190 



CONGRESS. (THE RULES.) 





to its partisan bearing, to see into what a strange 

 and va^ue condition this House would be left if this 

 were adopted. Whenever the question arises whether 

 tli ere is a quorum or not present, it is to be deter- 

 mined according to what he calls u ocular demonstra- 

 tion." The chairman of the Committee of the Whole 

 or the Speaker of the House is to see with his own 

 eyes that there is a quorum present. Who is to con- 

 trol his seeing? How do we know but that he may 

 see forty members more for his own purposes than 

 there are here in the House ? And what protection 

 have gentlemen if the Speaker saya he sees a quorum 

 if he cannot convert that seeing into a list of names 

 on the call of the roll by the clerk? 



I think my friend from Virginia will see that he 

 lets in the one-mun power in a far more dangerous 

 way than ever has occurred before in any legislative 

 assembly of which he and I have any knowledge. 



Aside from the insuperable objection that I have 

 raised to this proposition, as a thing that ought not 

 to be tried because of its vagueness, its uncertainty, 

 and the danger that members of the House may be 

 imposed upon by an unscrupulous Speaker that may 

 come hereafter I say that aside from all that, and 

 beyond all that, I ask members to consider one fact : 

 This has been a House of Eepresentatives since 1789. 

 This House has been the theatre of all sorts of polit- 

 ical storms and tempests. We have lived through 

 the times of great wars, of a great civil war, when 

 there were excitements hardly paralleled in the his- 

 tory of parliamentary annals. Yet during all these 

 years no man before, so far as I know, no party be- 

 fore has ever thought it necessary to introduce a rule 

 that gives the power of declaring the presence of 

 members by the single voice of one person ; a power 

 that will enable him to bring from his sick-bed a 

 dying man and put him down in this hall, so that 

 the Speaker shall count him, and make his presence 

 against his will and perhaps in his delirium, count 

 in order to make a quorum, so that some partisan 

 measure may be carried out over the body of that 

 dying man. 



Sir, the moment you get over the line, the moment 

 you cross the boundary of names, the moment you 

 leap over the iron fence of the roll, that moment you 

 are out in the vague, and all sorts of disorders may 

 come in. 



"And, sir, if the views of the eminent gen- 

 tlemen already cited could need further weight 

 or confirmation, it is found in the remarks of 

 the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conger) since 

 his retirement from this body a Senator from 

 that State : 



Sir, I in common with every member of this House 

 demand that there shall be a public exhibition of 

 presence a public record of votes ; that there shall 

 be tellers ; that there shall be yeas and nays ; that the 

 yeas end nays shall determine how you and I and 

 every other member of this House may have voted 

 and would vote. 



The point made by my friend from Ohio (Mr. Gar- 

 field) is a good one that we arc committing to the 

 Speaker of the House or the chairman of the Com- 

 mittee of the Whole the right first to determine who 

 are present and to determine when there is a quorum. 

 It is useless to say that there may not be times when 

 in such an emergency as would require the exercise 

 of this power the presiding officer would not be par- 

 tisan. Shakespeare foretold this when in one of his 

 plays he said: 



" Get thee glass eyes ; 

 And, like a scurvy politician, seem 

 To see the things thou dost not." 



Such politicians will come here on either or any 

 side. The force of circumstances, the impetuous pas- 

 sions of members which would produce such an occa- 

 sion, will influence men to see that which they see 

 not, with or without "glass eyes." 



I have no fear that this amendment will be adopted 



in this House, because it would be wrong in itself 

 it would be unconstitutional ; it would be violent! 

 partisan. I have no fear that the fair-minded men ( 

 this House on either side will adopt so violent an 

 partisan a measure. 



