at that time; and a vote passes, accordingly,
either to receive it then, or fixing upon some future time for its
reception.

287. At the time, when, by the order of the assembly, the report is to
be received, the chairman reads it in his place, and then delivers it,
together with all the papers, connected with it, to the clerk at the
table; where it is again read, and then lies on the table, until the
time assigned, or until it suits the convenience of the assembly, to
take it up for consideration.

288. If the report of the committee is of a paper with amendments, the
chairman reads the amendments with the coherence in the paper,
whatever it may be, and opens the alterations, and the reasons of the
committee for the amendments, until he has gone through the whole;
and, when the report is read at the clerk’s table, the amendments only
are read without the coherence.

289. In practice, however, the formality of a motion and vote on the
reception of a report is usually dispensed with; though, if any
objection is made, or if the presiding officer sees any informality in
the report, he should decline receiving it without a motion and vote;
and a report, if of any considerable length, is seldom read, either by
the chairman in his place, or by the clerk at the table, until it is
taken up for consideration. In legislative assemblies, the printing of
reports generally renders the reading of them unnecessary.

290. The report of a committee being made and received, the committee
is dissolved, and can act no more without a new power; but their
authority may be revived by a vote, and the same matter recommitted to
them. If a report, when offered to the assembly, is not received, the
committee is not thereby discharged, but may be ordered to sit again,
and a time and place appointed accordingly.

291. When a subject or paper has been once committed, and a report
made upon it, it may be recommitted either to the same or a different
committee; and if a report is recommitted, before it has been agreed
to by the assembly, what has heretofore passed in the committee is of
no validity; the whole question being again before the committee, as
if nothing had passed there in relation to it.

292. The report of a committee may be made in three different forms,
namely: _first_, it may contain merely a statement of facts,
reasoning, or opinion, in relation to the subject of it, without any
specific conclusion; or, _second_, a statement of facts, reasoning, or
opinion, concluding with a resolution, or series of resolutions, or
some other specific proposition; or, _third_, it may consist merely of
such resolutions, or propositions, without any introductory part.

293. The first question, on a report, is, in strictness, on receiving
it; though in practice, this question is seldom or never made; the
consent of the assembly, especially in respect to the report of a
committee of the whole, being generally presumed, unless objection is
made. When a report is received, whether by general consent, or upon a
question and vote, the committee is discharged, and the report becomes
the basis of the future proceedings of the assembly, on the subject to
which it relates.

294. At the time assigned for the consideration of a report, it may be
treated and disposed of precisely like any other proposition (59 to
77); and may be amended, in the same manner (78 to 133), both in the
preliminary statement, reasoning, or opinion, if it contain any, and
in the resolutions, or other propositions with which it concludes; so
if it consist merely of a statement, etc., without resolutions, or of
resolutions, etc., without any introductory part.

295. The final question on a report, whatever form it may have, is
usually stated on its acceptance; and, when accepted, the whole report
is adopted by the assembly, and becomes the statement, reasoning,
opinion, resolution, or other act, as the case may be, of the
assembly; the doings of a committee, when agreed to, adopted, or
accepted, becoming the acts of the assembly, in the same manner as if
done originally by the assembly itself, without the intervention of a
committee.

296. It would be better, however, and in stricter accordance with
parliamentary rules, to state the final question on a report,
according to the form of it. If the report contain merely a statement
of facts, reasoning, or opinion, the question should be on acceptance;
if it also conclude with resolutions, or other specific propositions,
of any kind,—the introductory part being consequently merged in the
conclusion,—the question should be on agreeing to the resolutions, or
on adopting the order, or other proposition, or on passing or coming
to the vote, recommended by the committee; and the same should be the
form of the question when the report consists merely of resolutions,
etc., without any introductory part.

Sect. V. Committee of the Whole.

297. When a subject has been ordered to be referred to a committee of
the whole, the form of going from the assembly into committee, is, for
the presiding officer, at the time appointed for the committee to sit,
on motion made and seconded for the purpose, to put the question that
the assembly do now resolve itself into a committee of the whole, to
take under consideration such a matter, naming it. If this question is
determined in the affirmative, the result is declared by the presiding
officer, who, naming some member to act as chairman of the committee,
then leaves the chair, and takes a seat elsewhere, like any other
member; and the person appointed chairman seats himself (not in the
chair of the assembly but) at the clerk’s table.[38]

298. The chairman named by the presiding officer is generally
acquiesced in by the committee; though, like all other committees, a
committee of the whole have a right to elect a chairman for
themselves, some member, by general consent, putting the question.

299. The same number of members is necessary to constitute a quorum of
a committee of the whole, as of the assembly; and if the members
present fall below a quorum, at any time, in the course of the
proceedings, the chairman, on a motion and question, rises,—the
presiding officer thereupon resumes the chair,—and the chairman
informs the assembly (he can make no other report) of the cause of the
dissolution of the committee.

300. When the assembly is in committee of the whole, it is the duty of
the presiding officer to remain in the assembly-room, in order to be
at hand to resume the chair, in case the committee should be broken up
by some disorder, or for want of a quorum, or should rise, either to
report progress, or to make their final report upon the matter
committed to them.

301. The clerk of the assembly does not act as clerk of the committee
(this is the duty of the assistant clerk in legislative bodies), or
record in his journal any of the proceedings or votes of the
committee, but only their report as made to the assembly.

302. The proceedings in a committee of the whole, though, in general,
similar to those in the assembly itself, and in other committees, are
yet different in some respects, the principal of which are the
following:—

303. _First._ The previous question cannot be moved in a committee of
the whole. The only means of avoiding an improper discussion is, to
move that the committee rise; and, if it is apprehended, that the same
discussion will be attempted on returning again into committee, the
assembly can discharge the committee, and proceed itself with the
business, keeping down any improper discussion by means of the
previous question.[39]

304. _Second._ A committee of the whole cannot adjourn, like other
committees, to some other time or place, for the purpose of going on
with and completing the consideration of the subject referred to them;
but if their business is unfinished, at the usual time for the
assembly to adjourn, or, for any other reason, they wish to proceed no
further at a particular time, the form of proceeding is, for some
member to move that the committee rise,—report progress,—and ask leave
to sit again; and, if this motion prevails, the chairman rises,—the
presiding officer resumes the chair of the assembly,—and the chairman
of the committee informs him that the committee of the whole have,
according to order, had under their consideration such a matter, and
have made some progress therein;[40] but, not having had time to go
through with the same, have directed him to ask leave for the
committee to sit again. The presiding officer thereupon puts a
question on giving the committee leave to sit again, and also on the
time when, the assembly will again resolve itself into a committee. If
leave to sit again is not granted, the committee is of course
dissolved.

305. _Third._ In a committee of the whole, every member may speak as
often as he pleases, provided he could obtain the floor; whereas in
the assembly itself, no member can speak more than once.

306. _Fourth._ A committee of the whole cannot refer any matter to
another committee; but other committees may and do frequently exercise
their functions, and expedite their business by means of
sub-committees of their own members.

307. _Fifth._ In a committee of the whole, the presiding officer of
the assembly has a right to take a part in the debate and proceedings,
in the same manner as any other member.

