ty shall have seconded such motion, no call shall be in order prior to a decision of the main question.

103. On the previous question there shall be no debate. All incidental questions of order arising after a motion is made for the previous question, and pending such motion, shall be decided, whether on appeal or otherwise, without debate. It shall not be in order for a member making a motion at the same time to move the previous question upon it. Nor shall a proposition be modified, after the previous question has been seconded.

104. When a question is postponed indefinitely, the same shall not be acted upon again during the session.

Of the Division of a Question.

105. Every question may be divided if it comprehend propositions in substance so distinct that, one being taken away, a substantive proposition shall remain for the decision of the House. A motion to strike out and insert shall be deemed indivisible; but a motion to strike out being lost, shall preclude neither amendment nor a motion to strike out and insert.

106. Motions and reports may be committed at the pleasure of the House.

107. No motion or proposition on a subject different from that under consideration shall be admitted under color of amendment. No bill or resolution shall, at any time, be amended by annexing thereto, or incorporating therewith, any other bill or resolution pending before the House.

Motion to Reconsider.

108. When a motion has been once decided, it shall be in order for any member of the majority to move a reconsideration on the same or succeeding day; and such motion shall take precedence of all other questions, except a motion to adjourn; but the reconsideration of a vote on the passage of bills and joint resolutions shall not be decided on the day of their passage, except by consent of two-thirds of the members present.

Of motions which lie upon the table one day.

109. A proposition requesting information from the President of the United States, or directing it to be furnished by the head of either of the Executive Departments, or by the Postmaster General, or to print an extra number of any document or other matter, excepting messages of the President to both Houses at the commencement of each session of Congress, and the reports and documents connected with or referred to in it, shall lie on the table one day for consideration, unless otherwise ordered by unanimous consent; and all such propositions shall be taken up for consideration in the order in which they were presented, immediately after reports are called for from select committees; and, when adopted, the Clerk shall cause the same to be delivered.

Motion for leave to bring in a Bill.

110. One day's notice shall be given of the motion for leave to bring in a bill; and the motion shall be made, and the bill be introduced, if leave is given, when resolutions are called for; such motion or the bill, when introduced, may be committed.

Motion for the Reading of Papers.

111. When the reading of a paper is called for, and the same is objected to by any member, it shall be determined by a vote of the House.

On a Call of the House.

112. Any fifteen members (including the Speaker, if there be one) shall be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members.

113. No member shall absent himself from the service of the House, unless he have leave, or be sick, or unable to attend. No member, absent without permission of the House, shall receive pay during such absence.

114. On a call of the House, the names of the members shall be called over by the Clerk, and the absentees noted; after which the names of the absentees shall again be called over; the doors shall then be shut, and those for whom no excuse, or an insufficient excuse, is made, may be taken into custody as they appear, or may be sent for and taken into custody wherever to be found, by special messengers.

115. When a member shall be discharged from custody, and admitted to his seat, the House shall determine whether such discharge shall be with or without paying fees; and, in like manner, whether a delinquent member, taken into custody by a special messenger, shall, or shall not, be liable to defray the expense of such special messenger.

Of Decorum and Debate.

116. When any member is about to speak in debate, or deliver any matter to the House, he shall rise from his seat, and respectfully address himself to Mr. Speaker," and shall confine himself to the question under debate, and avoid personality.

117. If any member, in speaking or otherwise, transgress the rules of the House, the Speaker shall, or any member may, call to order; and the member so called to order shall be liable to the censure of the House, unless he shall at once submit to the judgment of the Chair, if unappealed from, or make a satisfactory explanation or apology.

118. If a member be called to order for words spoken in debate, the person calling him to order shall repeat the words excepted to, and they shall be taken down in writing at the Clerk's table; and the member so called to order shall immediately take his seat, unless permitted to explain; and the House shall, if appealed to, decide on the case, but without debate. If there be no appeal, the decision of the Speaker shall be submitted to. If the decision be in favor of the member called to order, he shall be at liberty to proceed; if otherwise, he shall not proceed, in case any member object, without leave of the House; and, if the case require it, he shall be censured by the House. But no member shall be held to answer, or be subject to the censure of the House, for words spoken in debate, if any other member shall have spoken, or other business have intervened, after the words spoken, and before exception shall have been taken.

119. When two or more members rise at once, the Speaker shall name the member who is first to speak.

120. No member shall occupy more than one hour in debate on an question, in the House or in Committee of the Whole; nor shall any meber speak more than once on the same question, without leave of the He, unless he be the mover of the matter pending; in which case he shad be

permitted to speak in reply, but not until every member wishing to speak shall have spoken.

121. If a question depending be lost by adjournment and be revived on the succeeding day, no member, who shall have spoken on the preceding day, shall be permitted again to speak without leave.

