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JOINT RULES AND ORDERS OF THE TWO HOUSES, AS THEY EXISTED AT THE CLOSE OF THE 43D CONGRESS.

1. In every case of an amendment of a bill agreed to in one house and dissented to in the other, if either house shall request a conference, and appoint a committee for that purpose, and the other house shall also appoint a committee to confer, such committees shall, at a convenient hour, to be agreed upon by their chairmen, meet in the conference chamber, and state to each other, verbally or in writing, as either shall choose, the reasons of their respective houses for and against the amendment, and confer freely thereon.-November 13, 1794.

2. When a message shall be sent from the Senate to the House of Representatives, it shall be announced at the door of the House by the Doorkeeper, and shall be respectfully communicated to the Chair by the person by whom it may be sent.-November 13, 1794.

3. The same ceremony shall be observed when a messenger shall be sent from the House of Representatives to the Senate.-November 13, 1794.

4. Messages shall be sent by such persons as a sense of propriety in each house may determine to be proper.-November 13, 1794.

5. While bills are on their passage between the two houses they shall be on paper and under the signature of the Secretary or Clerk of each house, respectively.-November 13, 1794.

6. After a bill shall have passed both houses, it shall be duly enrolled on parchment by the Clerk of the House of Representatives, or the Secretary of the Senate, as the bill may have originated in the one or the other house, before it shall be presented to the President of the United States.-November 13, 1794.

7. When bills are enrolled, they shall be examined by a joint committee of two from the Senate and two from the House of Representa tives, appointed as a standing committee for that purpose, who shall carefully compare the enrollment with the engrossed bills as passed in the two houses, and correcting any errors that may be discovered in the enrolled bills make their report forthwith to their respective houses.November 13, 1794, and February 1, 1827.

8. After examination and report, each bill shall be signed in the re spective houses, first by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, then by the President of the Senate.-November 13, 1794.

9. After a bill shall have been thus signed in each house, it shall be presented by the said committee to the President of the United States for his approbation, (it being first indorsed on the back of the roll, certifying in which house the same originated; which indorsement shall be signed by the Secretary or Clerk, as the case may be, of the house in which the same did originate,) and shall be entered on the journal of each house. The said committee shall report the day of presentation to the President; which time shall also be carefully entered on the journal of each house.-November 13, 1794.

10. All orders, resolutions, and votes which are to be presented to the President of the United States for his approbation shall also, in the

same manner, be previously enrolled, examined, and signed; and shall be presented in the same manner, and by the same committee, as provided in the cases of bills.-November 13, 1794.

11. When the Senate and House of Representatives shall judge it proper to make a joint address to the President, it shall be presented to him in his audience chamber by the President of the Senate, in the presence of the Speaker and both houses.-November 13, 1794.

12. When a bill or resolution which shall have passed in one house is rejected in the other, notice thereof shall be given to the house in which the same shall have passed.-June 10, 1790.

13. When a bill or resolution which has been passed in one house shall be rejected in the other, it shall not be brought in during the same session without a notice of ten days and leave of two-thirds of that house in which it shall be renewed.-June 10, 1790.

14. Each house shall transmit to the other all papers on which any bill or resolution shall be founded.-June 10, 1790.

15. After each house shall have adhered to their disagreement, a bill or resolution shall be lost.-June 10, 1790.

16. No bill that shall have passed one house shall be sent for concur rence to the other on either of the three last days of the session.-January. 0, 1822.

17. No bill or resolution that shall have passed the House of Repre sentatives and the Senate shall be presented to the President of the United States for his approbation on the last day of the session.-January 30, 1822.

18. When bills which have passed one house are ordered to be printed in the other, a greater number of copies shall not be printed than may be necessary for the use of the house making the order.-February 9, 1829.

19. No spirituous or malt liquors, or wines, shall be offered for sale, exhibited, or kept within the Capitol, or in any room or building connected therewith, or on the public grounds adjacent thereto. And it shall be the duty of the Sergeants-at-Arms of the two houses, under the supervision of the presiding officers thereof, respectively, to enforce the foregoing provisions. And any officer or employé of either house who shall in any manner violate or connive at the violation of this rule shall be dismissed from office.-March 18, 1867.

20. There shall be a joint committee on the Library, to consist of three members on the part of the Senate, and three on the part of the House of Representatives, to superintend and direct the expenditure of all moneys appropriated for the Library, and to perform such other duties as are or may be directed by law.-December 7, 1843.

21. After six days from the commencement of a second or subsequent session of Congress, all bills, resolutions, or reports which originated in either house, and at the close of the next preceding session remained undetermined in either house, shall be resumed and acted on in the same manner as if an adjournment had not taken place.-August 14, 1848.