308. _Sixth._ A committee of the whole, like a select committee, has
no authority to punish a breach of order whether of a member, or
stranger; but can only rise and report the matter to the assembly, who
may proceed to punish the offender. Disorderly words must be written
down in committee, in the same manner as in the assembly, and reported
to the assembly for their animadversion.

309. The foregoing are the principal points of difference between
proceedings in the assembly and in committees of the whole; in most
other respects they are precisely similar. It is sometimes said, that
in a committee of the whole, it is not necessary that a motion should
be seconded. There is no foundation, however, either in reason or
parliamentary usage, for this opinion.

310. When a committee of the whole have gone through with the matter
referred to them, a member moves that the committee rise, and that the
chairman (or some other member) report their proceedings to the
assembly; which being resolved, the chairman rises and goes to his
place,—the presiding officer resumes the chair of the assembly,—and
the chairman informs him, that the committee have gone through with
the business referred to them, and that he is ready to make their
report, when the assembly shall think proper to receive it. The time
for receiving the report is then agreed upon; and, at the time
appointed, it is made and received in the same manner as that of any
other committee (286).

311. It sometimes happens, that the formality of a motion and question
as to the time of receiving a report is dispensed with. If the
assembly are ready to receive it, at the time, they cry out, “now,
now,” whereupon the chairman proceeds; if not then ready, some other
time is mentioned, as “to-morrow,” or “Monday,” and that time is fixed
by general consent. But, when it is not the general sense of the
assembly to receive the report at the time, it is better to agree upon
and fix the time by a motion and question.[41]

36. “In theory, the majority of the committee should be of the friends
of the measure referred. But as a general rule it will be found
that, whichever political party is in the ascendant, that party
has a majority on the committee, as they will then be able to
control the committee’s workings, etc.”—Ed.

37. This rule is not applicable, of course, to those cases in which
the SUBJECT, as well as the FORM OR DETAILS of a paper, is
referred to the committee.

38. Jefferson says he will sit at the clerk’s table.

Mell says, “The chairman thus designated will take the
_President’s_ chair.”—Ed.

39. If the object be to stop debate, that can only be effected, in the
same manner, unless there is a special rule, as to the time of
speaking, or to taking a subject out of committee.

40. If it is a second time, the expression is, “some further
progress,” etc.

41. “Amendments proposed by the committee may be amended or rejected
by the assembly, and matters stricken out by the committee may be
restored by the assembly.”—Ed.

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

312. In bringing this treatise to a close, it will not be deemed out
of place, to make a suggestion or two for the benefit of those
persons, who may be called upon to act as presiding officers, for the
first time.

313. One of the most essential parts of the duty of a presiding
officer is, to give the closest attention to the proceedings of the
assembly, and, especially, to what is said by every member who speaks.
Without the first, confusion will be almost certain to occur; wasting
the time, perhaps disturbing the harmony, of the assembly. The latter
is not merely a decent manifestation of respect for those who have
elevated him to an honorable station; but it tends greatly to
encourage timid or diffident members, and to secure them a patient and
attentive hearing; and it often enables the presiding officer, by a
timely interference, to check offensive language, in season to prevent
scenes of tumult and disorder, such as have sometimes disgraced our
legislative halls.

314. It should be constantly kept in mind by a presiding officer,
that, in a deliberative assembly, there can regularly be but one thing
done or doing, at the same time. This caution he will find
particularly useful to him, whenever a quarrel arises between two
members, in consequence of words spoken in debate. In such a case, he
will do well to require that the regular course of proceeding shall be
strictly pursued; and will take care to restrain members from
interfering in any other manner. In general, the solemnity and
deliberation, with which this mode is attended, will do much to allay
heat and excitement, and to restore harmony and order to the assembly.

315. A presiding officer will often find himself embarrassed, by the
difficulty, as well as the delicacy, of deciding points of order, or
giving directions as to the manner of proceeding. In such cases, it
will be useful for him to recollect, that—

The great purpose of all rules and forms, is to subserve the will of
the assembly rather than to restrain it; to facilitate, and not to
obstruct, the expression of their deliberate sense.

* * * * *

NOTE: The so-called “cloture” has the same end as the American
previous question; it is intended to cut debate short. The English
previous question works to continue debate, and a new scheme had to be
devised in 1882. Then it was that the French cloture was adopted and
naturalized. Under the Cloture act the Speaker of the House or the
Chairman of Committee may say when he thinks the subject before the
House or the Committee has been sufficiently discussed, and if a
motion be made “That the question be now put,” he shall put the
question. If 200 members are in favor of putting the question, or if
less than 40 oppose it and more than 100 are in favor, he shall put
the question on the principal question before the House or the
committee at once. In this country, when a member reports a bill from
his committee he moves that the previous question be put at the end of
one hour; debate is therefore limited to one hour. In England, a
member, calling up a bill for its second reading, moves the previous
question, and votes against his motion. If the previous question
should be ordered, he would feel grievously disgusted—so would the
American Congressman, if the previous question should not be ordered.

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

PREAMBLE.

We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for
the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and
establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

ARTICLE I.

THE LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT.

Section I.—All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a
Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and
House of Representatives.

Section II.—1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of
members chosen every second year by the people of the several States;
and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite
for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature.

2. No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained to
the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the
United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of
that State in which he shall be chosen.

3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the
several States which may be included within this Union, according to
their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the
whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a
term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all
other persons. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years
after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and
within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they
shall by law direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed
one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one
representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of
New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three; Massachusetts, eight;
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, one; Connecticut, five; New
York, six; New Jersey, four; Pennsylvania, eight; Delaware, one;
Maryland, six; Virginia, ten; North Carolina, five; South Carolina,
five; and Georgia, three.

4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the
executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such
vacancies.

5. The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other
officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment.

Section III.—1. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of
two Senators from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof for
six years; and each Senator shall have one vote.

2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the
first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three
classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated
at the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the
expiration of the fourth year, and of the third class at the
expiration of the sixth year, so that one third may be chosen every
second year; and if vacancies happen, by resignation or otherwise,
during the recess of the legislature of any State, the executive
thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the
legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies.

3. No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age
of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States,
and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for
which he shall be chosen.

4. The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the
Senate, but shall have no vote unless they be equally divided.

5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a President
_pro tempore_ in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall
exercise the office of President of the United States.

6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When
sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When
the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall
preside: and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of
two thirds of the members present.

7. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to
removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office
of honor, trust, or profit under the United States; but the party
convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment,
trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law.

Section IV.—1. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for
Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the
legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time, by law, make or
alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators.

2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year; and such
meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by
law appoint a different day.

Section V.—1. Each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns,
and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall
constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn
from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of
absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as each house
may provide.

2. Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its
members for disorderly behavior, and with the concurrence of two
thirds, expel a member.

3. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time
to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their
judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of
either house on any question shall, at the desire of one fifth of
those present, be entered on the journal.

4. Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, without the
consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any
other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting.

Section VI.—1. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a
compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid
out of the treasury of the United States. They shall, in all cases,
except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from
arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective
houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any
speech or debate in either house they shall not be questioned in any
other place.

2. 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.

Section VII.—1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the
House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with
amendments, as on other bills.

