JAN. 9, 1837.] Abolition of Slavery. [H. OF R. national insult, and a personal reflection on every slave- These clerical mischief-makers, these sacerdotal panholder. They did not apprehend that these insolent, in- ders, should be well watched. It was a covert movetermeddling fanatics could inflict on them the least injury ment, in his opinion, with them to insinuate the influence whatever. They dared them to show their faces among of their church in State, and to enslave mankind, like them. They were prepared, and well knew how to their predecessors, who had flooded all Europe and Asia receive them whenever they approached. Should those for three centuries with Christian blood, and consigned ladies, however, who had made themselves conspicuous to the fagot and the flames three hundred thousand in their petitions, pay a visit to the South, he was not souls, victims of that heartless, merciless tribunal, the prepared to say in what manner they would be received; inquisition. An ambitious clergy, in all ages, had proven if they were under arms, led on by their holy priesthood, the greatest curses to national quietude and happiness whose handiwork was so plainly to be seen in every part of mankind, and had been productive of more calamities of the whole transaction of their deluded followers, he to the human race than any one other cause yet known was fearful that their reception might not be so very ac- to the history of the world. Like the element of fire, ceptable; but, under any other circumstances, he would the clergy, in their proper and appropriate sphere, might Vouch that, against the gallantry and chivalry of the South, prove a blessing to mankind; but when they left that they would enter no complaint. He most fervently pray-sphere, all history had proved that their influence was ed that, if the time ever did arrive when the people of more destructive than the consuming flame. Their the North should become so priestridden as to engage in march over the human mind was clandestine, and their this unholy enterprise, those reverend gentlemen might influence furtive; their most effectual enemy had ever be the first that were sent on this holy crusade, and been an exposition of their designs, when their feebleplaced in the front of the battle. He believed upon their ness became as apparent as their motives were execrable. heads rested all the consequences that mgiht grow out When the world once saw their designs in their true of the conduct of the abolitionists, and that their unholy characters, they had never failed to become, not only garments would be stained with every drop of blood that objects of contempt, but of disgust and detestation. would be spilt in this despicable contest, whether by civil They should be the last on earth to tamper with the war or from servile insurrection. rights of an intelligent people. He was not apprehensive that that class of politicians would ever be able to inflict any real or extensive injury on the people of the South; no, the people of that section of country defied all the efforts of all the abolitionists in the world; they were fully prepared for them now, and were daily becoming more so. They understood, full well, the unholy ambition of the priesthood who had kindled up this flame to the East and North, and who were now engaged in taking the advantage of the ignorant women and boys throughout the country. Look at the petitions; what one was not headed by a priest of some denomination or other, and filled up in part of women and children, adults and boys? A strict police was only necessary to proclaim their approach, and the measure of their iniquity was immediately meted out to them. But there was another reason, an apprehension, a serious, solemn apprehension, a dread of holy horror felt by every intelligent statesman, whose heart had ever throbbed with a patriotic emotion, for the bonds that bind together this sacred Union. Let the first step be taken here, let the first blow be struck, the first enactment made here, on that subject, revenge and dissolution of these States would be the war-cry from the Susquehanna to the Sabine, from the Balize to Mason and Dixon's line. No, sir, you cannot act upon this subject here. Whenever it was settled, he had, on another occasion, declared that it would not be within these walls, nor upon paper, nor parchment, nor by pact, nor compacts. The very first attempt to legislate on it would sever this Union into fragments; and it was ignorance, idle, worse than stupidity itself, for gentlemen to shut their eyes, and affect blindness to the consequences that must necessarily ensue from such an attempt; and he had little sagacity, indeed, who did not foresee in this act the inevitable downfal and prostration of our whole political fabric. Yes, sir, in the dissolution of this Union would end the fairest republic that the world had ever beheld, and its downfal be hai!ed with transport and joy by the kingdoms and pope. doms of the earth. Can we, then, sit silent and see the germes of our dissolution planting, and sprouting, and menacing the entire overthrow of our national existence? Sir, (said he,) no voice should be silent on such an occasion. The people should be aroused from one end of the nation to the other, and the dangers that imperilled them proclaimed in a loud voice. The slaveholding States would regard the first attempt to legislate on that subject, in the District of Columbia, as an "entering wedge" to further legislation for other Territories