122. While the Speaker is putting any question, or addressing the House, none shall walk out of or across the House; nor, in such case, or when a member is speaking, shall entertatin private discourse; nor, while a mem ber is speaking, shall pass between him and the Chair. Every member shall remain uncovered during the sitting of the House. No member or other person shall remain at or near the Clerk's table while the ayes and noes are calling, or ballots are counting.

123. Upon calls of the House, or in taking the yeas and nays, the names of the members shall be called alphabetically.

124. No member shall vote on any question in the event of which he is immediately and particularly interested, or in any case where he was not within the bar of the House when the question was put. And when any member shall ask leave to vote, the Speaker shall propound to him the question-"Were you within the bar when your name was called?"

125. On a division and count of the House no member without the bar shall be counted.

126. Every member who shall be in the House when the question is put shall give his vote, unless the House, for special reasons, shall excuse him. All motions to excuse a member from voting shall be made before the House divides, or before the call of the yeas and nays is commenced; and any member requesting to be excused from voting may make a brief verbal statement of his reasons, and the question shall then be taken without debate.

Of Confidential Communications.

127. Whenever confidential communications are received from the President of the United States, the House shall be cleared of all persons, except the members, Clerk, Sergeant-at-Arms, and Doorkeeper, and so continue during the reading of such communications, and (unless otherwise directed by the House) during all debates and proceeding to be had thereon. And when the Speaker, or any other member, shall inform the House that he has communications to make which he conceives ought to be kept secret, the House shall, in like manner, be cleared, till the communication be made; the House shall then determine whether the matter communicated requires secrecy or not, and take order accordingly.

Of Admission to the floor of the House.

128. No person, except members of the Senate, their Secretary on business, Heads of Departments, and their Chief Clerks on business, Treasurer, Comptrollers, Register, Auditors, Postmaster General, President's Secretary, Chaplains to Congress, Judges of the United States, Foreign Ministers and their Secretaries, officers who, by name, have received or shall hereafter receive the thanks of Congress, the Commissioners of the Navy Board, Governor of any State or Territory in the Union, such gentlemen as have been Heads of Departments or members of either House of Congress, and, at the discretion of the Speaker, persons who belong to Legislatures of the

States or of such foreign Governments as are in amity with the United States, shall be admitted within the Hall of the House of Representatives.

129. No person shall be allowed the privilege of the Hall as a reporter, without a written permission from the Speaker, specifying the part of the Hall assigned to him; nor without first stating, in writing, for what paper or papers he is employed to report.

130. None but members of Congress shall, under any pretence whatever, occupy seats within the bar of the House.

131. The doorkeeper shall execute rigidly the three preceding rules, under penalty of removal from his place.

Of the Changing and Suspending of Rules.

132. No standing rule or order shall be rescinded or changed without one day's notice being given of the motion therefor. Nor shall any rule be suspended, except by a vote of at least two-thirds of the members present. But no motion shall be received for the suspension of a rule for any purpose, except to proceed to the orders of the day, until after the daily call for petitions, reports of committees, and resolutions, shall be completed.

133. The established order of business shall not be postponed or changed, except by a vote of at least two-thirds of the members present. But a majority of the members present may at any time suspend the rules for either of the two following purposes:

First. To go into Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, except on days set apart for private business.

Second. To fix a time for discharging the committee from any bill referred to them, with the proviso, that, after the time fixed, amendments only shall be acted upon, and without debate.

Of the Manual of Parliamentary Practice.

134. The rules of parliamentary practice, comprised in the following sections of Jefferson's Manual, shall govern the House in all cases to which they are applicable, and in which they are not inconsistent with the standing rules and orders of the House, and the joint rules of the two Houses-that is to say:

Section 3.-Concerning Privilege.
12.-Committee of the Whole.

13.-Examination of Witnesses.
16.-Respecting Papers.

17.-Order in Debate.

32.-Reading of Papers.

35.-Of Amendments.

45.-Of Amendments betwee the Houses.

46.-Of Conferences.
47.-Of Messages.
49.-Of Journals.

Miscellaneous Rules.

135. No person shall be permitted to perform divine service in the cham ber occupied by the House of Representatives, unless with the consent of the Speaker.

136. The rule for paying witnesses summoned to appear before the House, or either of its committees, shall be as follows: For each day a witness shall attend, two dollars; for each mile he shall travel in coming to or going from the place of examination, ten cents each way; but nothing shall be paid for travelling home when the witness has been summoned at the place of trial.

137. The unappropriated rooms in that part of the Capitol assigned to the House shall be subject to the order and disposal of the Speaker.

138. Maps accompanying documents shall not be printed, under the general order to print, without the special direction of the House.

139. No officer or person in the service of the House shall be employed as agent, or in any manner whatever, for the prosecution of claims against the Government, under penalty of removal from office.

140. Any member assaulting another upon the floor of the House shall be expelled therefrom.

Upon the presentation of petitions, memorials, resolutions, or other papers relating to slavery, objection to the reception shall be considered as made, and the question of reception shall be laid on the table.