2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and
the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the
President of the United States; if he approve, he shall sign it; but
if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in
which it shall have originated; who shall enter the objections at
large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such
reconsideration, two thirds of that house shall agree to pass the
bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other
house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered; and if approved by
two thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in all such cases
the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the
names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered
on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be
returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it
shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law in like
manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their
adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law.

3. Every order, resolution, or vote, to which the concurrence of the
Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a
question of adjournment), shall be presented to the President of the
United States; and before the same shall take effect, shall be
approved by him; or being disapproved by him, shall be re-passed by
two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to
the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill.

Section VIII.—The Congress shall have power—

1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; to pay the
debts, and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the
United States; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform
throughout the United States:

2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States:

3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several
States, and with the Indian tribes:

4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on
the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States:

5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof and of foreign coin, and
to fix the standard of weights and measures:

6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and
current coin of the United States:

7. To establish post-offices and post-roads:

8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for
limited times, to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their
respective writings and discoveries:

9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court:

10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high
seas, and offences against the law of nations:

11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make
rules concerning captures on land and water:

12. To raise and support armies; but no appropriation of money to that
use shall be for a longer term than two years:

13. To provide and maintain a navy:

14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and
naval forces:

15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of
the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions:

16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia,
and for governing such parts of them as may be employed in the service
of the United States; reserving to the States respectively the
appointment of the officers and the authority of training the militia
according to the discipline prescribed by Congress:

17. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over
such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of
particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of
government of the United States; and to exercise like authority over
all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the State in
which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines,
arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings:—and

18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying
into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by
this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any
department or officer thereof.

Section IX.—1. The immigration or importation of such persons as any
of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be
prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight
hundred and eight; but a tax or duty may be imposed on such
importation not exceeding ten dollars for each person.

2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended,
unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may
require it.

3. No bill of attainder or _ex post facto_ law shall be passed.

4. No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in
proportion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be
taken.

5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State.
No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue
to the ports of one State over those of another: nor shall vessels
bound to or from one State be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties
in another.

6. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of
appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the
receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from
time to time.

7. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no
person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall,
without the consent of Congress, accept of any present, emolument,
office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or
foreign state.

Section X.—1. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or
confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit
bills of credit; make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in
payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, _ex post facto_ law, or
law impairing the obligation of contracts; or grant any title of
nobility.

2. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any imposts or
duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary
for executing its inspection laws: and the net produce of all duties
and imposts laid by any State on imports or exports, shall be for the
use of the treasury of the United States, and all such laws shall be
subject to the revision and control of Congress.

3. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty on
tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any
agreement or compact with another State, or with a foreign power, or
engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as
will not admit of delay.

ARTICLE II.

THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT.

Section I.—1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of
the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term
of four years; and, together with the Vice-President, chosen for the
same term, be elected as follows:

2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof
may direct, a number of electors equal to the whole number of Senators
and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in Congress:
but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust
or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.

3. The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by
ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an
inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a
list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for
each; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to
the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the
President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the
presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the
certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having
the greatest number of votes shall be President, if such number be a
majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be
more than one who have such a majority, and have an equal number of
votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose, by
ballot, one of them for President; and if no person have a majority,
then, from the five highest on the list, the said House shall, in like
manner, choose a President. But in choosing the President, the votes
shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having
one vote: a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or
members from two thirds of the States, and a majority of all the
States shall be necessary to a choice. In every case after the choice
of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes of
the electors shall be Vice-President. But if there should remain two
or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them, by
ballot the Vice-President.

4. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and
the day on which they shall give their votes, which day shall be the
same throughout the United States.

5. No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United
States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be
eligible to the office of President: neither shall any person be
eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of
thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the
United States.

6. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his
death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of
the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-President; and the
Congress may, by law, provide for the case of removal, death,
resignation, or inability, both of the President and Vice-President,
declaring what officer shall then act as President; and such officer
shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President
shall be elected.

7. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a
compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during
the period for which he shall have been elected; and he shall not
receive within that period any other emolument from the United States,
or any of them.

8. Before he enters on the execution of his office, he shall take the
following oath or affirmation:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the
office of President of the United States: and will, to the best of my
ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United
States.”

Section II.—1. The President shall be Commander-in-chief of the army
and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several
States, when called into the actual service of the United States. He
may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each
of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties
of their respective offices; and he shall have power to grant
reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except
in cases of impeachment.

2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present
concur; and he shall nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent
of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors and other public ministers
and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of
the United States whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided
for, and which shall be established by law. But the Congress may, by
law, vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they think
proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads
of departments.

3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may
happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions, which
shall expire at the end of their next session.

Section III.—1. He shall, from time to time, give to Congress
information of the state of the Union, and recommend to their
consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.
He may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both houses, or either of
them; and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the
time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall
think proper. He shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers.
He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed; and shall
commission all officers of the United Slates.

Section IV.—The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of
the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for,
and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and
misdemeanors.

ARTICLE III.

THE JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT.

Section I.—The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in
one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as Congress may, from
time to time, ordain and establish. The judges, both of the supreme
and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior;
and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compensation,
which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.

Section II.—1. The judicial power shall extend to all cases in law and
equity arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States,
and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority; to
all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls;
to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies
to which the United States shall be a party; to controversies between
two or more States; between a State and citizens of another State;
between citizens of different States; between citizens of the same
State claiming lands under grants of different States; and between a
State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens, or
subjects.

2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and
consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the Supreme
Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before
mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both
as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations as
Congress shall make.

3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be
by jury, and such trial shall be held in the State where the said
crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any
State, the trial shall be at such place or places as Congress may by
law have directed.

Section III.—1. Treason against the United States shall consist only
in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving
them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason, unless
on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on
confession in open court.

2. Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason; but
no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture,
except during the life of the person attainted.

ARTICLE IV.

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.

Section I.—Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the
public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State;
and Congress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such
acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect
thereof.

Section II.—1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the
privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States.

2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime,
who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall, on
demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be
delivered up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the
crime.

3. No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or
regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor; but
shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or
labor may be due.

Section III.—1. New States may be admitted by Congress into this
Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the
jurisdiction of any other State, nor any State be formed by the
junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the
consent of the legislatures of the States concerned, as well as of
Congress.

2. Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules
and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging
to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so
construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any
particular State.

Section IV.—The United States shall guarantee to every State in this
Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them
against invasion: and, on application of the legislature, or of the
executive (when the legislature cannot be convened), against domestic
violence.

ARTICLE V.

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it
necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution; or, on the
application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several States,
shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either
case, shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as parts of this
Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of
the several States, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the
one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by Congress;
provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one
thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first
and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that
no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage
in the Senate.

ARTICLE VI.

1. All debts contracted, and engagements entered into, before the
adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United
States under this Constitution as under the Confederation.

2. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be
made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be
made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme
law of the land; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby,
anything in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary
notwithstanding.

3. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members
of the several State legislatures, and all executive and judicial
officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall
be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution; but no
religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office
or public trust under the United States.

ARTICLE VII.

The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient
for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so
ratifying the same. Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the
States present, the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the twelfth. In witness
whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names.

George Washington,
_President, and Deputy from Virginia._

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

Article I.—Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of
grievances.