and States of this Union; and he would warn gentlemen to pause before they took the first step in a matter more momentous in national importance, by far, than the Revolution by which this nation gained its independence, and established on the ruins of arbitrary power the freest republic for the protection and preservation of constitutional liberty that is recorded on the pages of modern or ancient history. Let gentlemen pause, then, he repeated, before they gave the least countenance or toleration to a practice, or measures, fraught with a train of evils and calamities that unborn generations might yet live to deplore. As wisdom proclaimed that the first spark that fell that threatened a conflagration should be immediately extinguished, so true policy proclaimed that the first step about to be taken that threatened the very existence of our Federal Government, and to produce consequent evils that no human tongue could foretell, should be opposed and thwarted upon its very threshold. For one, he had ever been disposed to show them not the least countenance, here or elsewhere; and, so help him God, he never would, so long as he entertained the least regard for this Union and the preservation of our present form of government, which that subject threatened with such immediate and imminent danger. Mr. B. said the honorable gentleman from Massachusetts, [Mr. ADAMS,] he thought in the sincerity of his heart, as he had before intimated, was doing his constituents, and the Northern and Eastern people generally, the greatest injury, as well as injustice. If (said he) this course of things is persisted in, whether for political effect here or elsewhere, it will be impossible, in future, such will be the prejudices it will excite at the South, for any gentleman, merchant or otherwise, from the North or East, to reside in any one of the Southern States, or even to travel through any one of these States, many of which have hitherto been to them the mere abodes of hospitality and kindness, without being suspected as a spy or servile agitator, and put to the greatest inconveniences. Such would be the effect of this very misguided course pursued by his own countrymen. Sir, this is a practical view of the subject that I take, and in which I believe that the continued agitation of this subject by the abolitionists must eventually and inevitably result, and which at no distant day would amount to an entire non-intercourse between these two communities. He would here ask if that enterprising people were prepared to do any thing that would so much contribute to oppose their interest as private citizens, and to destroy their greatest prosperity? If they were a prudent, thinking people, they could not be blinded longer by a designing priesthood, or ambitious, jealous politicians. The project, therefore, of these deluded, ignorant fanatics would clearly be more injurious to their own neighbors than to those whom they sought to affect, but who were far, as private persons, placed beyond their baneful influence; and, as such, it was out of their power to affect their private property or their personal safety. It was only in a national point of view that they could affect the South, and that by destroying this Union, which composed this great and benign Government under which we lived; by effecting which they themselves were obliged to be the greatest losers. Let any statesman examine the subject, and that fact would be demonstrated beyond controversy. Why, then, should that deluded and miserable set of agitators receive the countenance of the North and East, more than from the South, whlie their efforts were so well calculated to cripple their best interests and check their growing prosperity. It is impossible that that sagacious people, heretofore so much famed for their foresight and intelligence, should now become so steeped in priestcraft, superstition, and prejudice, as not to be longer able to see their glaring impolicy, and the total subversion of their best interest, by their perseverance in the wild, impracticable, and visionary course pursued by their priesthood, in their abolition efforts. Truly degenerate must the sons of those revolutionary fathers of New England be, who contributed so much in effecting the glorious independence of this great republican empire. And is it possible that these hardy sons of the North and East should be so delinquent in duty as to require now to be spurred on by the petitions of adults, women, and school children? Sir, the whole subject is farcical, originated by the priesthood, to acquire distinction and political notoriety; Euch a one as should meet the contempt and ridicule of the sturdy sons of democracy of the East, North, and South, and such as should be indulged only in the dreams of old maids, grannies, and children. There is not an idea connected with any part of the subject that deserves the name of manliness, and becoming the consideration of an intelligent statesman. try? Are these people yet to learn to weigh the consequence of a severance of this Union, and particularly when fanaticism and anti-slavery become the avowed cause? Have they yet to count the cost and anticipate the loss of this mad project? Are they still ignorant that a non-intercourse law would be the immediate consequence of a separation of the two sections of this counAre they not aware that commercial regulations would be immediately entered into by the South, with the European Powers, on more advantageous terms than it is now