27. Every motion shall be reduced to writing, if the speaker or any member desire it.

28. After a motion is stated by the speaker, or read by the clerk, it shall be deemed to be in the possession of the house, but may be withdrawn at any time before a decision or amendment.

29. When a question is under debate, no motion shall be received but to adjourn, to lie on the table, for the previous question, 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.

30. A motion to adjourn shall be always in order, and shall be decided without debate.

31. The previous question shall be in this form: "Shall the main question be now put?" It shall only be admitted when demanded by a majority of the members present; and until it is decided, shall preclude all amendment and further debate of the main question.

32. On a previous question there shall be no debate.

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

34. Any member may call for the diwision of a question, where the sense will

admit of it; but a question to strike out and insert shall be deemed indivisible.

35. Motions and reports may be committed at the pleasure of the house.

36. No new motion or proposition shall be admitted under color of amendment, as a substitute for the motion or proposition under debate.

37. When a motion has been once made and carried, in the affirmative or negative, it shall be in order for any member of the majority to move for the reconsideration thereof, on the same, or the succeeding day.

1

38. 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.

39. The unfinished business in which the house was engaged at the last preceding adjournment, shall have the preference in the orders of the day; and no motion on any other business shall be received, without special leave of the house, until the former is disposed of.

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

41. Every order, resolution, or vote, to which the concurrence of the Senate

shall be necessary, shall be read to the house, and laid on the table, on a day preceding that in which the same shall be moved, unless the house shall otherwise expressly allow.

42. Petitions, memorials, and other papers addressed to the house, shall be presented by the speaker, or by a member in his place; a brief statement of the contents thereof shall verbally be made by the introducer, and shall not be debated or decided on the day of their being first read, unless where the house shall direct otherwise; but shall lie on the table to be taken up in the order they were read.

43. Any fifteen members, (including the speaker, if there be one,) shall be authorised to compel the attendance of absent members.

44. Upon calls of the house, or in taking the yeas and nays on any question, the names of the members shall be called alphabetically.

45. Any member may excuse himself from serving on any committee at the time of his appointment, if he is then a member of two other committees.

46. No member shall absent himself from the service of the house, unless he have leave, or be sick and unable to attend.

47. Upon 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 insufficient excuses are made, may, by order of those present, if fifteen in number, be taken into custody as they appear, or may be sent for and taken into custody, wherever to be found, by special messengers to be appointed for that purpose.

48. 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 expenses of such special messenger.

49. A sergeant-at-arms shall be appointed, to hold his office during the pleasure of the house; whose duty it shall be to attend the house during its sitting; to execute the commands of the house, from time to time, together with all such process issued by authority thereof, as shall be directed to him by the speaker.

50. The fees of the sergeant-at-arms shall be, for every arrest, the sum of two dollars; for each day's custody and re

leasement, one dollar; and for travelling expences for himself or a special messenger, going and returning, one tenth of a dollar per mile.

51. Thirteen standing committees shall be appointed at the commencement of each session, viz.

A committee of elections,

A committee of ways and means,

A committee of claims,

A committee of commerce and manufactures,

A committee on the public lands,

A committee on the post office and post roads,

A committee for the District of Columbia,

A committee on the judiciary,

A committee on pensions and revolutionary claims.

A committee on public expenditures.

A committee on private land claims.

A committee of revisal and unfinished business, and

A committee of accounts.

}

To consist

of seven members each.

To consist of

seven mem

bers.

To consist of

three members each.

It shall be the duty of the said committee of elections, to examine and report upon the certificates of the election or other credentials of the members returned to serve in this house, and to take into their consideration all such petitions and other matters touching elections and returns, as shall or may be presented or come in question, and be referred to them by the house.