'And finally, Mr. Speaker, you had the cour 

 tenance and support of the distinguished Senate 

 and party leader (Mr. Hawley), at that time 

 member of this body, who said : 



Now, the evil, if there be one, in the existing sy? 

 tern, that of which gentlemen complain, is simpl 

 this, that we of the minority claim a right, by sittin 

 silent, to prevent less than a majority of the membei 

 elected from passing a bill. The wor^t that can b 

 done by a factious minority, if that be the term ar 

 pHed to it, is to fight until the actual majority of tn 

 members elected shall pass the bill. When they ai 

 present that friendly majority constitute a quorum < 

 themselves ; they do not require the assistance of th 

 minority ; they run the House themselves and pat 

 their bills. In case of what you call factious resisl 

 ance we drive them only to that. 



"Mr. Speaker, if you were right in 1880, whe 

 you stood side by side on this floor with Gai 

 field, Hawley. Conger and Elaine, the rule yo 

 now invoke will be powerless to aid you in you 

 purposes. For, as has been wisely said by" th 

 able gentlemen from Kentucky and Ohio (Mi 

 Carlisle and Mr. McKinley) this is a questio 

 not of parliamentary law, but of constitutions 

 law and construction, so that if the constitu 

 tional quorum is in fact a quorum of votes, thi 

 proposition will not bridge that yawning chasr 

 which lies between the law and precedents of ; 

 hundred years and those forbidding legislativ 

 realms toward which your steps are tending." 



The debate was earnest and able but aboundhi 

 in repetition. It closed Feb. 14, when the nei 

 code of rules was adopted by the following vote 



YEAS Adams, Allen of Michigan, Anderson c 

 Kansas, Arnold, Atkinson, Baker, Banks, Barthu 

 Bayne, Beckwith, Belden, Bclknap, Bergen, Bing 

 ham, Bliss, Boutellc, Bowden, Brewer, Brosias 

 Brower, Browne of Virginia, Browne of Montaru 

 Buchanan of New Jersey, Burrows, Burton, Butter 

 worth, Caldwell, Candler of Massachusetts, Cannon 

 Carter, Caswell, Cheadle, Cheatham, Clark of Wis 

 consin, Cogswell, Coleman, Comstock, Conger, Con 

 nell, Cooper of Ohio, Craig, Culbertson of Peunsyl 

 vania, Cutcheon, Dalzell, Darlington, De Haven, I) 

 Lano, Dingley, Dolliver, Dorsey, Dunnell, Evans 

 Ewart, Farquhar, Finley, Flick, Flood, Funston 

 Gear, Gest, Gift'ord, Greenhalge, Grosvenor, Grout 

 Hall, Hansbrough, llarmer, Haugen, Henderson o 

 Illinois, Henderson of Iowa, Hermann, Hill, Ilitt 

 Houk, Kelley, Kennedy, Kerrof Iowa, Ketchaui. Kin 

 sey, Knapp, Lacey, L'a Follette, Laidlaw, Lansing 

 Laws, Lehlbach, Lind, Lodge, Mason, McComas, Me 

 Cord, McCorarick, Mc.Kenna, Miles, Milliken, Moffitt 

 Moore of New Hampshire, Morey, Morrill, Morse 

 Niedringhaus, Nute. O'Donnell, O'Neill of Pcnnsyl 

 vania, Osborne, Owen of Indiana, Payne, Payson 

 Perkins, Peters, Pickler, Post, Pugsley, Quackenbusl) 

 Eaines, Kandall of Massachusetts, Kay, Reed of Iowa 



Stephenson, Stewart of Vermont, Stivers, Stockbridge 

 Struble, Sweney, Taylor of Illinois, Taylor of Ten 

 nessee, E. B. Taylor, J. D. Taylor, Thomas, Thorrip 

 son, Townsend of Colorado, Townsend of Pennsyl 

 vania, Turner of Kansas, Vandever, Wade, Walker o 

 Massachusetts, Wallace of Massachusetts, Wallace o 

 New York, Watson, Wheeler of Michigan, Wick 

 'ham, Williams of Ohio, Wilson of Kentucky, Wil 

 son of Washington, Wright, Yardley 161. 