22. The two houses shall assemble in the hall of the House of Repre sentatives at the hour of 1 o'clock p. m. on the second Wednesday in February next succeeding the meeting of the electors of President and Vice-President of the United States, and the President of the Senate shall be their presiding officer; one teller shall be appointed on the part of the Senate, and two on the part of the House of Representatives, to whom shall be handed, as they are opened by the President of the Senate, the certificates of the electoral votes; and said tellers having read the same in the presence and hearing of the two houses thus assem

bled, shall make a list of the votes as they shall appear from the said certificates; and the votes having been counted, the result of the same shall be delivered to the President of the Senate, who shall thereupon announce the state of the vote and the names of the persons, if any, elected, which announcement shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons elected President and Vice-President of the United States, and, together with a list of the votes, be entered on the journals of the two houses.

If, upon the reading of any such certificate by the tellers, any question shall arise in regard to counting the votes therein certified, the same having been stated by the presiding officer, the Senate shall thereupon withdraw, and said question shall be submitted to that body for its decision; and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall, in like manner, submit said question to the House of Representatives for its decision. And no question shall be decided affirmatively, and no vote objected to shall be counted, except by the concurrent vote of the two houses; which being obtained, the two houses shall immediately reassemble, and the presiding officer shall then announce the decision of the question submitted; and upon any such question there shall be no debate in either house. And any other question pertinent to the object for which the two houses are assembled may be submitted and determined in like manner.

At such joint meeting of the two houses seats shall be provided as follows: For the President of the Senate, the "Speaker's chair;" for the Speaker, a chair immediately upon his left; for the Senators, in the body of the hall upon the right of the presiding officer; for the Representatives, in the body of the hall not occupied by the Senators; for the tellers, Secretary of the Senate, and Clerk of the House of Representatives, at the Clerk's desk; for the other officers of the two houses, in front of the Clerk's desk and upon either side of the Speaker's platform.

Such joint meeting shall not be dissolved until the electoral votes are all counted and the result declared; and no recess shall be taken, unless a question shall have arisen in regard to counting any of such votes, in which case it shall be competent for either house, acting separately in the manner herein before provided, to direct a recess not beyond the next day, at the hour of 1 o'clock p. m.-February 6, 1865.

[For action of the two houses with respect to the joint rules see Journal House of Representatives, first session Forty-third Congress, pp. 239, 1470, 1477, and 1478. No action thereon was taken during the present session; but as business was transacted between the two houses in the mode prescribed by the same, it is deemed proper to insert them as they existed at the close of the Forty-third Congress.]

21 H

QUESTIONS OF ORDER

DECIDED BY THE CLERK, THE SPEAKER, AND SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE AT THE FIRST SESSION OF THE FORTYFIFTH CONGRESS, COMMENCING OCTOBER 15 AND END. ING DECEMBER 3, 1877.

GEORGE M. ADAMS, OF KENTUCKY, CLERK; SAMUEL J. RANDALL, OF PENNSYLVANIA, SPEAKER; MILTON SAYLER, OF OHIO, SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE.

OCTOBER 15, 1877, (pp. 9 and 10.)

Mr. Wood moved that the House proceed to the election of a Speaker viva voce, and demanded the previous question thereon.

Pending which,

Mr. Hale, as a question of privilege, submitted the following preamble and resolution, viz:

Whereas James B. Belford presents the only certificate of election as a Representative in the Forty-fifth Congress given by the duly-constituted authorities of the State of Colorado; and whereas the Clerk of the House of Representatives for the Forty-fourth Congress has set aside said legal certificate presented by said James B. Belford, thereby without law assuming rights and authority which only belong to the House: Therefore,

Resolved, That the name of Thomas M. Patterson be stricken from the roll of this House as Representative in the Forty-fifth Congress from the State of Colorado, and that the name of James B. Belford be placed upon said roll as a Representative in said Congress.

Mr. Cox made the point of order that the resolution was not in order, the Clerk having absolute control over the roll of the House.

The Clerk sustained the point of order, and stated the question to be on seconding the demand for the previous question.

Mr. Hale appealed from the decision of the Clerk.

The Clerk declined to entertain the appeal, on the ground that it was not competent for the Representatives-elect to instruct the Clerk in the performance of a duty imposed upon him by law, and for the further reason that a higher question of privilege was pending, on which the previous question had been demanded.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1877 (p. 15.)

Mr. Hale, as a question of privilege, called up the case of James B. Belford, claiming a seat as Representative from the State of Colorado. Mr. Cox made the point of order that the question must first be taken on the case of the member first required to stand aside.

The Speaker sustained the point of order.

The Speaker thereupon stated the case of Joseph H. Rainey, of South Carolina, to be first in order.

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