the question or business to which it is attached, immediately takes the place to which it belongs in the general order of business in the assembly,1 or goes over to the next day on which business of the same description is in order.2 3 1278. When a motion to reconsider prevails, it has a twofold effect; first, it entirely abrogates the vote passed on the question, which is thereby ordered to be reconsidered; and, secondly, it again brings forward that question, to be discussed and decided in the same manner it was originally, for the consideration and determination of the assembly. CHAPTER THIRD. OF MOTIONS CONSIDERED WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR FORM. 1279. A motion is a proposition made to the house by a member, which if adopted becomes the resolution, vote, or order, of the house. The form of a motion must consequently be so framed, and its language so expressed, that, if it meets the approbation of the house, it may at once become the resolution, vote, or order which it purports to be. In considering motions in reference to their form, it will be most convenient to treat of the subject affirmatively, by pointing out the several requisites as to form, which a motion ought regularly to possess. 1280. I. Motions are usually expressed in the affirmative, even where their purpose and effect are negative, although there is no strict rule which prohibits them from being put in the negative form. Thus, for example, the form of the previous question is, that the main question be now put, which is an affirmative proposition, though in parliament, the purpose of the mover is to obtain a decision of it in the negative, and the motion is said to be carried, when, in point of form, it has been rejected. So, where the purpose of a motion is the rejection of words from another motion or question, the parliamentary form in which it is proposed to the house is, that 1 Cong. Globe, XX. 463. 2 J. of H. 27th Cong. 1st Sess. 618, 619, 620. 3 Withington v. Harvard, Cushing's Reports, VIII. 66. Cong. Globe, VIII. 410; Same, XXI. 832. those words stand part of the question, which is an affirmative proposition. 1281. But though motions are not usually expressed in the negative, yet, when expressed affirmatively, and decided by the house in the negative, such negative decision is as much the judgment or decision of the house, as an affirmative decision would have been,1 and so, it is presumed, that if a motion was allowed to be put in the negative form, and it should be decided negatively, the decision of the house would be considered as affirming the proposition. 1 1282. In the house of commons, where, in case of an equality of votes, the speaker gives the casting vote, there seems to be no other difference between putting a question negatively and affirmatively, than what results from the greater simplicity and regularity of the latter form. But, in the house of lords, in which the lord chancellor gives his vote with the other peers, and has no casting vote, and in which, in case of an equality of voices, the decision of the house is in the negative of the proposition submitted to it, a question, upon which the house is equally divided, will receive a decision the one way or the other, according as it is proposed in the affirmative or the negative. Thus, if the motion is proposed in the affirmative, and the house is equally divided, the decision is in the negative; but if the motion was proposed in the negative, and the same members should vote precisely in the same manner, and divide equally, the decision would be in the affirmative. In some of the American legislative assemblies, questions are frequently determined by an equality of voices. 1283. II. A motion must regularly be in writing. It is usually prepared beforehand, or written on the spot, by the member by whom it is proposed. If a member, however, who has occasion to make a motion, has not prepared it beforehand, and insists upon his privilege, he may dictate the words of his motion to the clerk, and have them written down by him. But it is not usual for members to receive the assistance of the clerk in this manner, unless they are laboring under some infirmity, which prevents them from writing their motions for themselves.2 In this country it is usual to provide by a rule, either that all motions shall be submitted in writing, or that they shall be reduced to writing if demanded by the presiding officer or any member of the assembly. The latter is the form of 1 On the 2d of April, 1604, it was laid down, as a rule in the house of commons (Comm. Jour. I. 162,) "That a question being once made, and carried in the affirmative or nega tive, cannot be questioned again, but must stand as a judgment of the house." 2 Romilly, 273; Grey, III. 336; Parl. Reg, LXVI. 437; Hans. (1), XXII. 745, 746. the rule in both houses of congress.1 It is not usual, however, for the speaker to require those motions to be presented in writing, which are made for the purpose of disposing of other motions and questions, or which are made in the ordinary course of proceeding, such, for example, as motions to adjourn the house or the debate, for the previous question, or for reading the orders of the day. 1284. III. Every motion being an independent proposition, or a series of propositions relating to the same subject, it is a rule, that a member cannot make two or more separate motions at the same time.2 It therefore seems irregular and unparliamentary to make what is ordinarily the matter of two motions the subject of one; yet this has been allowed in the house of representatives of the United States, even in cases in which one of the motions is not debatable, or where one requires only a majority of votes for its determination, and the other a vote of two