Article II.—A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security
of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall
not be infringed.

Article III.—No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any
house without the consent of the owner; nor in time of war, but in a
manner to be prescribed by law.

Article IV.—The right of the people to be secure in their persons,
houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and
seizures, shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue but upon
probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly
describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be
seized.

Article V.—No person shall be held to answer for a capital or
otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a
grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in
the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger;
nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be put twice
in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal
case to be witness against himself; nor be deprived of life, liberty,
or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be
taken for public use without just compensation.

Article VI.—In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the
right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State
and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which
district shall have been previously ascertained by law; and to be
informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted
with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for
obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have the assistance of
counsel for his defence.

Article VII.—In suits at common law, where the value in controversy
shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be
preserved; and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined
in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the
common law.

Article VIII.—Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive
fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Article IX.—The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights
shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the
people.

Article X.—The powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the
States respectively, or to the people.

Article XI.—The judicial power of the United States shall not be
construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or
prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another
State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state.

Article XII.—1. The electors shall meet in their respective States,
and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at
least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves.
They shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President,
and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President; and
they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President,
and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of
votes for each; which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit
sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to
the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the
presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the
certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having
the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, if
such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed:
and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the
highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for
as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately,
by ballot, the President. But, in choosing the President, the votes
shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having
one vote: a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or
members from two thirds of the States, and a majority of all the
States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of
Representatives shall not choose a President, whenever the right of
choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next
following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the
case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.

2. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President
shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole
number of electors appointed; and if no person have a majority, then
from the two highest numbers on the list the Senate shall choose the
Vice-President. A quorum for the purpose shall consist of two thirds
of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number
shall be necessary to a choice.

3. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of
President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United
States.

Article XIII.—_Section_ I.—Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,
except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place
subject to their jurisdiction.

_Section_ II.—Congress shall have power to enforce this Article by
appropriate legislation.

Article XIV.—_Section_ I.—All persons born or naturalized in the
United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens
of the United States, and of the State wherein they reside. No State
shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or
immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State
deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process
of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws.

_Section_ II.—Representatives shall be apportioned among the several
States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole
number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when
the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for
President or Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in
Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the
members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male
inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens
of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation
in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall
be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens
shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of
age in such State.

_Section_ III.—No person shall be a Senator or Representative in
Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any
office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any
State, who, having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress,
or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State
legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to
support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in
insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to
the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two thirds of each
house, remove such disability.

_Section_ IV.—The validity of the public debt of the United States,
authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions
and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion,
shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State
shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of
insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for
the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts,
obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void.

_Section_ V.—The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate
legislation, the provisions of this Article.

Article XV.—_Section_ I.—The right of citizens of the United States to
vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any
State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

_Section_ II.—The Congress shall have power to enforce this Article by
appropriate legislation.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with
another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate
and equal station to which the laws of Nature and Nature’s God entitle
them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted
among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it,
and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such
principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall
seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence,
indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be
changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience
hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are
sufferable, than to right themselves, by abolishing the forms to which
they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations,
pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them
under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to
throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future
security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and
such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former
systems of government. The history of the present king of Great
Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having
in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these
States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world:

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for
the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing
importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should
be obtained; and when so suspended he has utterly neglected to attend
to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of
large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the
right of representation in the legislature—a right inestimable to
them, and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the repository of the public records,
for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his
measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly for opposing, with
manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time after such dissolution to cause others
to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of
annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise,
the State remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the dangers of
invasion from without and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that
purpose obstructing the laws of naturalization of foreigners; refusing
to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the
conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice by refusing his assent
to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their
offices and the amount of payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of
officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the
consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to
the civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to
our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to
their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them by a mock trial from punishment for any murders
which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring
province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging
its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit
instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies:

For taking away, our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and
altering, fundamentally, the forms of our government:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested
with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of his
protection, and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and
destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to
complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny already begun,
with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the
most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized
nation.

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high
seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners
of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections among us, and has endeavored to
bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian
savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction
of all ages, sexes, and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in
the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only
by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every
act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free
people.

Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We
have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature
to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them
of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have
appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured
them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations,
which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.
They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity.
We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our
separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in
war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in
General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the
world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the
authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and
declare that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free
and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to
the British crown, and that all political connection between them and
the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and
that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy
war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do
all other acts and things which independent States may of right do.
And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the
protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our
lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

INDEX.

_The figures refer to the numbers of the paragraphs._

Acceptance by the maker of a motion, of an amendment, 92, 93.

Addition of propositions, how effected, 88.

Adjournment, without day, equivalent to a dissolution, 139.
effect of, on business under consideration, 140.
_motion for_, takes precedence of all other motions, 137.
when it may be amended, 137.
form of, 138, 200.

Amendment, purposes of motions for, 60, 78.
order of proceeding in, 95, 191.
acceptance of by mover of proposition, 92, 93.
of amendments by striking out and inserting, 107, 108.
of amendment, to be put before the original amendment, 110.
of an amendment to an amendment, not allowed, 96.
object of such motion, how attained, 96, 97.
cannot be made to what has been agreed to on a question, 98, 99,
100, 101.
inconsistency of, with one already adopted, 102.
may show the absurdity of the original object of the proposition,
132.
may change the object, 128, 129, 133.
or may defeat the object, 130, 131.
by addition, 88.
by separation, 89.
by transposition, 90.
by striking out, 94, 103 to 112.
by inserting or adding, 94, 113 to 121.
by striking out and inserting, 94, 122 to 127.
_motion for_, by striking out and inserting, 103, 104, 111, 122.
may be divided, 122.
may be amended, 126.
manner of stating question on, 112, 121, 127.
precedence of question on, 123.
to strike out, decided in the negative, equivalent to the
affirmative of agreeing, 98, 100, 252.
if passed may not be renewed, 103 to 106, 113 to 116, 119, 124,
125.
stands in the same degree with the previous question, and indefinite
postponement, 184.
superseded by a motion to postpone to a day or to commit, 185.
may be amended, 96, 107, 117, 126, 184.
effect of vote on, 94 to 127, 187.
to be put before the original motion, 110, 120.

Apology, 42.

Assembly, Deliberative, purposes of, how effected, 1.
how organized, 2, 3.
judgment of, how expressed, 13.

Assembling, time of, to be fixed beforehand, 23.
place of, in possession of assembly, 9.

Authentication of acts, etc., of a deliberative assembly, 27, 32.

Blanks, filling of, 84.
with times or numbers, rule for, 85, 86, 87.
See _Precedence_.

Chairman, preliminary election of, 3.
See _Presiding Officer_.

Clerk, 5.
See _Recording Officer_.

