18G 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



legislation. It is not legislation that ' relates 

 directly to the appropriation ' in the bill. The 

 legislation which relates directly to the appro- 

 priation in the bill is the legisation which is 

 specified in the bill. "What is that legislation? 

 It is 'the act of February 28, 1871, or any acts 

 amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto.' 

 What does that mean ? It does not mean other 

 acts that may be passed after this bill was 

 brought in, but it means the acts that were in 

 existence when this bill was brought before the 

 Senate." 



Mr. Stevenson, of Kentucky, said : " Mr. 

 President, the success of our legislation de- 

 pends on understanding the rules and a strict 

 observance of them. I understand the Chair 

 to decide that this amendment is in order." 



The Presiding Officer: "The Chair has so 

 decided, and an appeal therefrom has been 

 taken and is now pending." 



Mr. Stevenson: "Now, sir, I wish to say 

 to the Chair and to the Senate that our pres- 

 ent rule provides that 'no amendment to any 

 such bill,' an appropriation bill, ' making legis- 

 lative provisions, other than such as directly 

 relate to the appropriations contained in the 

 bill, shall be received.' The question occurs, 

 then, does this amendment apply to any ap- 

 propriation in this bill ? It is proposed as an 

 amendment to the clause making an appro- 

 priation 'for defraying the expenses of the 

 courts of the United States, including the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia; for jurors and witnesses, 

 and expenses of suits in which the United 

 States are concerned, of prosecutions for of- 

 fences committed against the United States; 

 for the safe-keeping of prisoners, and for the 

 expenses which may be incurred in the en- 

 forcement of the act relative to the rights of 

 citizens to vote, of February 28, 1871.' 



" Now, it is proposed in this appropriation 

 bill to change a whole section of law. If this 

 amendment is adopted, it is reforming and 

 amending a legislative bill which has already 

 passed this House. It is moved, in other 

 words, to strike out 'city or town' wherever 

 those words occur in the election law of Con- 

 gress, and insert provisions making that law 

 applicable to the whole country; and we are 

 confined to five-minutes debates on a ques- 

 tion of this sort. This shows, as I conceive, 

 that, in the adoption of the five-minutes rule, 

 the Senate had no possible conception that an 

 amendment such as this could be passed. In 

 addition to that, you propose to strike out the 

 words 'circuit judge,' upon which there was 

 such a debate in the Senate, and to insert the 

 words 'district judge, 1 and that in an appro- 

 priation bill limited to five-minutes debate, 

 and sprung upon the Senate when no man had 

 any conception that such an amendment could 

 be offered. 



"If such an amendment as this is in order, 

 I cannot well conceive what amendment pos- 

 sibly would not be in order. We are not only 

 restrained from all the privileges of debate on 



this question, but absolutely the most stringent 

 election law, which operates on the suffrage, 

 the very vitality of free institutions, is to be 

 affected by inconsistent and unexpected amend- 

 ments like this, and the Senate are to be de- 

 prived of all discussion upon them. Why, the 

 Chair remembers that when this election law 

 was considered before it occupied hours and 

 hours; it elicited a discussion of days, and 

 well it might, because it strikes at the very 

 vitality of free institutions, which is the right 

 of the people to vote ; and now, upon an ap- 

 propriation bill, this election law is wholly 

 changed, striking out 'circuit judges,' extend- 

 ing the operation of that law from ' cities ' 

 to 'counties and parishes'; and we are re- 

 quired under a five-minutes debate to vote 

 upon it." 



The Presiding Officer : " The Chair will state 

 what he understands to be the question. It is, 

 Shall the decision of the Chair stand as the 

 judgment of the Senate? And the Chair 

 thinks that that deci'sion, until it is reversed, 

 is the decision and is binding, and if it is not 

 reversed it must stand." 



Mr. Conkling, of New York : " Mr. Presi- 

 dent, I shall move that this appeal lie on the 

 table. I believe, according to everybody's con- 

 struction of the rule, that will bring the Sen- 

 ate to a vote. Before submitting that motion, 

 however, I beg to say one word in reply to 

 the numerous speeches which have been made 

 assailing the ruling of the Chair. The rule 

 is: 'and no amendment to any such bill mak- 

 ing legislative provisions' shall be in order 

 'other than such as directly relate to the ap- 

 propriations contained in the bill.' Turning 

 to the bill I find:" 



For the safe keeping of prisoners ; and for the 

 expenses which may be incurred in the enforcement 

 of the act of February 28, 1871, to enforce the rights 

 of citizens to vote, or any acts amendatory thereof, 

 or supplementary thereto, $3,000,000. 



"What is the argument of those who deny 

 the decision of the Chair? It is that the 

 amendment is not legislation directly relating 

 to this. How can that be argued? Has it 

 ever been pretended that to be within this rule 

 one must move to increase or diminish the 

 appropriation ? Not at all. The rule expressly 

 tolerates general legislation, with no restric- 

 tion save one, namely, that it relates what 

 relates? That the general legislation relates 

 to the appropriation in question." 



Mr. Thurman: "If the Senator's argument 

 is right, we can move to amend all the laws in 

 regard to life-saving stations, for this bill re- 

 lates to them. I can move the steamboat bill 

 as an amendment to this bill." 



The Presiding Officer: "The question is, 

 shall this appeal lie on the table ? " 



The result was announced as follows : 



agan, Frelinglmysen ; Harlan, Howe, Kellogg, Mer- 

 rill of Maine, Morrill of Vermont, Morton, Nye, 



