\
RULES
"FOR THE
GOVERNMENT OF THIS CONGRESS.
MONTGOMERY, ALA.:
SHORTER & REIDj PRINTERS FOR SOUTHERN CONGRESS.
1861.
TrJTOXiES
Mr. STEPHENS, from the Committee on Rules,.makes
• the following report:
I. The vote upon all questions in this Congress except
as hereafter otherwise provided shall be taken by States,*
each State shall be entitled to one vote. A majority of all
the States represented shall be necessary to carry any
question. The delegates from each State may designate
the member to cast the vote for their State, and upon the
motion of any member seconded by one-fifth of the
members present, or at the instance of any one State
the yeas and nays of the entire body shall be spread upon
the Journals upon any question.
II. Any number of members from a majority of the
States now represented or hereafter to be represented by
duly accredited delegates from States seceding from the
late United States of America shall constitute a quorum
to transact business.
III. The President having taken the Chair, and a
quorum being present, the Journal of the preceding day
shall be read, and any mistakes in the entries shall upon
motion then he corrected.
IV". . JVo member shall speak to another, or otherwise
interrupt the business of the Congress while the. journals
01; public papers are being read, or when any member is
speaking in debate.
V. Every member owhen he speaks shall address the
Chair standing in. his place., and when he has .finished
shall sit down.
4
VI. Ho member shall speak more than twice in any
one debate on the same question and on the same day,
without leave of a majority of the members present.
VII. When two or more members rise at the same
time the President shall name the person to speak, but
in all cases the member who shall first rise and address
the chair shall speak first.
VIII. The President shall preserve order and decorum;
may speak to points of order in preference to other
member, rising from his seat for that purpose ; and shall
decide questions of order subject to an appeal by any one
State; and may call any member to the Chair to'preside
temporily not to extend beyond that day's session. lie
liiay participate in the debates.
IX. When any member is called to order by the Pres¬
ident or any member, he shall sit down, and every ques¬
tion of order, shall be decided by the President without
debate, subject to an appeal to the body.
X. If any member be called to order by another
member for words spoken, the exceptionable words
spoken shall immediately be taken down in writing, that
the President may be better able to judge the matter.
XL Xo member shall in debate use any language
reflecting injuriously upon the character, motives, honor
or integrity of any other member.
XII. Xo motion shall be debated until the same shall
receive a second; and when a motion shall be made and
seconded, it shall be reduced to writing, if desired, by the
President or any member, delivered in at the table and
read, before the same shall be debated.
XIII. Any motion or proposition may be withdrawn
by the mover at any time before a decision, amendment,
or other action of the body upon it, except a motion to
reconsider, which shall not be withdrawn without leave
of the body.
XIV. When a question has been once made and carried
in the affirmative or negative, a motion to reconsider
5
shall be entertained at the instance of any State, if made
on the same day on which the vote was taken, or within
the two next days of actual session. When a motion to
reconsider shall be made, its consideration shall take
precedence of the regular order of business, unless a
majority of the members present shall fix some other
time.
XV. When a question is under debate, no motion, (except
one to reconsider some other question passed upon,) shall
be received but to adjourn, to lie on the table, to postpone
indefinitely, to postpone to a day certain, to commit or
amend, which several motions shall have precedence in
the order they stand arranged, and the motion to adjourn
shall always be in order, and decided without debate.
XYI. If the question for decision contain several parts,
any member may have the same divided, but on a motion
to strike out and insert, it shall not be in order to move
for a division of the question; but the rejection of a
motion to strike out and insert one proposition shall not
prevent a motion to strike out and insert a different
proposition, nor prevent a subsequent proposition simply
to strike out, nor shall the rejection of a motion simply
to strike out, prevent a subsequent motion to strike out
and insert.
XVII. In filling up blanks the largest sum and longest
time shall be first put.
XVIII. The unfinished business in which the Congress
may be engaged on adjournment shall be the first business
in order on the next day sitting.
XIX. After the Journal is read, and the unfinished
business, if any, of the previous day's sitting- is disposed
of, the regular order of business shall be as follows:
1. The call of the States, alphabetically, for memorials,
or any matter, measure, resolution, or proposition, which
any member may desire to bring before the Congress.
2. The call of Committees for reports—the call of the
Committees to be-made in the order of their appointment
6
—such reports of Committees as may not be otherwise
disposed of when made, shall be numfeereddn the order
in which they-are presented and be placed in that order
on .the Calendar of the regular orders of the day.
3. The Calendar, or the regular orders of the day shall
then be taken up, and every resolution, proposition, or
measure, shall be disposed of in the order in which it
there stands. Xo special order shall be made against this
rule, except by a vote of a majority of the States, and
such majority may, at any time, change the order of
business.
XX. Every resolution or measure submitted for the
action of the Congress shall receive three readings previ¬
ous to its being passed, the President shalhgive notice at
each reading whether it be the first, second or third
reading. Xo resolution or measure shall be committed
or amended until it shall have been twice read, after
which it may be subject to motion to amend or to refer
to a committee. And all such matters on second reading
shall first be considered by the Congress in the same
manner as if the Congress were in Committee of the
Whole; the final question on the second reading of any
matter not referred to a committee, shall be "whether it
shall be engrossed and read a third time," and no amend¬
ment shall be received after the engrossment for a third
reading has been ordered. But it shall at all times be
in order before the final passage or action on any matter,
to move its commitment, and should such commitment
take place, and any amendment be reported by the com¬
mittee, the whole shall be again read a second time and
considered as in committee of the whole, and then the
aforesaid question shall be again put.
XXI. After any matter is ordered to be engrossed and
it has been read a third time the question shall be, shall
the resolution (or the matter whatever it may be) now
pass ?
XXII. All resolutions or other matter ou the second
7
and. third reading, may be read by tbe title, unless the
reading of the whole shall be desired by a majority of
those present.
XXIII. The- titles of resolutions and other matters-
submitted, and such parts thereof only as shall be
affected by proposed amendments, shall be inserted on
the journals.
XXIV. Xo motion for the previous question shall be
entertained, but upon the call of any member for the
Question; if seconded by a majority of the States present,
the vote shall be immediately taken on the pending;
question, whatever it may be, without further debate.
XXV. A motion to lay any amendment on the table-
prevailing, shall carry with it only the amendment, and
not the original proposition or matter.
XXVI. Stenographers and reporters fbr the Press,
wishing to take down the proceedings of the Congress,
may be admitted by the President,, who shall assign such
places to them on the floor, to effect their object as shall
not interfere with the convenience of the members when
in open session.
XXVII. On motion, made and seconded by another
member, to close the doors 011 the discussion of any
business, which may in the opinion of a member require
secrecy, the President shall direct the doors to be closed
and the galleryfc© be cleared, and. during the discussion
of such question, no one shall be permitted to remain
upon the floor, but the members ©f the body and its-
officers.
XXVIII. Any officer or member ©f the Congress, con¬
victed of disclosing any matter directed by the body, to
be held in confidence, shall be liable, if an officer, to
dismissal from service, and in case of a member, to suffeE
expulsion from the body.
XXIX. All motions to print extra copies of any bill,
report, or other document, shall be referred to the Com¬
mittee 011 Printing.
8
XXX. That all propositions affecting our foreign rela¬
tions, or looking to the public defence, be submitted to
the Congress while in secret session.
XXXI. All cases that may arise in the proceedings of
this Congress, not provided for in the foregoing rules,
shall be governed by the general principles of parlia¬
mentary law as laid down in Jefferson's manual.