Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1868-03-12
PROTEST
OF THE DEMOCRATIC MEMBERS OF CONGREs
AGAINST THE ARBITRARY RULE OF THE RAD

OF THE DEMOCRATIC MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
AGAINST THE ARBITRARY RULE OF THE RADI-
CAL MAJORITY.
the annexed is the protest of the Democratic
members of the House Of Representatives, offered
after the articles of impeachment had been gone
through with in that body, but which the House
refused to receive, or even allow to be printed:
The undersigned, members of the Fortieth Con
gress of the United States, representing directly,
or in principle, more than one-half Of the whole
people of the United State, do hereby, in the name
of law and order, and in behalf of those they rep
resent most solemnly protest against the tyranny
in violating the sacred right of free debate and
constrained deliberation upon the greatest ques-
tons ever brought before an American Congress.
The rules of the House, made for the protection
of minorities, and-"b strict adherence, to which
the weaker party can only be protected from those
irregularities and abuses which the wantonness OF
power is but too often apt to suggest to large and
successful maorities," have been, during this en-;
tire Congress- in violation Of their true spirit and
intent wantonly and unprecedentedy suspended
and set aside not upon particular and pressing
matter, but upon all pending subjects OF leglsa-
ton so that by the reckless and arbitrary suspen-
sion of the rules, and the wanton abuse OF the
previous question, the rights of the minority have
been utterly disregarded the House of Representa-
tives has ceased to be deliberative body, and the
minority have been compelled to vote upon the
most important questions without any proper OF
reasonable time for debate or consideration To
such an extent has this dangerous and oppressive
practice obtained, that measures affecting vltaly
the whole country and the direct interests of our
constituents tending, as we believe, to the subver
sion of our republican form of government in their
very nature demanding of the peoples representa-
tives the most careful examination and scrutiny,
have been hurried through the forms of legisa.
ton without being printed, without one word OF
debate, or one moments consideration; without,
indeed, the opportunity OF the undersigned to
protest, except in violation of the then operating
rule enforced by the majority as the "order of the
House"
These alarming abuses of power might not seem
to demand this formal protest if we were not forced
to the belief that determination exists with the
majority to revolutionize this government by dcs-
troying the other coordinate branches and vestng
all the power Of the government in Congress. In
the steps taking to depose the President of the u
nited States we are admonished that there is no
end to their oppressive measures to cripple the
power and silence the voice Of the minority.
The resolution was pushed through the House
under the operation of the previous question re-
ferring the matter to the Committee on Recon
struction; the committee in hot haste sitting when
the House was in session. in violation of one of its
express rules, considered and by strict party vote
adopted and presented it again to the House for
its action And then was exhibited one of the
most extraordinary spectaces ever witnessed in a
deiberatiye parliamentary body. Members were
allowed some thirty, some twenty, some ten, some
FIVE, some one minute only to discuss the most mo-
mentous questions ever presented in Congress.
Many could not get one minute under the arbltra.
ry rule of the majority. And more than half Of
those even of the party voting to enforce the pre-
yious question, who desired to be heard, were per-
mitted speeches only in the 'Globe, after the
question upon the resolution was decided, and
which were never delivered in the House. No
comment can demonstrate more completely than
the facts themselves the viciousness and illegaity
of such proceedings. But this wanton and exces-
siye use of their power of the majority does not
STOP here. While the committee were in session
upon the further proceedings to remove the Presl-
dent and in anticipation of its action, under the
operation of the previous question, without debate
in violation of an express rule, new, special and
most extraordinary rules for the conduct OF tins
proceeding changing, without previous notice, the
standing rules of the House, were adopted to FUR
ther limit del bate and more completely to place the
minority in the power and at the mercy OF the ma
jority.
Thus while the majority of Congress are war
ring upon the other coordinate departments
executive and judicial-endeavoring to subJugate
and bring them both under the will and control o.
Congress, the minority of the House of Representa-
! tiyes are steadily and surely being stripped OF al