Committees, objects and advantages of, 258, 260, 261.
who to compose, 258, 270.
usually those favorable to the proposed measure, 271.
mode of appointment of, 263, 267, 268, 269.
when by the presiding officer, under a standing rule, 266.
how notified of their appointment, 32, 272.
when and where to sit, 274, 275, 277.
_select_, 259.
how appointed, 264 to 269.
_standing_, 259.
what to be referred to, 74.
instructions to, 65, 76, 77, 262.
list of, etc., given by the clerk to the member first appointed,
272.
person first appointed on, acts as chairman by courtesy, 273.
proceed like other assemblies, 276, 279.
may proceed by sub-committees, 306.
mode of proceeding on a paper which has been referred to them, 279,
281, 283.
mode of proceeding on a paper originating in the committee, 279,
280, 282.
manner of closing session of, 285.
report of, how made, 282, 283, 284, 286, 287, 292.
form of report of, 286, 292.
mode of proceeding on report of, 292, 293, 294, 295, 296.
acceptance of report of, 295.
form of stating questions on report of, 295, 296.
See _Report_.

Committee of the Whole, of whom composed, 259.
how constituted, 297.
what a quorum of, 299.
who presides over, 297, 298.
who is clerk of, 301.
proceeding of, similar to those of the assembly itself, 302, 309.
mode of proceeding if one session does not complete the business,
304.
who may speak in, and how often, 305.
cannot refer any matter to another committee, 306.
cannot punish for breaches of order, 308.
disorderly words in, how noticed, 308.
differences between and other committees, 302 to 308.
presiding officer of assembly to remain in the room, during the
session of, 300.
See _Reports_, _Disorderly Words_.

Commitment, definition and purposes of, 73.
when a proper course, 60.
what may be committed, 75, 76, 77.
effect of a vote on a motion for, 183.
_motion for_, may be amended, 181.
supersedes a motion to amend, 185.
is of the same degree with motions for the previous question and
postponement, 182.
See _Committees_.

Communications to the assembly, how made, 44, 46, 48, 49.

Consent of the assembly, in what cases, and how far, to be presumed by
the presiding officer, 35, 237, 293.

Contested Elections, 7.
See _Returns_.

Credentials of members, 7.

Debate, proper character of, 201.
should be confined to the question, 209.
usual mode of putting an end to, 220, 221.
of shortening, 222.
See _Speaking_.

Decorum, Breaches of, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 223, 224.
how to be noticed, 40.
remedy for, 224, 225, 226.
how a member is to proceed to exculpate himself from a charge of,
40.
See _Disorderly Words_, _Order_.

Disorderly Words, cause of proceedings, when spoken, 227 to 231.
to be written down by the clerk, as spoken, 228, 229.
members not to be censured for, unless complained of at the time,
232.
spoken in a committee during its session, 278.
in committee of the whole to be written down, and reported to the
assembly, 308.

Disorderly Conduct, 9, 37 to 40, 313.

Division of a question, 79 to 83, 122, 123.
effect of, 80.
motion for, how made, 80.
right to demand, 81, 82.
when it may take place, 83.
See _Question_.

Elections and Returns, 6, 7, 8.

Expulsion, 42.

Floor, how to obtain, 46.
who has a right to, 47, 203, 204, 205.
member in possession of, to be interrupted only by a call to order,
200.
when usually allowed to the mover of a motion, 204.
when one relinquishes, for one purpose, he does so for all purposes,
205, 219.

Forms of proceeding, 10, 59, 315.
See _Order_, _Rules_.

Incidental Questions, 150 to 165.
questions of order, 151 to 154.
reading papers, 155 to 160.
withdrawal of a motion, 161, 162.
suspension of a rule, 163, 164.
amendment of amendments, 165.
See _Question_.

Introduction of business, how accomplished, 43.
See _Rules_.

Journal of a deliberate assembly, what and how kept, 32, 33.

Judgment of an aggregate body, how evidenced, 14.

Lie on the Table, purpose of motion for, 60, 71, 72.
_Motion for_, cannot be amended, 170.
when to be resorted to, 171.
effect of vote on, 71, 72, 172, 173.
takes precedence of all other subsidiary motions, 171.

List of members, 6.

Main Question, 63, 64, 135, 213.

Majority, decision by, on questions and elections, 24.

Members, rights and duties of, 36.
punishments of, 42.
not to be present at debates on matters concerning themselves, 41,
225, 230.
proceedings on quarrels between, caution relating to, 314.

Membership, rights of, how decided, 8.

Modification of a motion by the mover, 92.

Motion, definition of, 45, 59, 233.
to be in writing, 54.
to be seconded, 53 to 55.
how seconded, 55.
when in order, 247.
subsidiary, need not be in writing, 54.
but must be seconded, 55.
to suppress a proposition, 62.
to be stated or read for the information of any member, 57.
can be withdrawn only by leave, 56, 92.
when before the assembly, none other can be received, except
privileged motions, 58.
is not before the assembly, until stated by its presiding officer,
198.
not in order unless the maker be called to by the presiding officer,
200.
by one seated, or not addressing the chair, not to be received, 200.
principal and subsidiary, cannot be made together, 199.

Naming a member, what, 40, 225.

Numbers prefixed to paragraphs of a proposition, not a part of it, 91.

Officers of an assembly, titles of, 5.
who are, usually, 26.
how appointed, and removable, 26.
a majority, necessary to elect, 26.
when not members of the assembly, 5.
_pro tempore_, when to be chosen, 29.
See _Presiding Officer_, _Recording Officer_.

Order of a deliberative assembly, what, 13.
_of business_, 188 to 200.
how established, 190.
_questions of_, what, 152.
how decided, 154, 248.
form of, on appeal, 154.
no debate upon, allowed during divisions, 248.
_rules of_, to be enforced without delay, 151.
_call to_, effect of, 214.
who may make, 151.
interrupts the business under consideration, 153.
See _Disorderly Conduct_, _Disorderly Words_.

Orders of the Day, definition of, 142.
motion for, a privileged question for the day, 143, 144, 145, 146.
motion for, generally supersedes other propositions, 143, 144.
being taken up, the business interrupted thereby is suspended, 147.
fall, if not taken up on the day fixed, 149.
unless by special rule, 149.

Organization, necessity for, 1.
usual mode of, 3.
on report of a committee, 4.

Papers and Documents, in whose custody, 33.

Parliamentary Law, common, what, 6, 10.
See _Rules_.

Parliamentary Rules, whence derived, 11.
in each State, how formed, 11.
See _Rules_.

Petitions, requisites to, 49.
to be offered by members, 49, 50.
mode of offering, 51.
to be read by the clerk, if received, 52.
regular and usual action on presenting, 51, 52.
contents of, to be known by member presenting, 50.
to be in respectful language, 50.

Postponement, effect of vote on motion for, 180.
_motion for_, may be amended, 176.
how amended, 177, 178.
supersedes a motion to amend, 185.
is not superseded by a motion to commit or to amend, 179.
is of the same degree with a motion for the previous question,
179.
_indefinite_, purpose of motion for, 60, 67.
effect of vote on motion for, 67.
_to a day certain_, purpose of motion for, 68, 69.
an improper use of, 70.

Power of assembly to eject strangers, 9.

Preamble, or title, usually considered after the paper is gone through
with, 192.

Precedence _of motions_, 171, 174, 179, 182, 186, 197, 220.
_of questions_, 123, 134, 135, 153.
as to reference to a committee, 74.
on motions to fill blanks, 85, 86, 87.
questions of privilege take precedence of all motions but for
adjournment, 141.

President, 5.
See _Presiding Officer_.

