The daily Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1855, 1854-09-01

think, in the enrolled bill. 1t is our habit.
as soon as bill passes the House, to enrol
it at once, SO that, if it passes the Senate
Immediately, there may he no delay on our
part in its passing through tie usual neces-
sary forms to become law 1t is there
fore very likely that | or the other clerk
either enrolled it the day it passed, or that
took it home with me that evening, and
enrolled portions of it at my house, and
that or the other clerk Mr. Martin) fin
ished it the next morning. 1t is very like
ly, therefore, that the word "or' was in
that bill, and had to be changed to accord
with the engrossed BILL All the enrolled
bills are deposited in the Department of
State ; and if | had the act in question |
could tell at once whether it was so altered.
| enrolled some portion of it cannot say
whether | enrolled all of it. l fixed it up
for the committee and if there is an alter
alton in it, it is in my handwriting. After
bill passes both Houses, the enrolled copy
is delivered to the Committee on Enrolment
for examination. They compare and ex-
anime it by tie engrossed BILL This enroll
ed bill appears, by the entry on the back,
to have been delivered to Mr.. Green, chair
man of that committee. 1t then passed fin
ally from my keeping. The alteration of
the word cor" into "and" was made before
the bill passed the Senate On that point 1
am certain.
Question. How, then, did it come to be
printed, il the Senate, with the word COR"
in it !?
Answer. That is easily explained. I'M
mcdately that bill comes to the Senate
from the House, an order is generally made
to have it printed, and the clerk Immediate
ly either makes copy of it Or sends the
original bill to the printer that evening If
it Was printed that evening, (the day it
passed the House. as was very probably
the case, of course it was printed with the
word 'or' in it. Mr.. Buck can give more
positive information ON this point. Mr.
Price is the clerk in the Senate who is
charged with having their orders for bill
printing attended to.
Question. Were Mr.. Stevens and Gene
raj Patton frequently in your room in re-
gard to the matter!
Answer. Mr.. Stevens came into my room
on the subject but once, think General
Patton and | talked of the matter several
times such is my impression As cngross-
ing clerk Of the Senate, he comes into my
room frequently.
Question. Did any person but Messrs.
FOrney, Patton, and Stevens talk with YOU
in relation to the alteration, previously to
its being made?
Answer. No one that can recollect
Question. After the alteration was made,
when did you first hear anything more on
the subject?
Answer. Last Saturday.
Question. Did YOU rccOect of any case
where material alteration was made in an
cngrossed BILL and an enrolled one, after the
passage Of such bill by the House, except
ing as changed by order of the Senate or
House!
Answer. have altered an enrolled bill
, where the Committee on Enrolment or |
have discovered a discrepancy between it
and the cngrossed bill the former must
correspond with the latter. In this particu-
.. lar case (the Minnesota bill) TO such state
of affairs, strictly speaking, occurred. The
| "dO lliiiiC III liiC cI!tOICu VII
the engrosscd bill passed the Senate Had
i the bill not been enrolled Immediately, it
q would have been enrolled with the word
q ''and' in it, and no alteration would have t;l-
ken place but being enrolled before the
!. engrossed bill was altered, the word "Or,"
o as Il matter of course, had to be changed to
y "and," to make the enrolled bill correspond
( with the engrossed bill. The point is as to
i the alteration in the engroSscd BILL for be-
~ ing made in that, it followed, as matter of
u course, that the other had to lie made to
conform to it, if enrolled, or to be copied
y accurately from it, if not enrolled We Of
y y ten change enrolled bills SO as to make them
q correspond with the cngrossed bills For
f instance, in copying them we sometimes
!. omit words which have to be inserted, or
<. words are written wrongly, or words arc re-
20 peated and in such cases we erase the
=. wrong word and insert the right word, or
# erase without filling up the blank. In re-
Il gard to this enrolled bill, did nothing moro
N than would do, and have done repeatedly,
n in regard to other enrolled bills make it
4 correspond with the engrossed bill. This is
: the second Congress in which | have been
y, employed as engrOssing and enrolling clerk.
> As to the word future" i'll the Sd sec
i, ton of said bill, | am certain it was erased
- lin the bill before it was presented to me for