Legislative session

“ 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. ”

“ To provide by amendment that when an extra session of Congress is convened by Executive proclamation legislation during the continuance of such extra session shall be confined to such subjects as the Executive may bring before it from time to time in writing.
The advantages to be gained by these two amendments are too obvious for me to comment upon them. One session in each year is provided for by the Constitution, in which there are no restrictions as to the subjects of legislation by Congress. ”

“ The reässembling of Congress, marking as it does the procession of our national history, is always regarded with interest by the people for whom it is to legislate. But it is not unsafe to say that millions more than ever before, North, South, East, and West, are looking to the Congress which opens its session to-day with an earnestness and solicitude unequaled on similar occasions in the past. ”

“ The legislature shall, at their first assembling, determine on a place at which their future sessions shall be held; neither House shall afterwards, during the session of the House of Representatives, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days; nor shall they adjourn to any other place than such as shall have been fixed by law. ”

“ It would seem, therefore, that practically Congress, or at any rate the House of Representatives, delegates not only its legislative but also its deliberative functions to its Standing Committees. The little public debate that arises under the stringent and urgent rules of the House is formal rather than effective, and it is the discussions which take place in the Committees that give form to legislation. ”

“ The privileges of the Standing Committees are the beginning and the end of the rules. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate conduct their business by what may figuratively, but not inaccurately, be called an odd device of disintegration. The House virtually both deliberates and legislates in small sections. Time would fail it to discuss all the bills brought in, for they every session number thousands ”

“ Congress separate in two ways only, to wit: by adjournment, or dissolution by the efflux of their time. What, then, constitutes a session with them? A dissolution certainly closes one session, and the meeting of the new Congress begins another. The Constitution authorizes the President “on extraordinary occasions, to convene both Houses, or either of them.” I, 3. If convened by the President’s proclamation, this must begin a new session, and of course determine the preceding one to have been a session. ”

“ And where is the state legislature of which much the same things cannot be said?
The conservative objector may not know how the most important bills are often passed in Congress. He may not know that until toward the close of a session the business of Congress is political in the party sense rather than in the governing sense; that on the floor the play is usually conducted for effect on the public; that in committees, measures into which politics enter are made up either on compromise or for partisan purposes ”

“ Quorum, two-thirds. Bills must be finally passed by majorities of all the members elected. The same majorities enact a bill disapproved by the governor. If he does not return a bill within three days, it is a law, unless its return is prevented by adjournment; in which case it will be a law, unless he shall, within five days after the adjournment, file the bill, with his objections, in the office of the secretary of state, who shall lay the same before the general assembly at the next session, as if it had been returned by the governor. ”

“ And be it further enacted, That the legislative power of the territory shall extend to all rightful subjects of legislation consistent with the constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act; but no law shall be passed interfering with the primary disposal of the soil; no tax shall be imposed upon the property of the United States; nor shall the lands or other property of non-residents be taxed higher than the lands or other property of residents ”

“ They recognize and support simple, straightforward, inartificial party government, under a standing committee of responsible party leaders, bringing legislature and executive side by side in intimate but open coöperation; whilst we, preferring to keep Congress and the departments at arm's length, permit only a less direct government by party majorities, checking party action by a complex legislative machinery of two score and eight composite, semi-ministerial Committees. The English take their parties straight,—we take ours mixed. ”

“ The Congress alone shall have the power to deliberate on the prorogation or extension of its session. § 2. Each legislature shall last for 3 years. § 3. The governor of any State in which there shall be a vacancy in the representation, including the case of resignation, shall order a new election to be held at once. Article 18. The Chamber and the Senate shall hold their sessions apart and in public, unless otherwise resolved by a majority vote, and shall deliberate only when, in each of the chambers, there shall be present an absolute majority of its members. ”

“ At that time almost all the business of the House, even to its most minute details of legislation, was done in the debating-chamber itself. The scheme which was adopted a great many years later, and by means of which the shaping of the details of legislative measures is commonly relegated to Grand Committees, as the Parliamentary phrase goes, had not then found any favor with statesmen. ”

“ Nothing could be further from the truth. The timely findings of a bipartisan working group could be very helpful to the committee in formulating legislation that will be reported to the full Senate. Since you are new to the Senate, you may not be aware of the fact that I have always supported fully the regular committee and legislative process in the Senate, and routinely urge Committee Chairmen to hold hearings on important issues. ”