Presiding Officer, duties of, 27, 30, 40, 225, 313, 314.
to be first heard on questions of order, 207.
how far member of an assembly, 5.
not usually to take part in debate, 5, 202.
but in committees of the whole, 307.
or on point of order, 154.
to give a casting vote, 5, 243.
effect of not giving casting vote, 243.
may not interrupt one speaking, but to call to order, 207.
may not decide upon inconsistency of a proposed amendment with one
already adopted, 102.

Previous Question, _motion for_, purpose of, 60.
form of, 64, 170.
original use of, 63, 64, 65.
present use of, 65, 66, 220.
use of in England, 66.
cannot be amended, 170.
effect of vote on, 64, 66, 175.
effect of negative decision of, 65.
cannot be made in committee of the whole, 303.
stands in same degree with other subsidiary motions, except to lie
on the table, 174.

Privileged Questions, 136 to 149.
adjournment, 137 to 140.
questions of privilege, 141.
orders of the day, 142 to 149.
take precedence of all motions but for adjournments, 141.
when settled, business thereby interrupted to be resumed, 141.

Proceedings, how set in motion, 43.

Punishment of members, 41, 42.
a question of, pending, the member to withdraw, 230.

Quarrel between members, 38, 314.
See _Disorderly Words_.

Question, definition of, 233.
forms of, in use, 15, 60, 61.
when to be put, 235.
mode of putting, 236.
on a series of propositions, 193.
on amendments reported by a committee, 194.
mode of taking, 238, 240, 241, 242, 245.
when and how decision of may be questioned, 238, 239.
all the members in the room when a question is put are bound to vote
upon it, 244.
members not in the room, cannot vote on, 244.
when taken by yeas and nays, 245.
mode of taking, in Massachusetts, 246.
when and how to be divided, 79.
how taken when divided, 80.
motion to divide, may be amended, 80.
what may be divided, 83.
who may divide, 81, 122.
usually regulated by rule, 82.
incidental, defined and enumerated, 150 to 165.
subsidiary, or secondary, defined and enumerated, 166 to 170.
privileged, defined and enumerated, 136.
See _Incidental Questions_, _Privileged Questions_, _Subsidiary
Questions_.

Quorum, necessity for, 17, 19.
what constitutes, 16.
effect of want of, on pending question, 249.
necessary on a division of the assembly, 249.
want of, how ascertained, 19.
consequences of want of, 19, 249.

Reading of Papers by the clerk, 155.
by members not allowed, without leave obtained by motion and vote,
157, 158.
when to be omitted, 159.
when necessary, if called for, 155.
question on, to be first decided, 160.

Reception, question of, on petition, 51.
on report, 286, 293.

Recommitment, what, 73, 290, 291.

Reconsideration, general principle relating to, 250 to 253.
_motion for_, allowed in this country, 254, 255.
effect of, 256.
usually regulated by rule, 257.

Recording Officer, duties of, 31, 32, 33, 35.
how his absence is to be supplied, 34.
how elected, 3, 4.
precedence of, if more than one, 5.
papers and documents to be in his charge, 33.

Recurrence of Business, when interrupted by want of quorum, 249.
by motion for the previous question, 66.
for indefinite postponement, 67.
to lie on the table, 71, 72.
for adjournment, 140.
for the orders of the day, 147, 148.
by a question of privilege, 141.
by a question of order, 153, 230.
by a call of a member to order, 200, 214.

Reports of Committees, how made and received, 286 to 289.
how treated and disposed of, 292 to 296.
of a paper with amendments, 288.
action upon, 194, 195, 292 to 296.
when a new draft of a paper, 196.
acceptance of, 295, 296.
of committees of the whole, 310.
when to be received, 311.

Reprimand, 42.
See _Punishment_.

Resolution, what, 13, 233.

Returns, 6.
time for investigating, 7.
mode of investigating, 7.
who to be on the investigating committee, 8.
who to be heard on a question on, 8.

Roll, calling of, 32, 35, 245.

Rules of debate and proceeding, subject of, 14, 15.
general purpose of, 315.
what are necessarily adopted by assembly, 10, 20.
the same in this country and in England, 11.
usage does not give them the character of general laws, 12.
to be enforced without delay or debate, 22, 151, 152.
who may notice an infringement of, 22.
_special_, each assembly may adopt, 10, 20.
supersede ordinary parliamentary rules, 10.
usually provide for their own amendment, 21.
may be suspended on motion, 21, 163, 164.
motion to suspend, supersedes the original question, 163.
suspended only by general consent, 21, 164.
usually provide for their own suspension, 164.
may determine the number necessary to express the will of the
assembly, 25.
See _Reading of Papers_, _Speaking_.

Secondary Questions, 166.
See _Subsidiary Questions_.

Seconding of motions, 55, 309.

Secretary, 5.
See _Recording Officer_.

Separation of propositions, how effected, 89.

Speaking, rules as to manner of, 203 to 208.
as to matter in, 209 to 214.
as to times of, 215 to 219.
member, to stand uncovered, 203, 208.
not to make personal remarks, 211.
not to mention names of members, 206.
not to reflect on the assembly, or on its prior determinations,
210.
confined to the subject, 209, 213.
not to be interrupted, 219.
to speak but once on the same question, 215, 216,
except by leave, 217.
or to explain himself in matter of fact, 218.
See _Debate_, _Presiding Officer_.

Speech, reading of, by member, 157.

Subsidiary Questions, 166 to 187.
nature and effect of, 166.
enumeration of, 167.
cannot be applied to one another, 168.
exceptions to this rule, 169.
lie on the table, 171, 172, 173.
amendment, 184 to 187.
previous question, 174, 175.
postponement, 176 to 180.
commitment, 181, 182, 183.

Suspension of a rule, 21, 163, 164.
See _Rules_.

Transposition of proposition, how effected, 90.

Vice-President, duties of, 5, 28.
See _Officers_.

Vote, what, 13, 233.

Voting, right and duty of, 41, 244.
prohibition from, 42.
See _Members_.

Will of assembly, majority necessary to express, 24.
special rule may determine what proportion may express, 25.

Withdrawal of motion can be only by leave, 161.
effect of vote upon motion for leave for, 162.

Yeas and Nays, how taken, 32, 245.
in Massachusetts, 246.
what number of members may require, 25.
form of putting question, 245.

WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS.

_Friends and Fellow-Citizens_:

The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive
government of the United States, being not far distant, and the time
actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating
the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears
to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct
expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the
resolution I have formed, to decline being considered among the number
of those out of whom the choice is to be made.

I beg you at the same time to do me the justice to be assured, that
this resolution has not been taken, without a strict regard to all the
considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful
citizen to his country; and that in withdrawing the tender of service,
which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no
diminution of zeal for your future interest; no deficiency of grateful
respect for your past kindness; but am supported by a full conviction,
that the step is compatible with both.

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to which
your suffrages have twice called me, have been a uniform sacrifice of
inclination to the opinion of duty, and to a deference for what
appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would have been
much earlier in my power, consistently with motives which I was not at
liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement from which I had
been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this,
previous to the last election, had even led to the preparation of an
address to declare it to you; but mature reflection on the then
perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations,
and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence,
impelled me to abandon the idea. I rejoice that the state of your
concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit
of inclination incompatible with the sentiment of duty or propriety;
and am persuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my services,
that in the present circumstances of our country, you will not
disapprove of my determination to retire.