had with them? Would not Great Britain jump at such a proposition; and embrace with avidity the manifold advantages that she would realize from the acquisition of such measures? Then, sir, what would become of your manufactories to the North and East? From what country would you get your raw materials, particularly cotton? Where would you find a market for your fabricated materials? Your coarse cottons and woollens, that are now consumed almost exclusively by the slaves of the South? Surely Northern politicians must have taken but a bird's-eye view of this subject, who can even connive at such a course of suicidal policy. There would necessarily be a perfect stagnation in [JAN. 9, 1837. every branch of your manufactures, and scenes of dis. tress and confusion, want and penury, would follow in thick succession, hitherto unknown to any part of the population of this country. But, sir, (said he,) these are not all of the calamities that such a policy would inflict on those unfortunate people. In whose hands, he would ask, was now placed nineteen twentieths of the shipping of this country? Certainly in those of the good people of the North and East. What, sir, would become of them and their com merce at such a time? Where would you find employ. ment for your sailors and seamen, excluded from the Southern ports and Southern trade? Your shipping would be left to rot in your own ports and barbors, and your seamen to prowl through your cities, in beggary and want. Such, Mr. Speaker, would be the inevitable effects, in my humble judgment, of a non-intercourse law, passed by the Southern States, on the interest of the North and East; and to such it must come at last, if the North and East are so blended with superstition and fanaticism as to give countenance to the Quixotic projects of the abolitionists. It is in vain for them to flatter themselves that the Southern people would prefer the continuance of this Union to a surrender of their right to their property, under any conditions or circumstances that might be proposed by foreign interference or fanatical agitation. No, there was not a member in that House from the South that would pause a moment in preferring the inviolable retention of his right to his property to a continuance of this Union; and should that question ever be made, which was now threatened by the character of the petition on your table, gentlemen deceived themselves egregiously, if they expected to hear one dissenting voice in any Southern or slaveholding State of this Union. He could assure the House, however much they might be divided in relation to men and abstract political principles, that on that subject at least there was but one sentiment prevalent throughout every slaveholding State of this Union, so far as his information extended. In fact, a man who paused in a decision on that subject, to the South would be deemed and treated as a traitor. He implored honorable gentlemen from all sections of the Union, if they had any lurking doubts or suspicions on that subject, forthwith to discard them. The whole scheme was impracticable, short of the bloodiest civil and religious war that had ever been witnessed or recorded in the history of man; and before it could be ef fected, the fairest portion of this favored land of repub lican freemen would be truly converted into "a howling wilderness." And were consequences like these to present no barrier to the wild enthusiasm of a fiend-like fanaticism? He called upon gentlemen upon all sides of the House to pause well before they took the first step to give countenance to the insanity of these fanatical madmen. Mr. B. said, so far as he was interested, it would not make the least difference to him, as a private man, to live in a separated or a united Government; but as a public man and an American statesman, he felt the deepest interest for the perpetuity of the Union, and the sa cred fraternity of the States; and it was that to which we must all come at last if this question ever gained ascendency in the Congress of the United States. The South would be compelled to decide whether they would give up their own property or the Union. Was there a single man in the nation so ignorant as not to know what would be their unanimous decision on that subject? Sir, said he, I repeat it, without fear of con tradiction, that there is not a man to the South of the Potomac that would not be looked on as a traitor, that would hesitate in deciding against the continuance of this Union under such degrading circumstances. Such s one could not live amongst us, and it is for the Eastern and Northern abolitionists to press us to make this most sad decision. What, then, will be their condition? Will they have liberated one slave more? Will it not be placed further out of their power ever to do this? Will they not have to decide, too, on this great alternative? Will they not have to decide whether they will remain members of this Union with the slaveholding States, or to separate from them in consequence of their continuing to hold their slaves? Sir, let them look to their commerce-their manufactories. Let them look to a nonintercourse with the Southern States; and what will become of these great sources of wealth, enterprise, and even sustenance, to a great part of their population? To a New England man human nature cannot conceive a project more suicidal and self-immolating than that now agitated by the religious fanatics and priesthood of the Eastern and Northern States. But such a policy