thirds, and two questions must accordingly be taken on the proposition. In that body, also, nothing is more common than for the motion to reconsider, accompanied by a motion that that motion lie on the table, to be submitted at the same time. Another more unparliamentary proceeding, which is allowed in that assembly, is, for a proposition and the previous question upon it, to be both moved at the same time.5 1285. Where a member proposes a series of propositions relating to the same subject, that is to say, a string of resolutions, he first reads, and, if necessary, explains the whole series, and then moves the first. In this mode of proceeding, the first resolution tests the sense of the house; if adopted, the others follow as a matter of course; if rejected, there is no occasion to move them at all.6 1286. In general, it is true, that inconsistent propositions cannot be blended together for any serious purpose, and a motion would be objectionable in point of form, which should attempt to do so; yet the practice of coupling two heterogeneous propositions together, by means of an amendment, for the purpose of fixing tained by the house on the grounds of con- 6 Hans. (3), XX. 436; Romilly, 277. absurdity on the whole, is often permitted to take place as a method of taking the sense of the house on a particular question.1 6 4 3 1287. IV. A motion should not be so long and so minute in what it requires, as to render its adoption contrary to the usual custom of the house; 2 nor should it be argumentative and more in the style of a speech than of a motion; nor should it contain any unnecessary provisions, or objectionable words,5 or be itself unnecessary; nor be moved for the purpose merely of throwing ridicule or contempt upon some other motion. So a motion is objectionable, which proposes something to be done, contrary to the orders of the house, as where a motion was made to bring up a petition praying for public money, which had not been recommended by the sovereign; or where a motion was made to bring up a petition, which had erasures on it not made with the knowledge of the petitioners.9 8 1288. If the language of a motion is offensive either to the house, or to any member, the same proceedings may be had in relation to it, as are proper in the case of disorderly or offensive words used in debate; 10 and, for the same cause, a motion may either be refused an entry among the minutes, or if already entered, may be expunged.11 1289. In all these cases, the speaker calls the attention of the mover and of the house to the irregularity of the motion before stating it; whereupon the motion is usually withdrawn or so modified as to be no longer objectionable. But if the motion is of such a nature, that the objection cannot be removed, as in the two last-mentioned cases in paragraph 1233, the speaker refuses to receive or put the motion to the house, but treats it as a nullity. 1290. If a motion is not objectionable, in any of these respects, or if it is objected to, and the objection is not sustained by the house, it is the right of the mover to have his motion proposed in the very words, in which it is made; 12 and Lord Thurlow said he should consider any decision false, that was come to upon a question, the words of which had been altered from the original motion given in by the mover. 1 Parl. Reg. (2), XVII. 199. 2 Parl. Reg. LVIII. 194, 195. 3 Hans. (3), XVII. 1281, 1324. 4 Hans. (3), XXV. 436. 5 Hans. (1), VII. 872. 6 Parl. Reg. LVIII. 194, 195. 13 7 Hans. (3), LIII. 1391, 1392. See also Cong. Globe, XIV. 36. 8 Parl. Reg. (2), VII. 261, 262. 9 Hans. (3), V. 1267, 1268. 10 Parl. Reg. XXXIX. 218. 11 Hans. (3), XVII. 1281, 1324. 12 Parl. Reg. XXXIX. 216. 13 Parl. Reg. XXXIX. 218. CHAPTER FOURTH. OF MOTIONS CONSIDERED WITH REFERENCE TO THE TIME ་ 1291. It being contrary to the course of the house, that any business should be laid aside, until it is determined by a question;1 it is a rule, that, when a motion has been made, seconded, and proposed by the presiding officer, no other motion for the introduction of any new business can be regularly made, until the former has been decided by a question, or otherwise disposed of, according to the forms of the assembly; 2 and, consequently, a motion, which, in all other respects, is perfectly regular, may be objectionable if made during the pendency of another motion. This rule is applicable to subsidiary or secondary, as well as to principal, motions. 1292. This rule is subject to several exceptions: first, in reference to all those motions, which, having for their object to dispose of a principal motion, such, for example, as a motion to amend, or commit, or for the previous question, must necessarily be put and decided before the question is taken on the first motion, unless they do not have the effect to supersede that motion altogether, in which case it is disposed of without their being first put to the question. 1293. A second class of exceptions consists of those motions which, though not made use of to dispose of the principal motion, arise out of and are incidental to that or other questions connected with it; as, for example, questions relating to order, motions for the reading of papers, for leave to withdraw a motion, etc.; which are of course to be put and decided before the questions which give rise to them. 1294. To the same class belong also those motions, which are 1 Scobell, 29. 2 Hans. (1), I. 1002, 1022, 1025; Romilly, 275; Scobell, 21, 22; Hatsell, II, 123; Comm. Deb. X. 293; Hans. (1), IV. 186, 190; Same, XXIII. 284; Same, (3), LXII. 1068; Parl. Reg. XXIV. 76, 77; Same, XXV. 158, 159, 160; J. of H. VII. 234; Same, 19th Cong. 1st Sess. 794; Reg. of Deb. III. 1099; Same, VIII. 950; 3 For a definition of these motions, see post, § 1443. મ |