228 



CONGRESS. (THE RULES.) 



The advocates of this amendment contended 

 that it would tend to prevent legislation in 

 appropriation bills, while its opponents argued 

 that it would result in the old practice of at- 

 taching all sorts of riders to such measures. 



The third important amendment recommend- 

 ed by the majority of the Committee on Rules, 

 was to change Rule XXIV so as " to establish a 

 morning hour for the consideration of business 

 reported from the committees of the House. 1 ' 



The sentiment in favor of a change in the 

 old rules was overwhelming, and the proposed 

 amendments were adopted. The principal feel- 

 ing shown in the debate on the subject was 

 one of jealousy as to the power formerly held 

 by the Committee on Appropriations. 



In discussing the joint rules of the two 

 Houses of Congress, the Senate fell into a 

 curious wrangle about Rule XIII, which is as 

 follows : 



No intoxicating liquors shall be offered for sale, ex- 

 hibited, or kept within the Capitol, or in any room or 

 building connected therewith^ or on the public 

 grounds adjacent thereto ; and it shall be the duty of 

 the respective Sergeants-at-Arms of the two Houses, 

 under the supervision of the presiding officers there- 

 of, respectively, to strictly enforce the foregoing pro- 

 visions, and any officer or employe of cither House 

 who shall in any manner violate or connive at the 

 violation of this rule shall be dismissed from office. 



Mr. Vest, of Missouri, said : " I have no 

 committee-room, and have no personal in- 

 terest in this matter ; but there is one thing in 

 this rule which I have always opposed, and 

 that is the system of espionage, of informers, 

 which seems to be embraced within the pro- 

 visions of this thirteenth rule. Every Senator 

 here knows very well that his clerk or his 

 doorkeeper who sees him assuming the case 

 to exist with a jug, or a bottle, or a flask in 

 his committee-room, under the provisions of 

 this rule must inform upon him, or he will be 

 put out of office. We know that will not be 

 done; and we know no Senator would tolerate 

 it. If this rule is enacted there ought to be 

 an amendment to it that any member of either 

 House or any employe who connived at keep- 

 ing liquor in the Capitol should be expelled. 

 Let us apply it to Senators and Representa- 

 tives, and do not let us, if we propose to go 

 into wholesale prohibition, put it on the hum- 

 ble employes of the Senate and escape our- 

 selves. We know very well that any Senator 

 who wants alcoholic stimulants in his commit- 

 tee-room will have them, and we know that 

 he would inflict the severest punishment with- 

 in his power on any appointee of his who 

 would inform on him. All I ask is that equal 

 justice shall be meted out to all. I am op- 

 posed myself to the spirit of the whole thing. 

 I believe that it will do no good ; that it en- 

 courages hypocrisy, and that it is simply an 

 attempt of which no Senator would be guilty. 

 It is tampering to a fanatical spirit in the 

 country on this question, to which I, for one, 

 will never give my counsel." 



Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware, on the other 



hand, argued : " While I do not myself in- 

 dulge in intoxicating liquors, I have no objec- 

 tion to gentlemen, who see proper, doing so, 

 nor would I legislate to stop them from exer- 

 cising the freest liberty ; but, as a Senator 

 called upon to say whether liquor shall be sold 

 or exhibited around the Senate-chamber, I be- 

 lieve that the judgment of the country is that 

 it ought to be stopped, and hence I voted for 

 the proposed joint rule. I think it is a dis- 

 grace to the American people that the Capitol 

 of the country, erected for the enactment of 

 laws for the government of the people, should 

 be converted into a grog-shop, or a place where 

 liquor can be exhibited and sold, and where 

 the youth of the land who come here, and 

 who see proper to go to the restaurant, may 

 purchase liquor. I think that we should not 

 suffer this Capitol to become a grog-shop for 

 the dissemination of intemperance throughout 

 the land. I stand upon the resolution, firmly 

 fixed in my own mind that such a joint rule 

 ought to be passed, and that liquor should not 

 be sold within the bounds of the Capitol." 



Mr. Cockrell, of Missouri, said : " I pro- 

 pose that the same penalties shall be visited 

 upon Senators that we propose to visit upon 

 our subordinate officers for a violation of this 

 rule. It is right, it is just. I have known ap- 

 propriation committees a few times delayed by 

 reason of intoxication among the subordinates. 

 I have seen the Senate adjourn largely because 

 of the excitement of some of its members and 

 of the plain indications that unnecessary dis- 

 cussions were about to grow up. I do not say 

 that the Senate had to adjourn in consequence 

 of this fact, but certain Senators were so dis- 

 posed to discussion that the public business 

 would not have been carried on, discussion 

 would have been prolonged indefinitely, and 

 other Senators here know that that point is 

 well taken." 



Mr. Frye, of Maine, in vindication of the 

 Senate against this imputation, said : " I am, 

 on the whole, rather sorry that this discussion 

 has arisen on this clause, because some things 

 have been said here that Senators will regret 

 to have said. I remember breakfasting with 

 some distinguished Senators, five or six years 

 ago, who were members of the United States 

 Senate twenty or twenty-five years back. The 

 father of the distinguished Senator from Penn- 

 sylvania at my right (Mr. Cameron) was one 

 of them ; Senator Hamlin, of Maine, was an- 

 other. They began to relate reminiscences of 

 the United States Senate, and they said that 

 they had seen the Senate again and again with- 

 out a quorum because more than a quorum was 

 drunk. They had seen distinguished Senator 

 after Senator undertake to rise in his seat to 

 make a speech, and he could not rise because 

 he was drunk. I have been in Congress some 

 fifteen or sixteen years. When I first came 

 into the national House of Representatives, 

 take a night session, there would be a dozen 

 members of the other House breaking up tho 