could only be expected, when politicians were prompted to action by the exhortations of women and children. It is not in the field, nor is it in the cabinet, where the counsel of lovely woman has been found most potent; to adorn her sex, she is destined for a different sphere; and it is for the want of men, "That women become most mannish grown, And assume the part that men should act alone." He would tell the abolitionists, not a single object that they contended for could they accomplish, short of a civil war, and one, too, that would drench the fairest fields of this great republic with brothers' blood; and that they are stupid, silly, idle, creatures who dream of the contrary. Where, then, will be found their women and children, who crowd this House with silly petitions? Where their priests? In the tented field? No, sir, but skulking, shivering, shrinking from danger and responsibility, and even then denying the part that they had once taken in getting up this tragic drama. Will their women then be seen in the field, amid the clangor of arms and the shouts of victory, or heard in the cabinet with the cries of their children around them? Let the hardy sons of New England, who have had little or nothing to do with getting up this excitement, but on whom alone the brunt of war would rest, if acted out, answer this! They have never heretofore required the cries of their children and the exhortations of their women to urge them on in the defence of their rights. He looked on the whole of the present attempt of the priesthood and abolitionists as a libel on their character; and he believed, as he had every reason to hope, that it would be ultimately proven so. No; they knew too well that their rights had not been invaded by their brethren to the South-not even threatened by them; and he would not for a moment believe that that intelligent people would ever plunge this country into all the horrors of civil war, to gratify the base, cunning, and ambitious designs of an unprincipled, ignorant priesthood, who dared to speak alone through their women and children, and thus to instigate to false action men whom they would not meet face to face, and measure reason against reason on the impolicy and evil consequences of their acts. It But (said Mr. B.) this is no new mode with the priests to insinuate the influence of church in state. has been by the acquisition of such influence over the "weaker vessel," the imbecile and ignorant of all ages, that they have succeeded in enslaving mankind, which nothing but the light of reason, the progress of science, and the rapid march of universal intelligence, have contributed so much to dispel. If there be any that yet doubt of the baneful effects of this unwarrantable interference of the church in the affairs of state, let him cast his eyes over the history of the middle ages; let him view through that mirror through [H. of R. which is reflected a scene of blood and carnage that deluged the barrens of both Europe and Asia for four cen turies with blood, and have in vain challenged the history of the world for a parallel, and let him answer, when have similar causes failed to produce like effects? Mr. Speaker, (said he,) I am no alarmist. I would to God I could allay this spirit of fanaticism and folly, and that every man, woman, and child, in this land, could view it in all its native deformities. It poisons every fountain of social intercourse, and breathes over the whole circle of its malign influence a blighting and withering exhalation, before whose pestiferous blast all nature seems to sicken and decay. Yes, But, sir, perhaps I have dwelt long enough on this part of this disturbing subject. At least I have my own conviction of the indelicate if not the more unenviable situation that honorable gentlemen assume here, who persist in presenting these petitions, and urging their consideration on this House-a situation that no honorable member could be desirous to covet, however fond he might be of notoriety. He had always regretted exceedingly, whenever he had seen an honorable member of that House rise and announce his intention to present a petition of that character. He thought it much more fitting and patriotic in honorable members to put all such in their pockets, or return them to their deluded, shortsighted authors; or, perhaps, to those wily priests who had been more instrumental in getting them up. sir, better, far better, would the venerable and honorable gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. ADAMS] serve the clause of liberty, religion, and the peace and permanence of this Goverenment, were he to return them to his constituents, whether men, or women, or children, and warn them of the perils and dangers that they provoked by their follies. Let him go and convince them of the impracticability of their Utopian, visionary crusade against the rights of Southern men, who would sooner see their fields and their forests deluged with blood than yield to such a foe one particle of that sacred right that they had inherited from their fathers under their constitution, and held without molestation for the better half of a century. Let him teach these constituents (for uninformed they must be) how revolting it is to the feelings of honorable men to have impudent strangers, totally ignorant of their situations or conditions, to intrude on their deliberation, and undertake to dictate to them in what manner they should treat a subject, or dispose of it, in which they have not a