House of Assembly

“ I have visited every day the Senate and the Assembly of Representatives, though generally the former, because I hear well there, and because as a parliametary assembly it seems, in every case, to stand above the other.
In the House of Representatives no speaker may occupy more than an hour of time. ”

“ The House is fully satisfied that your Assembly is too generous and enlarged in sentiment to believe that this letter proceeds from an ambition of taking the lead or dictating to the other assemblies. They freely submit their opinion to the judgment of others, an shall take it kind in your House to point out to them anything further that may be thought necessary. ”

“ Every free white male citizen, of the age of 21 years, who has resided two years in the State, and one year in the district where he offers his vote, has the right of suffrage. The General Assembly is to consist of a House of Delegates of 152 members, and a Senate of 50, apportioned between the sections of the State, by a compromise, of which we have given an account in previous Numbers of our Record. ”

“ The Parliaments are so altered from their original Constitution, that between the Court and the Country, the House, instead of being united, is like Troops of a contrary Party facing one another, and watching their Advantage.
Even the well-meaning Men who have good Sense too, have their Difficulties in an Assembly; what they offer honestly for a good End, will be skilfully improved for an ill one. ”

“ The circumstance that different individuals sit in the two Houses is a mere accident of the constitution: the principle of the constitution is, that one and the same body sits in the General Assembly and in the House of Commons. ”

“ Indeed the peers, who constitute a large element in modern cabinets, are members, now-a-days, only of a subordinate assembly. The House of Lords still exercises several useful functions; but the ruling influence—the deciding faculty—has passed to what, using the language of old times, we still call the lower house—to an assembly which, though inferior as a dignified institution, is superior as an efficient institution. A principal advantage of the House of Lords in the present age indeed consists in its thus acting as a reservoir of cabinet ministers. ”

“ To encourage the assembly to reject it, we did add in the end of our paper an express disavowing of it; and at the committee’s desire, we set down our reasons in writ against the House’s alterations; which did so encourage the assembly, that this day, unanimously, they sent a committee to the House, to crave leave to consider their alterations; for without their express order they have not so much power as to debate a question. ”

“ It is by a middle position between an oligarchical senate, and a popular assembly, that the House of Commons is best preserved both in its dignity and usefulness, subject indeed to swerve towards either character by that continual variation of forces which act upon the vast machine of our commonwealth. ”

“ My Lord gave in his commission to Mr Thomas Sandilands, as deputed by his father, Mr J. Sandilands, commissar of Aberdeen, clerk to the last General Assembly. His Grace harangued none at all, as we expected he would. We found him oft, thereafter, as able to have spoken well what he pleased, as any in the house. I take the man to be of a sharp, ready, solid, clear wit; of a brave and masterly expression; loud, distinct, slow, full, yet concise, modest, courtly, yet simple and natural language. If the King have many such men, he is a well-served Prince. ”

“ And let these two Kingdomes be knit together as one man in maintaining and promoving the truth of the Gospel, Let us enter in a perpetual Covenant for our selves and our posterity, to endevour that all things may be done in the House of GOD according to his own will, and let the Lord do with us what seemeth good in his eyes. Only wait upon the lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart. Let your hands be ever at your Masters Work, and hold your faces resolutely to his Cause. ”

“ This day we sit down in our assembly, after our vacance. The House of Commons have past the paper of ordination unanimously, with some alterations, which are to be considered by us. The right settling of that business will be a great step to advance our affairs. The little interruption we have had in our sitting, make both ourselves, the Houses, and the city, and all the world, to call on us for dispatch; and it seems God, disposing of all affairs, is making for our furtherance; so we hope for a farther progress quickly, than for a long time by-gone we have made. ”

“ As each house adopts its own rules, it results that the two houses of the same legislature do not always agree in their practice; even in Congress the order of precedence of motions is not the same in both houses, and the Previous Question is admitted in the House of Representatives, but not in the Senate. ”

“ Each of the chambers has the right of introducing new bills, as has also the government; but all money bills must originate in the Chamber of Deputies. The consent of both chambers and the assent of the king is necessary to their being passed. Ministers may attend the debates of either house but can only vote in that of which they are members. ”

“ To avoid these dangers, let a distinct assembly be constituted, as a mediator between the two extreme branches of the legislature, that which represents the people, and that which is vested with the executive power. ”

