Thomas Jefferson: A Manual of Parliamentary Practice

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Thomas Jefferson: A Manual of Parliamentary Practice 13. Examination before Committees, &c. 14. Arrangement of business. 15. Order. 16. Respecting papers. 17. In debate. 18. Orders of the House. 19. Petitions. 20. Motions. 21. Resolutions. 22. Bills, Readings. 23. Leave to bring in. 24. First reading. 25. Second reading. 26. Commitment. 27. Report of Committee. 28. Recommitment. 29. Report taken up. 30. Quasi Committee. 31. Second reading in the House. 32. Reading papers. 33. Privileged questions. 34. Previous question. 35. Amendments. 36. Division of question. 37. Co-existing questions. 38. Bills, Equivalent questions. 39. The Question. 40. Third reading. 41. Division of the House. 42. Title. 43. Reconsideration. 44. Bills sent to the other House. 45. Amendments between the Houses. 46. Conferences. 47. Messages. 48. Assent. 49. Journals. 50. Adjournment. 51. Session. 52. Treaties. 53. Impeachment. http://www.constitution.org/tj/tj-mpp.htm (2 of 70) [4/14/2008 6:37:46 PM]
Thomas Jefferson: A Manual of Parliamentary Practice Preface THE Constitution of the United States establishing a legislature for the Union, under certain forms, authorises each branch of it "to determine the rules of its own proceedings." The Senate have accordingly formed some rules for its own government: but these going only to few cases, they have referred to the decision of their President, without debate and without appeal, all questions of order arising either under their own rules, or where they have provided none. This places under the discretion of the President a very extensive field of decision, and one which, irregularly exercised, would have a powerful effect on the proceedings and determinations of the House. The President must feel weightily and seriously this confidence in his discretion; and the necessity of recurring, for its government, to some known system of rules, that he may neither leave himself free to indulge caprice or passion, nor open to the imputation of them. But to what system of rules is he to recur, as supplementary to those of the Senate To this there can be but one answer; to the system of regulations adopted for the government of some one of the Parliamentary bodies within these states, or of that which has served as a prototype to most of them. This last is the model which we have all studied, while we are little acquainted with the modifications of it in our several states. It is deposited too in publications possessed by many and open to all. Its rules are probably as wisely constructed for governing the debates of a deliberative body, and obtaining its true sense, as any which can become known to us; and the acquiescence of the Senate, hitherto, under the references to them, has given them the sanction of their approbation. Considering therefore the law of proceedings in the Senate as composed of the precepts of the Constitution, the regulations of the Senate, and, where these are silent, of the rules of Parliament, I have here endeavored to collect and digest so much of these as is called for in ordinary practice, collating the Parliamentary with the Senatorial rules, both where they agree and where they vary. I have done this, as well to have them at hand for my own government, as to deposit with the Senate the standard by which I judge and am willing to be judged. I could not doubt the necessity of quoting the sources of my information; among which Mr. Hatsell's most valuable book is preeminent; but as he has only treated some general heads, I have been obliged to recur to other authorities in support of a number of common rules of practice to which his plan did not descend. Sometimes each authority cited supports the whole passage. Sometimes it rests on all taken together. Sometimes the authority goes only to a part of the text, the residue being inferred from known rules and principles. For some of the most familiar forms, no written authority is, or can be quoted; no writer having supposed it necessary to repeat what all were presumed to know. The statement of these must rest on their notoriety. I am aware that authorities can often be produced in opposition to the rules which I lay down as Parliamentary. An attention to dates will generally remove their weight. The proceedings of http://www.constitution.org/tj/tj-mpp.htm (3 of 70) [4/14/2008 6:37:46 PM]
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