Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1851-07-29

loeron9 i. referred to, feel it to be my AN.
particularly when the gentleman ITO oo. oonmittee upou
Scorr is not present-to address the eon'nA'''' "pN
, the subject. vho have advo
Gated both these propositions have mere, rmnsn,
s,ate of facts to exist and then made out al al
srn that state of facts The gentleman from ieterS
burg mir WALI.cx) desired the restrie!lon
mr. nearly oil of the business of the session wac ~
the last four days Of the sssaOr ,on b do know that
uh u not tho fact although it may be that larger pro-
o,; - th bp.insss WAS done on the last four Jay
han in any oher four days OF the session. he gentle
from Hampshire sees so Of beuns acts
~ a. 90 me bill is the ST. ongest handspike LII the
sss,s, of iogrolling Now, believe If am not good
ythnrr mon any other subject am said to BE pretty
good authority upon this suGect anu eeii tpe eeute
~; item of blending acts in one bill being the
,ronsa., bandspike in the system OF log-rong, the
ra evsr,e is the fact | agree with the gentleman
from Rockingham r. DESEALE) IN lie statement OF the
r - ifv the experience of the gentleman from
nha ~ any o,her gentleman upon this committee
- mi To- single law upon the statute book contain
anpropriaons to any two WORKS OF internal ln-
rexsesnt You will find one or two instances of bills
a,.o;n, charter for a particular railroad, to which
,,ad en- smenduent providing for n loan. and in case
rho cnmnany failed to comply with the provisions Of
that sc, in specified time then an independent com
nam sball be formed for the same purpose You will
| ind in
iJ, rsrouI company, and in that, power to the
| Nc RI construct railroad from Staunton TO Coving-
nn These re the only instances in which rccolltct
this baudspike in the log-roling system has beer used
There mav BE- instances TO which the gentleman from
Hamnshru refers but can receect none know Of one
or two little turnpkes being blended together in the
same BILL but with these exceptions | think YOU will
find nothing Of any considerable Importance upon your
statute book of this kind
Now as have remarked so lar from this blending
.Lro tLo la,,
the strongest handspikes i'll the system of log rolling
is the very have tho attempt made upon
more than Que occasion. | have gentlemen ut
emr to take up bills out of their order and put them
upc Passage, but every logroller springs upon
ultl n The idea among them Is that if you allow
that fellow to get his through, which is
down at the foot Of the calendar lie will
for ours, aud they act accordingly.
Mr.. SLOAN. Let put case Suppose bill
passed the house of delegates appropriating thou
sand dollars to particular road 1t to the SEN
ate and il ascertaned there that it cannot pass that
body Some gentleman i'll the senate wishes to have
similar work constructed IL lis county md makes
proposition that ,.,iVugh he for in it
pl esct FORM if its patron viii permit amendment to
20 upon it aud have twenty live Thousand dollars appro
priated his road he will sustain it. The friend OF the
Dill uscertans it cannot pass without lat amendment
and very willingly asseEts it. The draws
wu or three friends to the bill and il passes ask nv
from Logan is not that pretty lc;g and strong hand
spike!
MIR FERGUSON. The ingenuity of nv friend from
Hampshire can suppose Thousand cases if he sets
himself TO work upon that suUyect. | no. sGppu-
slug what may be-l am arguing Question OF fact
- to what has beeu Now, this particular thing
may accidentally occur in particular case. but | tell
the gentleman and this committee that the pr.c-
ice OF the house Of delegates un:l general assembly
been exactly the contrary OF that supposed br the
gentleman. 1t is next impossible tuck ANY appro-
patIon bill upon another appropriation bill particular
81, l,ll Al,
,ystem of log-rolliny has thus far efectuslly put
check an such practice for the very reason nave
been stating. Those who have bills in dvance Of 9TH
ers will permit thos, in to tack on their
bills AMI thus get advantage But this abused and
ivspscd legislature whose morals to be- corrected
aud whose purity is to be pe-petuaed br this vrtuous
Convection, at the very last session adopted rule that
rule Of that house should be suspended ard that the
order Of business should il case De changed except
w vote of twothir,.s Of the house Well The effect of
that to prevent ans bill being taken up out Of its
der without vote of twohlre Of the members D. cs.n
Not only that, but when proposition made to
amend bill b. attaching to it subec contained IN
any other BILL the speaker uniformly decided tina, wa,
u violation of the two-thrds rule, and proposition
rarely succeeded Of this kind That is tie practice of
MS despi,ed les oature which oversee for all
time to come and preserve il morals and purity Now
lar experience has gone This practice Of lacking
bills together is .cr the purpose OF strengthening he
proposition before the house. Occasionally vcu may
another bill that You could get through an indie
pendent proposition, but IN nine Of ten the
lacking together OF separate and independent PROPOSE
lions in the BILL ed with each other tends
% weaken the proposition Instead Of strengthening it,
and for this reason: While YOU may bring to its sup
port few advocates Of that particular measure there
Is always portion of the members in the If del
cgates who opposed /" lacking and VII against
it. These propositions are Ia kcd Oh for wholly diff
ierent purpose Thev tackled en- very frequently be-
lai,r Io,,.
to the subject tina; il IT, BE- connected with tie bill
These banks that much talked about are an in
stance. AT the last session OF the general assembly
one bill passed incorporating four five banks upon
this new principle OF banking. That proposition was
not referred to any committee there Were no bills upon
the table and II was too late go into committee o the
whole aud get bills there and gentlemen got the bills
attached to other bills reported Well, do not De-
ieve in single instance they made the bill any stronger
by it. On the contrary, know Of gentlemen who 20
led against these propositions simply because these
four or five banks were incorporated i'll the same BILL
and one came near being lost growing out OF that fact
The practice grows out of the fact that you do re!
the propositions before the house detached and it for
the purpose of expediting the business that it done
not for the purpose of lrolliug managing make
your proposition stronger
Now after having said this much concee tia, the
practice Of combining distinct aud separate propositions
the bill general rule ought TO be ;ucra
ted But is there danger attempt to provide
that it shall not be done in any that We may clog
che hands of the legislature too much Now submit
this question. II is very clear will be compelled to
another revision of tie laws of this commonwealth
after this Convention shall have passed a~ to adan,
the code to the new constitution Now, submit To
gentlemen ii this provision had been in our
long it would take to amend this code of Virginia
You must bring in separate and independent bill for
every separate and independent amendment that This
Convention makes necessary. When we wero revising
lat cor..s y"u very well know it was passed Il, fv.
tnct AMI Separate bills. But bow many separate sub
iecSe contained in each bill II we lad hc,n ,.on
reed to introduce an independent bill sur every sepa
subject apprehcnd it would have taken Us some
four or five years I" accomplish lAbors And so i,
will he if We adopt this amendment Whenever file
necessity comes. and come it WILL to r.snode this code
We will have Tor every amendment. :. matters net how
simple or important it may be, eepsra;c ard n!enen
dent proposition. Now thin. L we are eoiur to do
nythng we should adopt So.as proposition k. TINT OF
the gentleman from Fiuxan.a or the gentleman from
Loudoun (Mr JAsSIY.}
If you provide that money bills shall lt passed a.
distinct propositions and mcuey Hills alone apprcLe
there is no great danger of mischief growing otoC tis
thing Go other subjects thiHk the eisIIure will he
competent to manage for themselves
Mr. BROWN. do not rise to give mv experience