single interest, and of which, from the very nature of things, they cannot have any thing like correct information. Let him, sir, return with his idle, self-immolating petitions, and endeavor to dispel from the eyes of those weak, deluded petitioners the trance that has been so ingeniously imposed on them by an ambitious, cunning, designing, but dastardly priesthood, whose predecessors have done so much mischief to mankind through all ages, without hazarding the first hem of their garments in battle. Let him show what all history has proven to be the consequences of a religious war, and that such must be, if persisted in by them, (and they can stir up enough to effect it,) the unquestionably inevitable result in the present case. Let no man deceive himself in the nature of this extraordinary project of fanaticism. There may yet grow out of its scenes that which, in enormity, will by far outstrip those enacted by the Christian and Turk in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries; and with what final benefit to the Christian world, let history speak. Yes, sir, proceed with your fanatic designs, and you may light up a blaze of even a religious war, that may end in the extermination of one portion or the other of our fairest countrymen. Will the Christians of the South, whose religion it is to hold slaves, yield in their love for H. OF R.] Abolition of Slavery-Freedom of Election. their religion and piety to those of the North, who have thus undertaken to pass sentence of condemnation on them? No. You will find some of our oldest and ablest men of the church, who have grown gray under their present institutions, where slavery is tolerated, taking the field in resistance to the usurpation and insolence of their foreign invaders, in defence of their religion, their rights, and their property. The church, too, may not escape the shock that some of their designing priests may have intended alone for state, by which the foundation of their presbyteries and episcopacies may be shaken to their centres; and it may shortly become necessary for the South to prescribe the limits to these ministerial incendiaries and their unholy abettors. To such a state of frenzy have they already excited the indignant feelings of the people of the South, that suspicion amounts to the conviction of any suspected of being an incendiary. The forms of a trial have been dispensed with, and will be, under this state of excitement; and the accused, though innocent, by the madness and folly of abolitionism, may be, in the hurry of the excitement that they have created, dragged to an ignominious punishment. I will again repeat, (continued Mr. B.,) that those ignorant creatures knew not what they had been doing; some of them were not even acquainted with the extent of the mischief that they had been induced by others to set on foot; in fact, none were more ignorant than themselves of the true nature of the subject, that they had presumed to dictate to this House in what manner they should act. He hesitated not to say, when this subject approached to extremes, that its mischiefs would recoil on the heads of its authors, though, perhaps, at the expense of the happiness and lives of thousands and tens of thousands of better souls.* Before Mr. BINUM had concluded his speech, (as given entire in preceding pages,) he gave way to Mr. TAYLOR, on whose motion the House adjourned. TUESDAY, JANUARY 10. On motion of Mr. ADAMS, several amendments were made to the journal of yesterday, the purport of which was to give a more definite description of the sundry petitions presented by him in relation to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. Mr. DAVIS moved a suspension of the rule, to enable him to offer the following resolution: Resolved, That all petitions, memorials, resolutions, propositions, or papers, relating in any way, or to any extent whatever, to the subject of slavery, or to the abolition of slavery, shall, without being either printed or referred, be laid on the table, and that no further action whatever shall be had thereon. Mr. D. called for the yeas and nays on the motion to suspend; which were ordered, and, being taken, were: Yeas 102, nays 78-not two-thirds. So the House refused to suspend the rule. FREEDOM OF ELECTION. Several reports having been made from the standing committees, and before the reports of committees were concluded Mr. BELL rose and said that he did not wish to interfere with the regular reports of committees, but In justice to the ministers of the Baptist and Methodist churches, from the best information had on the subject, they have had but little, if any thing, to do with getting up this fanatical excitement; and, in the South, it is believed that they are unanimously opposed to every step that the fanatics have taken in relation to abolition-Note by Mr. B. [JAN. 10, 1837. that he would now move for leave to bring in the bill, of which he had given notice the other day, to secure the freedom of election. The SPEAKER said the motion was not now in order; but that it would be in order for the gentleman from Tennessee to submit the motion at any time when, under the rule regulating the "order of business of the day," it would be in order for him to submit a motion on any other subject. Mr. BELL said he was under the necessity of making a question on this point. He had given notice of this motion the other day, because he could procure an opportunity to bring in a resolution which might accom plish the object. He thought