DISCIPLINARY POWER OF LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLIES. 



199 



atives was the adoption of the hour rule, " the 

 largest limitation on its freedom which any 

 deliberative assembly ever imposed upon itself, 

 and presents an eminent instance of permanent 

 injury done to free institutions in order to get 

 rid of a temporary annoyance." * It was moved 

 on July 8, 1841, as an amendment to the body 

 of rules ; and, at the same moment, the previ- 

 ous question was moved and carried. The vote 

 was immediately taken, and the rule estab- 

 lished.t The following observations were 

 made by the distinguished Senator Thomas H. 

 Benton, on the nature of this measure : 



Certain it is that with our incessant use of the pre- 

 vious question, which cuts off all debate, and the 

 hour rule, which limits speech to sixty minutes (con- 

 stantly reduced by interruptions) ; the habit of fixing 

 an hour at which the question shall be taken, usually 

 brief, and the intermediate little time not secure for 

 that question with all these limitations upon the 

 freedom of debate in the House, certain it is that such 

 an anomaly was never seen in a deliberative assembly, 

 and the business of a people never transacted in the 

 midst of such ignorance of what they are about by 

 those who are doing it. 



No doubt the license of debate has been greatly 

 abused in our halls of Congress as in those of the 

 British Parliament ; but this suppression of debate 

 is not the correction of the abuse, but the destruction 

 of _the liberty of speech ; and that, not as a personal 

 privilege, but as a representative right, essential to 

 the welfare of the people. For fifty years of our Gov- 

 ernment there was no such suppression ; in no other 

 country is there a parallel to it. Yet in all popular 

 assemblies there is an abuse of the liberty of speech, 

 inherent in the right of speech, which gives to faction 

 and folly the same latitude as to wisdom and patriot- 

 ism. The English have found the best corrective : it 

 ia in the House itself its irregular power ; its refusal 

 to hear a member further when they are tired of him. 

 A significant scraping and coughing warns the annoy- 

 ing speaker when he should cease ; if the warning is 

 not taken, a tempest drowns his voice ; when he ap- 

 peals to the chair, the chair recommends him to yield 

 to the temper of the House. A few examples reduce 

 the practice to a rule, insure its observance, and work 

 the correction of the abuse without the destruction of 

 debate. No man speaking to the subject, and giving 

 information to the House, was ever scraped and coughed 

 down in the British House of Commons. No matter 

 how plain his language, how awkward his manner, 

 how confused his delivery, so long as he gives infor- 

 mation he is heard attentively : while the practice 

 falls with just and relentless effect upon the loqua- 



take the subject for a point to stand on, and then 

 speak off from it in all directions, and equally with- 

 out continuity of ideas or connection of words. 



The measure having succeeded in the House, 

 an attempt was made to adopt it in the Senate. 

 Upon its failure, an unsuccessful effort was 

 made to introduce the previous question. 



PAIRING OFF. In 1840 a practice was com- 

 menced in the House of Representatives, which 

 has since been designated by the words " pair- 

 ing off": two members of opposite political 



* Thomas H. Benton's " Thirty Years in the Senate." 

 t In its present form, the rule is the last clause of section 2, 

 Eule XIV : " No member shall occupy more than one hour 

 in debate on any question in the House, or in committee, ex- 

 cept as further provided in this rule." That is. a member 

 proposing a measure may open and close, occupying' an hour 

 at each, if the general debate extends beyond one day. 



parties agree to absent themselves from the 

 duties of the House, without the consent of the 

 House, and without deducting their per diem 

 pay during the time of such voluntary absence. 

 They do as they please either remain in the 

 city, refusing to attend to any duty, or go off 

 together to neighboring cities ; or separate, 

 one staying and one going ; and the one that 

 remains sometimes standing in his place, and 

 telling the Speaker of the House that he had 

 paired off, and so refusing to vote. When the 

 first instance of such a statement occurred, ex- 

 President John Q. Adams, who was then a 

 member of the House, immediately proposed 

 the adoption of the following resolution : "Re- 

 solved, that the practice first openly avowed 

 at the present session of Congress, of pairing 

 off, involves, on the part of the members re- 

 sorting to it, the violation of the Constitution 

 of the United States, of an express rule of this 

 House, and of the duties of both parties in the 

 transaction, to their immediate constituents, 

 to this House, and to their country." This 

 resolution was placed on the calendar to take 

 its turn, but, not being reached during the ses- 

 sion, was not voted upon. This practice was 

 soon after established also in the Senate. 



A want of space will not permit further con- 

 sideration of the disciplinary power of Con- 

 gress, although the subject of the rules of 

 Congress may be said to be continued in the 

 subsequent remarks on the rules of the Parlia- 

 ment of England. Suffice it to say that the 

 rules of legislative proceedings in the United 

 States are essentially the same as those of the 

 British Parliament, from which they have been 

 derived ; although, to meet the circumstances 

 of Congress and the legislative assemblies of 

 the States, they have been, in some cases, 

 changed, differently applied, or extended be- 

 yond their original intention. Thus in each 

 State the general system of rules is in some 

 features different from the others, yet all are 

 founded upon the essential principles of parlia- 

 mentary law. (See POWERS OF CONGRESS OVER 

 WITNESSES.) 



ENGLAND. The parliamentary system of 

 England is one of the oldest in the world, and 

 its present state is the development of this long 

 period. Blackstone says, " As every court of 

 justice has its laws and customs, some the civil 

 or canon law, others the common law, and 

 others still, special laws and customs, so the 

 high court of Parliament has its general and 

 special laws, which are called the law and 

 practice of Parliament." The procedure of 

 Parliament is based alike on law and custom, 

 and is established in part by precedents, in 

 part by permanent rules and those which are 

 temporary, and finally upon statutes and pre- 

 rogatives of royalty. 



RULES OF PARLIAMENT. Parliament has al- 

 ways attached great importance to precedents, 

 both to demonstrate the existence of its privi- 

 leges and to fix its rules of procedure; and 

 whenever a dispute arises relative to them, 