The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust were
explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust I
will only say that I have, with good intentions, contributed toward
the organization and administration of the government the best
exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not
unconscious, in the outset, of the inferiority of my qualifications,
experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others,
has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; and every day
the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more, that the
shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome.
Satisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my
services, they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe, that
while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene,
patriotism does not forbid it.

In looking forward to the moment which is to terminate the career of
my political life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep
acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved
country, for the many honors it has conferred upon me; still more for
the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me; and for the
opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable
attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness
unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from
these services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an
instructive example in our annals, that under circumstances in which
the passions agitated in every direction, were liable to
mislead—amidst appearances sometimes dubious—vicissitudes of fortune
often discouraging—in situations in which not unfrequently want of
success has countenanced the spirit of criticism—the constancy of your
support was the essential prop of the efforts and a guarantee of the
plans by which they were effected. Profoundly penetrated with this
idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to
unceasing wishes, that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens
of its beneficence—that your union and brotherly affection may be
perpetual—that the free constitution which is the work of your hands,
may be sacredly maintained—that its administration in every department
may be stamped with wisdom and virtue—that, in fine, the happiness of
the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made
complete, by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this
blessing, as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the
applause, the affection, and the adoption of every nation which is yet
a stranger to it.

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare,
which can not end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger
natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present,
to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your
frequent view, some sentiments, which are the result of much
reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me
all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. These
will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in
them the disinterested warning of a parting friend, who can possibly
have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I forget as an
encouragement to it your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a
former and not dissimilar occasion.

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your
hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm
the attachment.

The unity of government, which constitutes you one people, is also now
dear to you. It is justly so; for it is a main pillar in the edifice
of your real independence; the support of your tranquillity at home;
your peace abroad; of your safety, of your prosperity; of that very
liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee, that
from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be
taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction
of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against
which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most
constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously)
directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate
the immense value of your national union, to your collective and
individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and
immovable attachment to it; accustom yourself to think and speak of it
as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching
for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever
may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned;
and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to
alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the
sacred ties which now link together the various parts.

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens
by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to
concentrate your affections. The name of AMERICAN, which belongs to
you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of
patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local
discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same
religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a
common cause fought and triumphed together; the independence and
liberty you possess are the work of joint councils and joint
efforts—of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.

But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves
to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more
immediately to your interest. Here every portion of our country finds
the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the
union of the whole.

The _north_, in an unrestrained intercourse with the _south_,
protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds in the
productions of the latter, great additional resources of maritime and
commercial enterprise, and precious materials of manufacturing
industry. The _south_, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the
agency of the _north_, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce
expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the
_north_, it finds its particular navigation invigorated—and while it
contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the general
mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of
a maritime strength, to which itself is equally adapted. The _east_,
in like intercourse with the _west_, already finds, and in the
progressive improvement of interior communications, by land and water,
will more and more find a valuable vent for the commodities which it
brings from abroad, or manufactures at home. The _west_ derives from
the _east_ supplies requisite to its growth and comfort—and, what is
of perhaps still greater consequence, it must of necessity owe the
secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions, to
the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the
Atlantic side of the union, directed by an indissoluble community of
interest as one nation. Any other tenure by which the _west_ can hold
this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate
strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any
foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious.

While then every part of our country thus feels an immediate and
particular interest in union, all the parts combined can not fail to
find in the united mass of means and efforts, greater strength,
greater resources, proportionately greater security from external
danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign
nations; and, what is of inestimable value, they must derive from
union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves,
which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not tied together by
the same government which their own rivalships alone would be
sufficient to produce; but which opposite foreign alliances,
attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and imbitter. Hence,
likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those over-grown military
establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious
to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to
republican liberty. In this sense it is that your union ought to be
considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the
one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.

These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflecting
and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the union as a
primary object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether a common
government can embrace so large a sphere? Let experience solve it. To
listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal. We are
authorized to hope that a proper organization of the whole, with the
auxiliary agency of governments for the respective subdivisions, will
afford a happy issue to the experiment. It is well worth a fair and
full experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives to union
affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall not have
demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be reason to
distrust the patriotism of those who, in any quarter, may endeavor to
weaken its bands.

In contemplating the causes which may disturb our union, it occurs as
matter of serious concern, that any ground should have been furnished
for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations—_Northern_
and _Southern_—_Atlantic_ and _Western_; whence designing men may
endeavor to excite a belief that there is real difference of local
interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire
influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the
opinions and aims of other districts. You can not shield yourselves
too much against the jealousies and heart-burnings which spring from
these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other
those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection. The
inhabitants of our western country have lately had a useful lesson on
this head. They have seen, in the negotiation by the executive, and in
the unanimous ratification by the senate, of the treaty with Spain,
and in the universal satisfaction at that event throughout the United
States, a decisive proof how unfounded were the suspicion propagated
among them of a policy in the general government, and in the Atlantic
States unfriendly to their interests in regard to the Mississippi.
They have been witnesses to the formation of two treaties—that with
Great Britain and that with Spain—which secure to them everything they
could desire in respect to our foreign relations toward confirming
their prosperity. Will it not be their wisdom to rely for the
preservation of these advantages on the union by which they were
procured? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such
there are, who would sever them from their brethren and connect them
with aliens?

To the efficacy and permanency of your union, a government for the
whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict, between the
parts can be an adequate substitute; they must inevitably experience
the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all times
have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved
upon your first essay, by the adoption of a constitution of government
better calculated than your former, for an intimate union, and for the
efficacious management of your common concerns. This government—the
offspring of your own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon
full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its
principles, in the distribution of its powers uniting security with
energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own
amendments—has a just claim to your confidence and your support.
Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in
its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true
liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people
to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the
constitution which at any time exists, until changed by an explicit
and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon
all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to
establish a government, presupposes the duty of every individual to
obey the established government.

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and
associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design
to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberations and
actions of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this
fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize
faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force, to put in
the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party,
often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community;
and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make
the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and
incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent
and wholesome plans, digested by common councils, and modified by
mutual interests.

However combinations or associations of the above description may now
and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time
and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and
unprincipled men, will be enabled to subvert the power of the people,
and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying
afterward the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of
your present happy state, it is requisite not only that you steadily
discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority,
but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its
principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may
be to effect in the forms of the constitution alterations which will
impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what can not be
directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited,
remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true
character of governments as of other human institutions—that
experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency
of the existing constitution of a country—that facility in changes
upon the credit of a mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual
change from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and
remember especially that for the efficient management of your common
interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much
vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty, is
indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with
powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is,
indeed, little else than a name, where the government is too feeble to
withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the
society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all
in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and
property.

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state,
with particular references to the founding of them on geographical
discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn
you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the
spirit of party, generally.

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its
root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under
different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled or
controlled or repressed; but in those of the popular form, it is seen
in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the
spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different
ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is
itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more
formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which
result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose
in the absolute power of an individual: and sooner or later the chief
of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his
competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own
elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which
nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and
continual mischiefs of the spirit of party, are sufficient to make it
the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

It serves always to distract the public councils, and enfeeble the
public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded
jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against
another; foments occasional riot and insurrection. It opens the door
to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access
to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus
the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and
will of another.