that he was entitled to make the motion at this time. He did not propose now to offer a resolution, but a substitute for a report; and if the Chair was not satisfied that he had a right so to do at the present time, he must beg leave to submit a few remarks. The SPEAKER said he had looked carefully into the question, and it was his decision that the motion was not in order at this time. Mr. BELL appealed from this decision, and entered, at some length, into his reasons for so doing. The rule under which he had given notice of this motion was the 87th rule, which is in the following terms: Every bill shall be introduced by motion for leave, or by an order of the House, on the report of a committee; and, in either case, a committee to prepare the same shall be appointed. In cases of a general nature, one day's notice, at least, shall be given of the motion to bring in a bill; and every such motion may be com mitted." There were two modes, Mr. B. said, under this rule, of getting a bill before the House, and, in either case, it must be done by the order of the House; and even bills reported in the morning were received under the order of the House. The same law, the same reason, and the same rule, almost literally governed both cases. Both bills were embraced under the same rule, and the cohe rence was the same. Upon what principle was it that the Chair had decided that a motion for leave to bring in a bill should not be assigned the same hour as other reports? By what means could a distinction be made in the two cases? The decision not only postponed the time for a day, but might postpone it to the end of the session. He appealed to the magnanimity and sense of justice of the House; and, if that was not sufficient, he appealed to the right of deliberation in this House. He hoped that his character there was too well known to admit of the supposition that he would bring forward a frivolous measure, or one the object of which was only to give him an opportunity of making a barangue for ephemeral effect here or elsewhere. The SPEAKER stated the grounds of his decision to the House. He premised by saying that this was a novel proceeding in this House. From the organization of the Government (1789) to the present period, as far as precedents had been searched, but few cases were to be found (he believed but two or three) of bills brought in on motion for leave; and these, so far as any thing ap pears, had been brought in by general consent, and referred, sub silentio, to a committee of the House. The Chair had looked in vain for precedents, in the former proceedings of the House, to aid him in the course proper to be taken on this occasion. He had found none, and had been thrown back to the question of the construction which it was proper should be placed on these rules. In fixing this construction, he had adopted the principle familiar in legal proceedings, that that com struction was to be placed upon the statute which would give effect to every part of it, provided it be susceptible of such construction, and not to place such a construc tion upon one part as would totally abrogate and annul another, and render it inoperative. This is a "motion" for "leave to bring in a bill." It is made under the rule which provides that ". every bill shall be introduced by motion for leave, or by an order of the House on the report of a committee; and, in either case, a committee to prepare the bill shall be appointed. In cases of a general nature, one day's notice at least shall be given of the motion to bring in a bill, and every such motion may be committed." At what time, and at what stage of the daily proceedings of the House, is it in order to make this motion? The rules prescribe a particular "order of business of the day," for every day. The Speaker is first to "cause the journal of the preceding day to be read," and no other motion or business can be interposed until this is done. "As soon as the journal is read," "reports first from the standing and then from the select committees shall be called for and disposed of; resolutions shall then be called for, and disposed of by the same rules which apply to petitions." "And, after one hour shall have been devoted to reports from committees and resolutions, it shall be in order to proceed to the orders of the day." It is further provided that "the business specified in the two preceding rules [the reading of the journal, reports from committees, and resolutions or motions] shall be done at no other part of the day," except during the morning hour. Upon the meeting of the House this morning, the journal of" the preceding day was read,” as required by the rules; "reports from standing committees were then called for," as required by the rules. A part of these reports have been made, and a part remain to be made. At this stage of the proceedings a member arises, and proposes to interrupt and arrest the call for reports from committees, by offering to submit "a motion" for "leave to bring in a bill." Can this motion be entertained at this time? In the opinion of the Chair it cannot, without a palpable violation of the rule quoted. If it can be entertained at this stage, upon the same principle it could have been entertained immediately upon the meeting of the House this morning, and before the "journal of the preceding day was read." It The rules prescribe a particular order in which the business of the House shall be transacted. They provide a division or allotment of time, and set apart an hour