Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1890 — THE HOUSE IN A TURMOIL. [ARTICLE]

THE HOUSE IN A TURMOIL.

Speaker Reed and the Democratic Can. cresamen Have a Day to Themselves Tiie first skirmish of the long anticipated battle in the House occurred, Wednesday Such exciting scenes have nbt occurred tor many years. Democratic members at times stood ob tfieir feet and shook their fists. The cause of this excitement and intense feeling was an effort made by the Republican memoers of the Committee on Elections to take up for consideration the contested election case of Jackson vs. Smith, from West Virginia. The report of the committee recommended the seating of a Republican and the ousting of a Democrat. This is the “tug of .war” which has long been anticipated. Speaker Reed probably surprised as much as he irritated the Democrats when he dec 1 that he would consider all the men*, -s present who were not excused or paired and absent. This made it impossible for the Democrats to break ■ a quorum, because tbe few who are necessary to remain at their posts in order to continue the fight will, with the Republicans present, make a quorum at all times. On the first ifote nearly all the Democrats refused to answer to their names.' Speaker Reed quietly sat in his chair and made a memorandum of all members present, and read the names of the Democrats who refused to vote, but who were in the hall of the House, and deolared them present. Then the war begun. When Breckenridge was named; he said; “I deny the powerofthe speaker

to do this and denounce it as revolutionary.” Cheer after cheer went up from the Democratic side and it was several minutes before sufficient order was restored to enable the clerk to continue the reading of the list of names. But the order was only temporary, while the clerk was proceeding with the reading half a dozen Democrats were on,their feet denouncing the action of the speaker. Mr. Bland roared out that he was responsible for his action only to his constituents and not to the speaker,' and Mr. O’Ferral (Va.) protested in the name of his state against this action. Mr. McCreary denied the right of the speaker to count him as present. The‘Speaker—“The chair is making a statement of fact that tbe gentleman is present. Does the gentleman deny that he is present!” [Applause and laughter on the Republican side.] O’Ferral inquired by what parliamentary rulnthe speaker had the right to declare a person present if he did not vote. The speaker replied that he was now making a statement of fact. Mr. Breckinridge (Ky) declared that the action of the speaker was disorderly and that the speaker had no more right to make the statement from the chair than he would have were he on the floor. _ r Mr. Crisp desired to appeal from the decision of the chair.

The speaker replied that in due time he would allow the gentleman every proper appeal to the House in an orderly fashion, as the chair would demonstrate to the satisfaction of the House. In the meantime Mr. Cooper (Ind.) was on his feet demanding recognition, and denouncing the action the action of the chair. The speaker finally said: The gentleman must not mistake the situation. He is not to compel the Chair to do a certain thing. The chair must proceed in order, and the gentleman, as a member of this body, will undoubtedly allow the Chair so to proceed. The Clerk, he said, had announced of members votii g 161 yeas, 2 nays. The Chair thereupon, having heard their names called in their presence, and directed a record to be made of this fact. Accordingly, that question was now before the House, and the Chair proposed to give a statement, accompanied, by a ruling, from which an appeal could be taken, if any gentleman was dissatisfied therewith. The Speaker then attempted to justify his course and auoted the words of tho Governor of Tennessee, now Senator Bate, during a deadlock in the Tennessee Legislature, and then Governor Hill, of New Yorx, and based his action upon precedents cited by this gentleman. Crisp argued against the position taken by the Speaker, and quoted Garfield and Blaine, the Republicans claiming, however, that the cases were not parallel. Mr. Outhwaite declared that he had been counted by the Speaker as present, while he had not been on the floor of the House from the beginning of the rollcall to tbe end of it.

Great confusion ensued, but the Speaker soon restored comparative order. Mr. Crisp quoted from the remarks of Mr. Reed, the present speaker, in the same debate, whan he used these words; “The constitutional idea of a quorum is not the physical presence of a- majority of the members of the House, but a majority of the members present and participating in the business of the House.” [Triumphant cheers and clapping of hands on the Democratic sido and in the galleries.] “I appeal,” Crisp exclaimed, “from Phillip drunk to Phillip sober.” [An Other outburst.] Mr. Crisp went on to say: “1 thank you for the attention given to my remarks. 1 have been in earnest. It occurred to me that, under a stress of circumstances and considering yourselves to be In a desperate strait, you were about to violate the (precedents of a hundred years; that you were about to take from us that which many of your most distinguished statesmen have said was a high constitutional privilege. As they disagreed they should consult the Constitution, for, after all, in the Constitution they had the mode of ascertaining what a quorum was.. And if by the Constitution there was a quorum present today, the country would sustain the House of Representatives in going on and legislating.” (.Applause on the Republican side.)

Mr. Carlisle said: “No Speaker ever sa t in that chair and undertook to hold that less than a quorum can pass any bill or vote in this HouAe, until Wednesday morning. All have hold from the beginning of Congress- down to this day that a majority must not only be present to constitute a quorum, but that a quorum must participate in the legislation.” Mr: Carlisle then qqgjpcUfit sect on of the Constitution which provides for the keeping of a journal

and forAhe entering upon it of the yeas and nays whan demanded-by one-fifth of the, members present, and that section which states that less than a quorum can adjourn from day to day and can compel the attendance of absent members. “Now, the constitution,” continued Mr. Carlisle, “did not say in express terms that in order to transact business a majority of the House i should be present, but that a majority of the House should constitute a quorum to ‘do business,’ and then it proceeded to specify distinctly what those things were which a minority could do. The Speaker was simply the organ of the House, not its master. He was not here to deal in epithets, but he did say that if this ruling stood it worked complete revolution in the method of transacting business in the House. The House should stand by the old rule, as laid down in the constitution and allow no legislation unless participated in by the majority of all of the members elected to the House. It was the only safe rule, and it was the rule the House ought to continue to stand by.” McKinley then took'the floor,but yielded to a motion to adjourn.