Mr. Borden submitted the following report: The committee to which was referred the subject of reporting rules and regulations to govern the proceedings of this Convention during its session, beg leave to submit the following report, and to respectfully recommend its adop ion : RULES AND ORDERS. 1. The President shall take the Chair every day at the hour to which the Convention shall have adjourned on the preceding day; shall immediately call the members to order, and on the appearance of a quorum, shall cause the journal of the preceding day to be read. 2. The President shall preserve order and decorum; may speak to points of order in preference to other members, rising from the Chair for that purpose, and shall decide questions of order, subject to an appeal to the Convention by any two members thereof. 3. The President rising from his seat, shall distinctly put the question, in this form, viz: As many as are of opinion that (as the question may be) say aye-contrary opinion, say no. 4. If the President doubt, or a division be called for, the members shall divide those in the affirmative first rising from their seats, and afterwards those in the negative. 5. Any member may call for the statement of the question, which the President may give sitting. 6. The President, with ten members, shall be a sufficient number to adjourn; twenty-five to call the Convention, and send for absent members and make an order for their censure or acquittal; and a majority of the whole number shall constitute a quorum to proceed to business. 7. When a member is about to speak in debate, or deliver any matter to the Convention, he shall rise from his seat, and respectfully address himself to Mr. President; and shall confine himself to the question under debate, and avoid personality; and no member shall impeach the motives of any other member either in his vote or his argument. 8. If any member in speaking, or otherwise transgress the rules, the President shall, or any member may, call to order; in which case, the member so called to order, shall immediately sit down, unless permitted by the Convention to explain; and the Convention shall, if applied to, decide on the case, but without debate. If the decision be in favor of the member so called to order, he shall be at liberty to proceed if otherwise, and the case require it, he shall be liable to the censure of the Convention. 9. When two or more members happen to rise at the same time, the President shall name the person who is first to speak. 10. No member shall speak more than twice on the same question, without leave of the Convention, nor more than once until every member, choosing to speak, shall have spoken. 11. Whilst the President is putting a question, no one shall walk across the room; nor, whilst a member is speaking, enter on private discourse, or pass between him and the Chair. 12. No member shall vote on any question who was not within the bar when the same was put; and when any member shall ask leave to vote, the President shall propound to him this question: Were you within the bar when your name was called? 13. Upon calls of the Convention, for taking yeas and nays, on any question, the names of the members shall be called alphabetically, and each member shall answer from his seat. 14. Any ten members shall have a right to call the yeas and nays, provided they shall request it before the question is put. 15. Any member may call for the division of a question, which shall be divided, if it contain propositions in substance so distinct that one being taken away a substantive proposition remains for the decision of the Convention. A motion to strike out and insert shall be deemed indivisible; but a motion to strike out being lost, shall not preclude an amendment, nor a motion to strike out and insert. 16. After a motion is stated by the President, or read by the Secretary, it shall be deemed in possession of the Convention, but may be withdrawn at any time before decision or amendment. 17. When a question is under debate no motion shall be received but to adjourn, to lay 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; and no motion to postpone to a day certain, to commit, or to postpone indefinitely, having been decided, shall be again allowed on the same day, and at the same stage of the article or proposition. 18. The previous question shall be in this form-"Shall the main question be now put?" It shall be admitted only when demanded by a majority of the members present; and its effect shall be to put an end to all debate, and bring the Convention to a direct vote upon amendments reported by a committee, if any, thereupon pending amendments, and then on the main question. On a motion for the previous question, and before the seconding of the same, a call of the Convention shall be in order; but after a majority shall have seconded such motion, no call shall be in order prior to a decision of the main question. On a previous question there shall bé no debate. All incidental questions of order, arising after a motion for the previous question is made, and pending such motion, shall be decided, whether on appeal or otherwise, without debate. If it should be decided that the question should now be put, the main question shall still remain under consideration. 19. In taking the sense of the Convention a majority of the votes of the members present shall govern. 20. No article or section of the Constitution shall be finally concluded and agreed upon until the same shall have been read upon three several days, unless two-thirds of the members present shall think it necessary to dispense with this rule, which shall be decided without debate. 21. The Convention shall resolve itself into a committee of the whole whenever deemed necessary, and whilst in committee of the whole shall be governed by the rules of the Convention. Upon any article or section being committed to a committee of the whole, the same shall be read throughout by the Secretary, and then again read and debated by clauses, leaving the preamble to be last considered. The body of the article or section shall not be defaced or interlined, but all amendments, noting the page and line, shall be duly entered by the Secretary on a separate paper, as the same shall be agreed to by the Convention, and so reported to the Convention; after report, the article or section shall be subject to be debated and amended by clauses before a question to engross it be taken. 22. The President shall appoint committees, liable to addition on motion of any member, unless otherwise directed by the Convention. 