on each day within which a particular class or description of "business shall be done," and expressly declare that this class or description of business "shall be done at no other part of the day." The order of business thus prescribed is, 1st, that the "journal of the preceding day shall be read;" 2d, reports from committees; and, 3d, resolutions and motions shall be called for and disposed of according to a prescribed order; and after the expiration of one hour, devoted to business of this character, it shall be in order to proceed to the orders of the day. These are the express requisitions of these rules. may be asked, at what time can this "motion for leave to bring in a bill," be made? The answer is furnished by the rule itself. After reports from committees are made and disposed of, "resolutions shall then be called for" from the several States, in the order of the States, as prescribed in the rule. The member must wait until his State shall be called, and it shall be in order for him to move a resolution, or make a motion, and then it will be regular to entertain this motion. This is the only proper time to make the motion, unless, by a suspension of the rules, which requires a vote of two thirds, it shall be allowed by the House at another hour of the day. But it is suggested that "resolution," the term used in the rule, is not a motion. They belong to the same class of business. A resolution is in the nature of a motion, and a motion in the nature of a resolution, and in the practice of the House they have been invariably treated [H. OF R. and acted on as synonimous. For example, when the States are called for resolutions, it has been the constant practice to make motions to print documents, and on various other subjects. A motion is an unwritten resolution, and, when submitted, is reduced to writing and is recorded on the journal. This objection is technical, and not substantial. If it be not so, then we must come to the absurd conclusion that, by the rules, there is no time at which motions are in order. By this construction, both rules, the one giving the right to a member to "submit a motion for leave to bring in a bill," and the other prescribing the "order of business of the day" during the morning hour, have their full operation. The member has a right to make this motion, but he must wait until the time arrives when it is in order for him to do it. If a contrary construction be given; if a member has a right at any time of the day to make the motion proposed, then the rule prescribing the "order of business of the day" is practically abrogated and rescinded. If this motion may be made at a period of the day to interrupt and arrest the call for reports from committees, and the call of the States for resolutions and motions in the order of States, as prescribed by the rule, there is nothing to prevent it from being made before the journal of the preceding day has been read; and to permit either would be totally to change and revolutionize the settled order of business of this House. What would be the consequences which would follow? The member making the motion for leave would bave a right to debate it. He would have a right not only to state the character of the bill which he asks leave to bring in, but to discuss its merits. He may debate it, if he chooses, through the day. Other members may also debate it, in favor or against "the motion for leave" to bring it in; and thus the regular and established order of business under these rules would be deranged and set aside, at the will of any one member, at any period of the day, when he chooses to make a "motion for leave to bring in a bill." The daily reports made by committees would be arrested, not only for one day, but as long as the debate on the motion may continue. All resolutions and motions, pending and undetermined, as well as those to be offered, must be postponed, and precedence given to this motion. There is nothing in the rule authorizing this motion to be made which makes it a privileged motion, to take precedence over all other business; and to permit it to be made so would be not only to change the mode and order of doing business in this House, from the first Congress to the present time, but to put it in the power of individual members to obstruct, delay, and prevent action on the other business of the House. By restricting the right to make this motion to the proper hour for submitting motions or resolutions, all confusion and derangement of the "order of the business of the House" will be avoided. The motion, when submitted in proper time, will be subject to all the rules which apply to other motions and resolutions; and thus the business of the House will go on regularly, and according to the established practice and usages of the House. To illustrate further to what practical results a contrary decision from that which had been given would lead, the Speaker stated that it was only "in cases of a general nature" that one day's notice of this motion was required. In cases not of a general nature, no notice of the motion was required. Suppose a member has a petition and a resolution which he desires to present, with a view to have them referred to a committee of the House for a report and bill, for the relief of his constituents. By the rules, petitions can only be presented on petition day, being the first day of the meeting of the House in each week; and then only as the States are called in their order for the presentation of petitions. |