The PRESIDENT overruled the point of order.
Mr. CLARKE called for the yeas and nays
upon his amendment, which were ordered-
The question being then taken, by yeas
and nays, upon the amendment of Mr. Clarke,
they resulted, yeas 25, nays 10, as follows:
Yeas.—':Messrs. Belt, Berry of Prince
George's, Blackiston, Briscoe, Brown, Cham-
bers Clarke, Crawford, Edelen, Gale, Harwood,
Henkle, Hollyday, Johnson, Jones
of Somerset, Landsdale, Lee, Marbury, Mitchell,
Miller, Morgan, Parran, Peter, Smith of
Dorchester, Wilmer—25.
Nays.—Messrs. Goldsborough, President ;
Abbott, Annan, Audoun) Baker, Barron,
Brooks, Carter, Cunningham, Gushing, Dan-
iel, Davis of Washington, Dellinger, Earle,
Ecker Galloway, Greene, Hatch, Hebb, Hoffman,
Hopkins, Hopper, Jones of Cecil, Ken-
nard, King, Man-key, McComas, Mullikin,
Murray, Negley, Nyman, Parker, Pugh, Pur-
nell Robinette, Russell, Sands, Schley, Schlos-
ser Scott, Smith of Carroll, Smeary, Stock-
bridge, Swope, Sykes, Thomas, Todd, Val-
liant, Wickard, Wooden—50.
So the amendment was not agreed to.
The "general rules defining the several
duties of the Secretaries, Clerks, Officers and
Employees of the Convention," were then
read, and no amendment was offered.
The PRESIDENT stated the question to be
upon ordering the report of the Committee
on Rules, as amended by the Convention, to
be engrossed for a third reading, and to be
printed.
Mr. CHAMBERS. I would ask the attention
of the Convention to one thing' in this system
of rules, fur I think that there are two of
them that involve an entire contradiction:
Rule 43 provides—
" Tire question on the adoption of any ar-
ticle shall always be determined by yeas and
nays, which shall be recorded on the journal;
and unless it shall thus appear that majority
of the whole number of members elected to
the Convention have voted in the affirmative
the article shall be declared rejected."
By that male the affirmative votes of 49
members are required to adopt any article of
the Constitution or of the Hill of Rights.
Then you have rule 49; which was amended
yesterday, on the motion of the gentleman
from Baltimore city, (Mr. Stockbridge,) by
which Rule 43, or any other rule, may be
suspended by a vote of three-fifths of the
members present. Rule 43, therefore, may
be suspended by the votes of 31 members.
The consequence will be that when the ques-
tion conies up before the Convention, as to
the final adoption of any article of the Con-
stitution, or even the entire Constitution, and
it is found that the votes in favor of it are
not equal to the requirements of this 43d
Rule, all that will be necessary to be done to
secure its adoption will be to suspend that
rule by the votes of throe-fifths of the mem- |
bers present, and it is then no longer the rule
of this House. This Convention will then be
governed by the only rule which governs
assemblages of this kind, unless there is some
other rule to the contrary; that is to say, by
a majority of the votes of the inembers pre-
sent. I Therefore, in that wily, they maty ob-
tain the assent of this Convention to pass the
Constitution, or any article in it, by a vote
less than that required by the 43d Rule. To
adopt a rule, therefore, requiring a larger
number of votes, which rule at any time may
be repealed by a lesser number of votes, ap-
pears to me to be rather absurd: to be stulti-
fying ourselves. It seems to me that in
order to preserve consistency, it is necessary
to do one of two things; either lo alter the
Language of Rule 43, and make it conform to
Rule 49, or to alter the language of Rule 49,
and make it conform to Rule 43. I merely
suggest this; but I have declined, and shall
continue to decline, to make any motion upon
the subject, believing that if I should make
any it would not be acceptable.
The PRESIDENT. Does the gentleman sub-
mit a motion to reconsider ?
Mr. CHAMBERS. I do not; but I hope some
gentleman will submit that motion.
Mr. DANIEL In order to reach the matter,
1 will move a reconsideration of the 49th
Rule. I voted for the 43d Rule, and think
that it ought to stand, if we reconsider the
49th Rule, we can very easily amend it so as
to except the 43d Rule from its operation.
The question being then taken, by a di-
vision, upon the motion lo reconsider the 49th
Rule, it was not agreed to, ayes 31, noes 37.
The PRESIDENT. The Chair would say that
there is, very clearly, a conflict between these
two rules.
Mr. PUGH. I understood members, yester-
day, to vote against every amendment of
Rule 43, upon the very ground that it could
be suspended by a vote of a majority of the
members present.
Mr. CLARKE. When the gentleman from
Somerset (Mr, Jones) submitted an amend-
ment, yesterday, to the 49th Rule, to except
Rule 43 from the operation of this suspen-
sion, I think I stated then that I did not
regard Rule 49 as applying to Rule 43, which
prescribed a definite number of votes upon
the final passage of any article in the Con-
stitution, and I certainly understood the Pres-
ident of the Convention to assent to that
construction; that although Rule 49 might
be adopted, still Rule 43 governed the action
of the Convention upon the adoption of arti-
cles of the Constitution, and could be changed
only in the manner prescribed by Rule 55.
Mr. JONES of Somerset. And it was upon
that statement that I withdrew my proposi-
tion to amend. I did not suppose that it wag
the intention of the Convention to put it
within the power of any mere majority of a
quorum to rescind or suspend that rule, |
