Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1851-07-04
The Contention agog again.

We looked into the Convention yesterday, about
one o'clock, and Mr.. Wise was upon his feet, We
hemently protesting against the application to him
of the hour rule, he having exhausted an hour in
speech upon proposition of his to give securi-
ty to slave property byrequring that all taxes upon
slaves shall be per capita, and that the same tax
shall be laid upon white persons as upon slaves
He contended that the hour rule was unconsti-
tutiona infringement of the right of the people to
be heard through their representatives, and there
fore insisted upon his right to proceed ad hbjtum.
Some gentlemen offered to move that the COM
mittee OF the whole rise in order that the Conven-
ton might repeal the rule; but Mr.. Wise scorn-
fully refused TO accept the privilege as courtesy,
and claimed it as right. He said he would raise
the question of privilege whether he had not the
right to speak, notwithstanding the hour rule A
motion, however, was made that the Committee
rise and, notwithstanding Mr.. Wises express re-.
fusal to accept any terms but direct acknowledge
ment of his right to violate the rule, large ma
jority voted to rise.
In Convention, motion was Immediately made
that the rule be rescinded.
Mr. Rives, of Prince George, delivered
speech such as no man but himself can conceive.
He denounced the conduct of the committee of
the whole in rising under Mr. Wises refusal to
speak by its courtesy, as an gnominious dodge
of the question whether the rule should be en-
forced. Only few days ago, it seemed, Mr..
Rives himself was cut off in the midst of a
speech he was most anxious to finish, and the
committee did not hesitate to enforce the rule
But, Mr.. Wise being gentleman of national
reputation, majority of the committee had not
the nerve TO use him as they had used men,
Der of the humble fame of Mr.. Rives. He
therefore pronounced the Virginia Convention
everastingly and rretrievably dsgraced. Mr..
Rves, however, like Mr.. Wise, denied the con-
stitutonality of the hour rule, and claimed an il
lmtable privilege of speaking.
Mr.. Hill, of Buckingham, made some very sent
sible remarks, in defence of the right to restric-
debate. He argued that it was indispensable to
the progress OF business; that if a member might
speak day, he might speak week, or month,
or a year, and so the sessions of body would be
interrnnable The previous question, he suggest
ed, to which Mr.. Wise himself was not 10th to
resort, was much harsher restriction than the
uour RUE: ii ulG nOl merely IHnlt tlle leigtH ol
speeches. but precluded them entirely.
Mr.. Bocock exculpa'ed the committees rising,
by urging that it was necessary to rise in order
to decide the question of privilege. Without COM
ing to any vote, the Convention on his motion,
adjourned, and the matter will have be decided on
Saturday.
The difference made by the Convention in COM
mittee between two of its members is certainly
worthy of notice, and there can be no explanation
of it, except that the member from Accomac has
so long been allowed to have his own way, that
most of his fellow members do not know how to
deny it to him. When he looks round upon the
body, he evidently INDUCES the complacent re-
Election of Robinson Crusoe on his island, that he
is monarch of all he surveys, and the body, in re-
turn, from long habit of submission, is not apt to
exhibit any symptom of disloyaty. Mr.. Wise,
however, is, in this instance, on the unpopular
side. No intelligence would, at this moment, be
more disagreeable to the people of Virginia than
that their Convention after adopting rule resric-
ting the length of debate, had rescinded it.