tee as the House of Representatives may appoint, whose duty shall be to receive, sort and count the votes for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Treasurer; and shall, in like manner, appoint a committee of one Senator from each county to join such committee as the House of Representatives may appoint, whose duty shall be to canvass the votes for County and Probate officers, and make report thereof to the joint assembly of both Houses.. 2. The Senate shall meet every day (Sundays excepted) at ten o'clock in the morning, and two o'clock in the afternoon, unless otherwise specially ordered. 3. The President having taken the chair, and a quorum being present, the journal of the preceding day shall be read, and all errors therein corrected. 4. In case no quorum shall assemble within fifteen minutes after the time to which the Senate was adjourned, those present shall have the power to send the Sergeant-at-Arms, or other officer, after the absentees, and compel their attendance. 5. Whenever the Senate shall assemble, according to adjournment, or at the commencement of a session, and the President shall be absent, it shall be the duty of the Secretary, if present, if not, of a Senator, to call to order; and the Senators present, if a quorum, shall by ballot elect a President pro tempore. 6. No Senator shall be absent without leave, unless he is sick, or otherwise necessarily detained. 7. No Senator shall audibly speak to another, or otherwise interrupt the business of the Senate, while the journal or other public papers are being read, or while a Senator is orderly speaking in debate. 8. Every Senator, when he speaks, shall, standing in his place, address the President, and when he has finished shall sit down. 9. No member shall speak more than twice on the same question, without leave of the Senate; and Senators who have once spoken, shall not again be entitled to the floor (except for the purpose of explanation) to the exclusion of another who has not spoken. 10. In all cases, the Senator first arising and addressing the President (subject to the restriction of rule 9,) shall be entitled to the floor, and when two or more arise at the same time, the President shall name the one who is to speak. 11. When a Senator shall be called to order, he shall sit down; and every question of order shall be decided by the President without debate, subject to an appeal to the Senate. 12. If a Senator be called to order for words spoken, the exceptional words shall be immediately taken down in writing by the Senator calling to order, that the President may be better enabled to judge of the matter. 13. The first hour of each morning's sitting may be devoted to the reception and disposal of petitions, memorials and remonstrances, motions, resolutions, and the introduction of bills; after which the orders of the day, or other proper business, shall be announced, always commencing with the unfinished business of the last sitting. The first hour of the afternoon's sitting may be occupied in receiving and disposing of reports of committees, and in completing the business of the morning hour; at the expiration of which, the Senate will again take up the orders of the day. 14. Reports of committees may be signed by any member in behalf of the committee, and shall be by him presented to the Senate, when the call for reports is made. The signer of each report shall be held responsible for the accuracy of its statements, and the propriety of its language, and when the same shall be under consideration, he shall be further liable to give additional statements of facts or other explanations, in answer to the call of any Senator. 15. The proceedings of the Senate, except when acting as in Committee of the Whole, embracing the titles of bills and such parts thereof as may be affected by the proposed amendments, and also the names of the Senators, and the votes which they give on every question decided by yeas and nays, shall be, by the Secretary, accurately and concisely inserted in the Journal. 16. The Senate shall biennially, within the first four days of actual sitting, elect, by ballot, a Secretary, and an Assistant Secretary, who shall be severally sworn to the faithful discharge of their duties, and shall hold their offices until superseded by a new election. Assistant Secretary shall be ex-officio, engrossing clerk. 17. The The Senate shall at each biennial session appoint the following committees, to consist of three members each, except that the Committees on the Judiciary and on Railroads shall consist of seven members each, and the Committees on Claims and on Education shall consist of five members each: A Committee on Rules. A Committee on Education. A Committee on Agriculture. A Committee on Elections. A Committee on Military Affairs. A Committee on Railroads. A Committee on Highways and Bridges. A Committee on Banks. A Committee on Land Taxes. A Committee on Printing. A General Committee. A Committee on Federal Relations. A Committee on the State Prison. A Committee on the Insane Asylum. A Committee on the Grand List. 18. All bills after the second reading, and all petitions, memorials, remonstrances, resolutions and other papers, calling for legislative action (except such as have been reported by a committee), no objection being made, shall be referred by the President to appropriate committees. 19. Before any resolution, any petition, or other paper addressed to the Senate, shall be received and read, whether the same shall be introduced by the President or a Senator, the title shall be fairly endorsed thereon, and a brief statement of its objects or contents shall be made by the introducer. 20. Every motion shall be reduced to writing by the mover, if required thereto by the President or a Senator, and a motion to lay another motion, the latter not being in writing, on the table, or otherwise to dispose of it, shall not be in order. 21. Every bill shall receive three readings before it is passed; the President shall give notice at each reading whether it be the first, second or third; the last of which reading of public bills shall be at least twenty-four hours after the first reading, unless the Senate unanimously direct otherwise; provided, that the bills may be read the second time by their title. Resolutions requiring the approbation and signature of the Governor shall be treated in all respects as bills; and the third reading of all bills of a public nature shall be ordered for some particular day. Each and every nomination made by the Governor, to be confirmed by the Senate, shall lie over at least twentyfour hours between such nomination and the confirmation thereof. 22. On motion of a Senator, public bills, after the second reading, may be referred to a Committee of the Whole. 23. No amendment to a bill originating in the Senate shall be received at the third reading, but the bill may be committed to a Senator for amendment at any time before its passage. 24. Motions on bills and resolutions shall be sustained in the following order: 1. To postpone indefinitely. 2. To lay on the table. 3. To commit. 4. To amend. 25. A call for the previons question shall not at any time be in order. A motion to adjourn shall always be in order. 26. If the question in debate contains several points, the same may be divided on the demand of a Senator. A motion to strike out and insert shall not be divided, but the rejection of a motion to strike out and insert one proposition shall not preclude a motion to strike out and insert a different one, or a motion to simply strike out; nor shall the rejection of a motion simply to strike out prevent a subsequent one to strike out and insert. 27. In filling blanks, the largest sum and the longest time shall be first in order. 28. When the reading of a paper is called for, and the same is objected to by a Senator, the question shall be determined by a vote of the Senate. 29. The yeas and nays shall be taken on the call of a Senator, and every Senator present shall vote unless excused by the Senate; but no Senator shall be compelled to vote who was absent when the question was stated by the President. 30. No Senator in the minority, nor one who did not vote on the decision of the question, shall have a right to move a reconsideration thereof; nor shall any motion for reconsideration be in order unless made before the close of the next day of actual sitting of the Senate, after that in which the vote was taken, and before the bill, resolution, report, amendment, address or motion upon which the vote was taken, shall, in the regular progress of business, have gone out of the possession of the Senate. 31. On all questions, in the decision of which a simple majority is required, when the Senate is equally divided, the Secretary shall take the casting vote of the President. In all such cases a motion for reconsideration, if made in time, shall be in order from any Senator who voted on the question. 32. The President shall have the right to call upon any Senator to discharge the duties of the Chair, whenever he shall find it necessary |