“ As soon as a legislature shall be formed in the district, the council and house assembled in one room, shall have authority, by joint ballot, to elect a delegate to Congress, who shall have a seat in Congress, with a right of debating but not of voting during this temporary government. ”

“ Sometimes the old common parliamentary law is better adapted to ordinary societies, as with the motion to lay oh the table. Where the two houses differ, sometimes the Senate practice is better adapted to ordinary assemblies, as in allowing each member to speak twice to the same question each day; while in allowing the previous question and in making the motion to postpone indefinitely the lowest of subsidiary motions, the practice of the House seems better adapted to ordinary assemblies. ”

“ When the Chairman thinks it has been modified to suit the wishes of the assembly, he inquires: “Are you ready for the question?” If no one wishes to speak, he puts the question: “As many as are in favor of adopting the constitution as amended will say aye;” and then, “As many as are opposed will say no.” He distinctly announces the result of the vote, which should always be done. If the articles of the constitution are subdivided into sections or paragraphs, then the amendments should be made by sections or paragraphs, instead of by articles. ”

“ Every measure of the Assembly must secure the approval of the Legislative Council, the members of which were appointed for life by the governor-general, and added to this the measure must then receive the royal assent before it became operative. ”

“ In this respect, all legislative assemblies, whether called a Chamber of Deputies or a House of Commons, are truly representatives of the public mind, never placing themselves in advance, nor lagging much behind the general conviction. ”

“ Now that the follies of Courts had obliged Government to saddle us with new taxes, and the opposition of our magistrates did present itself as an obstacle to the ministers, they have thought proper to call an Assembly of Notables, chosen by the king, but taken among the first people in each order, and to begin with granting them what is more wished for by the nation, an Assembly in each Province. ”

“ The whole is applicable, we think, fully, even to “Congress” itself. Write “our General Legislature” in place of “Parliament,” “assembly” instead of “congress,” for “Bristol” read “Virginia,” and we see no difficulty whatever.
Our general legislature is not an assembly of ambassadors from different and hostile interests, which interests each must maintain as an agent, and advocate against the other agents and advocates; but our general legislature is a deliberative [Mr. B. has italicized deliberative] assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole. ”

“ The first, a legislative council, is composed of a limited number of members nominated by the Crown, and who hold office for life; the second, or legislative assembly, is composed of members elected by the people and chosen by ballot. ”

“ We who remain free number a hundred and twenty Republican Representatives. Let us install ourselves in this hall. Let us install ourselves in the fulness and majesty of the Legislative Power. Henceforward we are the Assembly, the whole of the Assembly! Let us sit there, deliberate there, in our official sashes, in the midst of the People. Let us summon the Faubourg St. Antoine to its duty, let us shelter there the National Representation, let us shelter there the popular sovereignty. ”

“ Besides, a legislative assembly, which is sure to be separated again, and its members soon return to private life, will feel its own interests, as well as duties, bound up with those of the community at large. ”

“ An interesting political experiment has been made, in the constitution of a representative assembly, composed of 350 representatives of all classes of the community, who meet annually to hear an account of the state administration for the previous year. The assembly has no power to enact laws, to vote supplies, or to pass any resolution binding upon the executive. But it gives to the leading men of the districts a pleasant opportunity of visiting the capital, and to a limited extent brings the force of public opinion to bear upon the minister. ”

“ While in extreme cases there is no difficulty in deciding the question as to whether the practice of Congress determines the common parliamentary law, yet between these extremes there must necessarily be a large number of doubtful cases upon which there would be great difference of opinion, and to avoid the serious difficulties always arising from a lack of definiteness in the law, every deliberative assembly should imitate our legislative bodies in adopting Rules of Order for the conduct of their business. [1]
Plan of the Work. ”

“ Grand National Assembly powers that devolve to the Council of State between assembly sessions, or in the event of exceptional circumstances that prevent the assembly from acting, include the authority to appoint and recall members of the Council of Ministers, members of the Supreme Court, and the prosecutor general. ”

“ There are those who question why a Constituent Assembly is needed, if the Constitution can be amended by Congress. Those who make this objection should remember that the Executive Branch must concentrate on governing, and Congress on legislating and exercising political control over the government; tasks that must be referred to attend the urgent matters of each day. ”

“ All officers holding their offices during good behavior may be removed by joint resolution of the two houses of the legislature, if two thirds of all the members elected to the assembly, and a majority of all the members elected to the senate, concur therein. ”