The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-03-16
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
MONDAY, March Is, 1856:

ADDITIONAL PAGES ASKED FOR.
Mr.. JOHNSON, Of Arkansas, by unanimous
consent Of the House, introduced the following
resolution.
'sResolued, That the Doorkeeper of the House
Of Representatives be authorised, with the consent
of the Speaker, to appoint three additional pages
on the floor Of the House."
Mr. JOHNSON said that he believed the adop-
ton of the resolution would facilitate business and
the convenience of members The House now
had only twelve pages to wa t on 237 members,
while the Senate had eleven to wait on 62 mem
bers. To give the proper proportion, the House,
therefore, should be entitled to forty-two pages
At present, some Of the members sitting on the
outside of the bar could not get waited on under
fifteen minutes. He believed that fifteen pages
was not an unreasonable number. The door
keepers were sometimes called away from their
proper station to perform the duties of pages.
On the adoption Of the resolution the yeas and
NAYS were ordered, and it was rejected-yeas rs,
nays 81.
Mr.. JOHNSON, having voted in the negative,
moved reconsideration Of the vote rejecting the
resolution, which he further explained and ad
vocated. He did not think that members fully
understood its bearing He protested against the
entertained.
Mr.. BROWN, of Mississippi, explained that
two of the boys now here were not authorised,
but had been employed because they were abso-
utely necessary. They could not be paid unless
the House would authorize their payment by the
passage Of this resolution, or In some other way.
Mr.. JONES, of Tennessee, believed that in
crease of pages was uncalled for. 1t was not
their duty to run on errands through the city for
members, but to attend in the hall. He had
rather occasionally be subjected to little ncon-
venience than to have superabundance of pages,
and general thing, there was enough OF them
TO answer all purposes.
Mr. MASON Of keptuckv knew n rrPst
many poor people who had surpusage Of boys,
whom they would doubtless be glad to have ap
pointed TO places. The pages now receive SOS
per month, or thereabouts, and $3.50 extra at the
end Of the session. He thought that, although he
should be glad to have all the poor people accom-
modated the twelve pages now employed were suf
icient Ii was impossible to relieve everybody
with the contingent fund.
Mr.. FOWLER moved to lay Mr.. JoHNsoN's
motion to reconsider on the table, which was neg
adved, the yeas and nays being ordered-yeas
81, nays SO.
The motion to reconsider was then agreed to-
the yeas and nays being again ordered-yeas "a,
nays 81
Mr.. JOHNSON then modified his resolution, so
az to reduce the number of additional pages to two,
and
The resolution was adopted.
PETITIONS FROM PENNSYLVANIA.
Mr.. CHANDLER, of Pennsylvania, asked the
unanimous consent of the House to introduce GER
tain resolutions from the legislature Of that State
Leave was granted.
READ THIRD TIME AND PASSED.
On motion of Mr.. STEPHENS, of Georgia,
Senate bill mo. 1885, entitled can act in addition
to an act to provide for the settlement of the nc
counts of public officers, and others, who may
have received moneys arising from military con-
tr buttons, or otherwise, in Mexico, approved
March 3, 1884, was taken up, read alhird time
and passed.
DELEGATE FROM NEW MEXICO.
Mr.. PHELPS, of Missouri, rose TO privil-
eyed question, and called up the memorial OF Capt.
Ia. w. Reynolds. Of New Mexico, contes'ing the
right of Hon. x. II. WEiGHrMAH, the sitting dele
gate from that territory, to a seat in the House.
IThe memorial charges Gov. Calhoun, OF New
Mexico with having exercised corrupt influences