23. A motion to adjourn shall always be in order, and be decided without debate. 24. On all questions when yeas and nays are called, the President shall vote, his name being called last; and in the case of an equal division the question shall be considerd lost; and upon all questions when the Convention is equally divided, he shall give the casting vote, or when his vote shall make an equal division, he shall vote upon a call of any member, and in such case of equal division the question shall be lost. 25. The President shall have the general direction of the Hall wherein the Convention sits, and shall have the right to name any member to perform the duties of the Chair; but such substitution shall not extend beyond an adjournment. 26. No committee shall meet during the sitting of the Convention without special leave, and all writs, warrants, and subpoenas, issued by order of the Convention, shall be under the hand of the President, and attested by the Principal Secretary. 27. In cases of any disturbance or disorderly conduct in the gallery or lobby, the President or Chairman of the committee of the whole shall have power to order the same cleared. 28. All questions relating to the priority of business shall be decided without debate. 29. 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 Secretary's table, and no member shall be held to answer, or to be subject to the censure of the Convention, for words spoken in. debate, if any other member has spoken, or other business has intervened, after the words spoken and before exception to them shall have been taken, 30. Every member who shall be in the Convention when the question is put, shall give his vote, unless the Convention for special reasons, shall excuse him. And should any member present not excused from voting, refuse to vote when his name is called, the Convention shall direct the Secretary to make an entry on the journal, that said member was present and called to vote on the question, but refused to vote. All motions to excuse a member from voting shall be made before the Convention divides, or before the ayes and noes are commenced; and any member requesting to be excused from voting, may make a brief verbal statement of the reasons for making such request, and the question shall then be taken without further debate. 31. The unfinished business in which the Convention was engaged at the last preceding adjournment, shall have the preference in the orders of the day, and no motion or any other business shall be received without special leave of the Convention, until the former is disposed of. 82. Upon the second reading of any article or section, the President shall state that it is ready for commitment, or amendment, or engrossment; and if committed, then the question shall be, whether to a select or a standing committee, or to a committee of the whole; if to a committee of the whole, then the Convention shall determine on what day; but if the article or section presented be ordered to be engrossed, the Convention shall appoint the day when it shall be read the third time; and upon the third reading the yeas and nays shall in all cases be taken and recorded. 33. Every article or section ordered to be engrossed shall be written in a fair, round, plain hand. 34. All questions, whether in committee or in the Convention, shall be propounded in the order in which they are moved, except that in filling up blanks, the largest sum and the longest time shall be first put. 35. When a motion has been once made and decided in the affirmative or negative, it shall be in order for any member of the majority, at any time, to move for the reconsideration thereof. But the question shall not be taken on the same day, unless by unanimous consent; and if lost, shall not be renewed, or any vote taken on a reconsideration a second time, unless with the consent of the Convention. If the motion to reconsider is not made on the same day, three days' notice shall be required to be given of the intention to make it. 36. Any article or section, after commitment and report thereon to the Convention, or at any time before it is finally concluded and agreed upon, may be recommitted. 37. Every resolution of an important character, if objection be made, shall lie over one day. 38. No standing rule or order of the Convention, 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. Nor shall the order of business, as established by the rules of the Convention be postponed or changed, except by a vote of at least two-thirds of the members present. 39. No member shall absent himself from the service of the Convention, unless he have leave, or be sick and unable to attend. 40. The duty of the door-keeper shall be to give notice to the Convention of all messages, to carry all messages the Convention may require, private as well as public; when requested to call a member of the Convention he shall do so by name. He shall keep the Hall clean and have a good fire made therein by the hour of nine o'clock in the morning, when the weather requires it. 41. It shall also be the duty of the door-keeper to attend the Convention during its sittings; to keep the Hall and committee rooms in perfect order; and in all things to execute the commands of the President and of the Convention from time to time. 42. It shall be the duty of the sergeat-at-arms to attend the Convention during its sittings; announce all messages; preserve order in the lobbies and galleries of the Hall; and to execute all process issued by the authority of this Convention and directed to him by the President thereof. 43. No person shall be allowed to smoke within the Hall, nor within the lobbies or galleries thereof. On motion of Mr. Kelso, The report was laid on the table and one hundred and fifty copies ordered to be printed. The committee "on the legality of the claim of the present State Printer to do the printing of this Convention," made the following report: The undersigned, members of the committee appointed under the following resolution: Resolved, That there be a committee of seven appointed, whose duty it shall be to inquire into and report to this Covention upon the legality of the claim of the present State Printer to do the printing for this Convention, &c.; Beg leave to report that they have had the matter referred to them under consideration, and are unanimously of opinion that the State Printer is not ex officio the Printer to this Convention, and has no legal claim by virtue of his office to do the printing for this Convention. R. H. MILROY, HORACE P. BIDDLE, Mr. Nave moved to lay the report on the table. Committee. |