There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks
upon the administration of the government, and serve to keep alive the
spirit of liberty. This, within certain limits, is probably true; and
in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with
indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those
of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a
spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency it is certain
there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose.
And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by
force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be
quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into
a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.

It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free
country should inspire caution in those intrusted with its
administration, to confine themselves within their respective
constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one
department to encroach upon another. The spirit of the encroachment
tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and
thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A
just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which
predominate in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the
truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the
exercise of the political power, by dividing and distributing it into
different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the
public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by
experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country, and under
our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute
them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or
modification of the constitutional powers be, in any particular,
wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the
constitution designates; but let there be no change by usurpation; for
though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the
customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The
precedent must always greatly overbalance, in permanent evil, any
partial or transient benefit which the use can at any time yield.

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity,
religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that
man claim the tribute of patriotism, who would labor to subvert these
great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of
men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man,
ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all
their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be
asked where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if
the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the
instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with
caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained
without religion. Whatever may be conceded of the influence of refined
education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both
forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of
religious principle.

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring
of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force
to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to
it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of
the fabric?

Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for
the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of
a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that
public opinion should be enlightened.

As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public
credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as
possible, avoiding occasions of expense, by cultivating peace, but
remembering also that timely disbursements, to prepare for dangers,
frequently prevent much greater disbursements, to repel it; avoiding
likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of
expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the
debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously
throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear.
The execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it
is necessary that public opinion should co-operate. To facilitate to
them the performance of their duty, it is essential that you should
practically bear in mind that toward the payment of debts there must
be revenue; that to have revenue there must be taxes; and no taxes can
be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant;
that the intrinsic embarrassment inseparable from the selection of the
proper objects (which is always a choice of difficulties) ought to be
a decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the
government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the
measures for obtaining revenue which the public exigencies may at any
time dictate.

Observe good faith and justice toward all nations; cultivate peace and
harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can
it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy
of a free, enlightened, and (at no distant period) a great nation, to
give to mankind the magnanimous and novel example of a people always
guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in
the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly
repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady
adherence to it? Can it be that Providence has not connected the
permanent felicity of a nation with virtue? The experiment, at least,
is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas!
is it rendered impossible by its vices?

In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that
permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and
passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in
the place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be
cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another an habitual
hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a
slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is
sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy
in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer
insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be
haughty and intractable when accidental or trifling occasions of
dispute occur. Hence, frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed and
bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment,
sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to the best
calculations of policy. The government sometimes participates in the
national propensity, and adopts, through passion, what reason would
reject; at other times it makes the animosity of the nation
subservient to projects of hostility, instigated by pride, ambition,
and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes
perhaps the liberty of nations, has been the victim.

So, likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another
produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation,
facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases
where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the
enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the
quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or
justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation, of
privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the nation
making the concessions by unnecessarily parting with what ought to
have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a
disposition to retaliate in the parties from whom equal privileges are
withheld; and it gives to ambitious, corrupted or deluded citizens
(who devote themselves to the favorite nation) facility to betray, or
sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes
even with popularity, gilding with the appearances of a virtuous sense
of obligation a commendable deference for public opinion, or a
laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of
ambition, corruption, or infatuation.

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments
are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent
patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic
factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public
opinion, to influence or awe the public councils; such an attachment
of a small or weak, toward a great and powerful nation, dooms the
former to be the satellite of the latter.

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to
believe me, fellow-citizens), the jealousy of a free people ought to
be _constantly_ awake; since history and experience prove that foreign
influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.
But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial, else it becomes
the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a
defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and
excessive dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate to see
danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of
influence on the other. Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of
the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious, while its
tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people to
surrender their interests. The great rule of conduct for us in regard
to foreign nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have
with them as little _political_ connection as possible. So far as we
have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect
good faith. Here let us stop.

Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none, or a very
remote relation. Hence, she must be engaged in frequent controversies,
the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence,
therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by
artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the
ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or her
enmities.

Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a
different course. If we remain one people, under an efficient
government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury
from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will
cause the neutrality, we may at any time resolve upon, to be
scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the
impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard
the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our
interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own
to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with
that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the
toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any
portion of the foreign world, so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty
to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing
infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less
applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always
the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be
observed in their genuine sense: but, in my opinion, it is
unnecessary, and would be unwise to extend them.

Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, on a
respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary
alliances for extraordinary emergencies.

Harmony and a liberal intercourse with all nations are recommended by
policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should
hold an equal and impartial hand, neither seeking nor granting
exclusive favors or preferences, consulting the natural course of
things, diffusing and diversifying, by gentle means, the streams of
commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing, with the powers so
disposed, in order to give trade a staple course, to define the rights
of our merchants, and to enable government to support them,
conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances
and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be, from
time to time, abandoned or varied, as experience and circumstances
shall dictate; constantly keeping in view, that it is folly in one
nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must
pay, with a portion of its independence, for whatever it may accept
under that character; that by such acceptance it may place itself in
the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet
of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be
no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from
nation to nation. It is an illusion which experience must cure, which
a just pride ought to discard.

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and
affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and
lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual
current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course
which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations; but, if I may even
flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit,
some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the
fury of party spirit; to warn against the mischiefs of foreign
intrigue; to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism;
this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your
welfare by which they have been dictated.

How far, in the discharge of my official duties, I have been guided by
the principles which have been delineated, the public records and
other evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. To
myself the assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at least
believed myself to be guided by them.

In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my proclamation of
the 22d of April, 1793, is the index to my plan. Sanctioned by your
approving voice, and by that of your representatives in both houses of
Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually governed me,
uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it.

After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could
obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the
circumstances of the case, had a right to take—and was bound in duty
and interest to take—a neutral position. Having taken it, I
determined, as far as should depend on me, to maintain it with
moderation, perseverance, and firmness.

The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct, it is
not necessary on this occasion to detail. I will only observe that,
according to my understanding of the matter, that right, so far from
being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been virtually
admitted by all.

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without
anything more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose
on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain
inviolate the relations of peace and amity toward other nations.

The inducement of interests for observing that conduct will best be
referred to your own reflections and experience. With me, a
predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country to
settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress,
without interruption, to that degree of strength and consistency which
is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own
fortunes.

Though in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am
unconscious of intentional error, I am, nevertheless, too sensible of
my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many
errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to
avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry
with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with
indulgence; and that after forty-five years of my life dedicated to
its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities
will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions
of rest.

Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by
that fervent love towards it, which is so natural to a man who views
in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several
generations, I anticipate with phasing expectation that retreat in
which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment
of partaking in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence
of good laws under a free government—the ever favorite object of my
heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors,
and dangers.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.
_United States, September 17, 1796._

Transcriber’s Note

Unequivocal typographical and paragraph numbering errors have been
corrected.

*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Manual of Parliamentary Practice - Rules of Proceeding and Debate in Deliberative Assemblies" ***

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