“ It has been impossible to carry out the programme of the Constitution; and, without careful reform, the national legislature will even more dangerously approach the perilous model of a mass meeting. There are several ways in which Congress can be so integrated as to impart to its proceedings system and party responsibility. That may be done by entrusting the preparation and initiation of legislation to a single committee in each house, composed of the leading men of the majority in that house. ”

“ The senators and representatives shall in all cases of civil process be privileged from arrest during the session of the General Assembly, and for two days before the commencement and two days after the termination of any session thereof. For any speech in debate in either house no member shall be called in question in any other place. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This same expression was employed by the committee when they provided for the mode in which a bill, once rejected by the President, should be again brought before the legislative bodies. They directed it to be returned "to that HOUSE in which it shall have originated,"—that is to say, to a constitutional quorum, a majority of which passed it in the first instance; and they then provided, that, if "two thirds of that HOUSE shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other HOUSE,... and if approved by two thirds of that HOUSE, it shall become a law." ”

“ While some of the rules of Congress are adapted only to legislative assemblies, and others only to the House that adopts them, yet its rules and practice, except where manifestly unsuited to ordinary deliberative assemblies, should, and do determine the parliamentary law of the country. The people of the United States will never accept the rules and practice of the legislature, or of deliberative assemblies, of any state, or even of any section of the country, as of equal authority with the practice of the National Congress in determining the parliamentary law for the whole country. ”

“ The perfection of legislation on particular subjects depends not more on the wisdom of the entire body of legislators than on the good sense of the committees that deliberate upon them. Much of the efficiency and success of the legislative acts of Congress will depend upon the structure of the committees that do the laborious work of preparing business for the body. ”

“ He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused, for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise ”

“ When an assembly has meetings for several days consecutively, they all constitute one session. Each session of a society is independent of the other sessions, excepting as expressly provided in their Constitution, By-Laws, or Rules of Order, and excepting that resolutions adopted by one session are in force during succeeding sessions until rescinded by a majority vote [see note to § 49] . ”

“ By the present constitution, you will see that no new law can be promulgated, unless decreed by the Legislative Body.
The votes in this assembly being taken by ballot, and the laws being enacted without any discussion, on the part of its members, on the plans debated before it by the orators of the Tribunate and of the government, it necessarily follows that the sittings present far less interest to strangers, than would result from an animated delivery of the opinion of a few leading orators. ”

“ The proceedings of the Senate, as in a Committee of the Whole, or in Quasi-Committee, are precisely as in a real Committee of the Whole, taking no questions but on amendments. When through the whole, they consider the Quasi-Committee as risen, the House resumes without any motion, question, or resolution to that effect, and the President reports that “The House acting as in Committee of the Whole, have had under their consideration the bill entitled, etc., and have made sundry amendments, which he will now report to the House.” ”

“ No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen. ”

“ Private stealing from the person of another, and from a house in the day-time, shall be deemed larceny. Larceny may also be committed by feloniously taking and carrying away any bond, bill, note, receipt, or any instrument of writing of value to the owner. Every person convicted of larceny, shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary, for a term not less than one year, and not more than ten years. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Besides the danger of intrigue and partiality, many of the members were not judges of the requisite qualifications. The legislative talents, which were very different from those of a judge, commonly recommended men to the favor of legislative assemblies. ”

“ Every person who shall forcibly steal, take, or arrest any man, woman, or child, whether white, black, or colored, in this territory, and carry him or her into another country, state, or territory, or who shall take or arrest any person or persons whatsoever, with a design to take him or her out of this territory, without having established a claim according to the laws of the United States, shall, upon conviction, be deemed guilty of kidnapping. ”

“ A Senate of only forty members compelled to meet in joint session a House of Commons of 164 members every second time that it rejects or objectionably amends a bill is not likely to prove a very formidable obstacle to legislation. ”

“ Words generally used to designate "party" to apply to corporations, &c.Sect. 252. Whenever any property or interest is intended to be protected, by a provision of the penal law, and the general term "person," or any other general term, is used to designate the "party" whose property is intended to be protected, the provisions of such penal laws and the protection thereby given, shall extend to the property of the territory, or of any county, and of all public or private corporations. ”

“ In an action, counter claim or set-off, founded upon an account, promissory note, bill of exchange, or other instrument, for the unconditional payment of money only, it shall be sufficient for the party to give a copy of the account or instrument, with all credits and indorsements thereon, and to state that there is due to him on such account or instrument, from the adverse party, a specified sum, which he claims with interest. ”