Wyoming democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Wyoming Co., Pa.) 1867-1940, 1868-03-18
Protest of Democratic Members Against
the Arbitrary Course of the Majority.

Protest OF Democratlc members Against
the Arbitrary Course of the Majority.
"The undersigned, members of the for
tieth Congress Of the United States, repre-
senting directly or iu principle more than
one half of the whole people of the United
States, do hereby, in the name of law and
Justice and in behalf of those they repre-
sent, most solemnly protest against the tyr.
amy and injustice practiced by majority
OF the House in violating the sacred rig hts
of free debate and unconstrained delibera-
tion upon the greatest questions ever bro't
before an American Congress.
"The rules Of the house, made for the
protection Of minorities, and by strict
adherence to which the weaker party can
only be protected from those irregularities
and abuses which the wantonness of pow
er is but too often apt to suggest to large
and successful majorities, have been dur
ing this entire Congress, in violation of
their true spirit and interest wantonly and
unprecedently suspended and set aside,
not upon a particularly and pressing mat
ter, but upon all pending subjects oflegis-
lation, SO that by this reckless and arbi-
trary suspension of the rules, and the
wanton abuse of the previous question, the
rights of the minority have been utterly
disregarded.
"The House of Representatives has
ceased to be deliverative body, and the
minority have been compelled to vote up
on the most important questions without
any proper or reasonable time for debate
or consideration. To such an extent has
the dangerous and oppressive practice OBJ
tanned, that measures affecting vitally the
whole country, and the dearest interests
of our constituents tending, as we believe
to the subyersion of our republican form
of government, ih their very nature de-
manding of the peoples representatives
! the most careful examination and scruti-
ny-have been hurried through the forms
Of legislation without being printed, with.
out one word Of debate or one moments
consideration without, indeed, the oppor-
tunity for the undersigned to protest, ex-
ccpt in violation of the then operating Or
der, enforced by the majority as the order
of the House.
These alarming abuses of power
might not seem TO demand this formal
protest IL we were not forced TO the be
| lief that determination exists with the
majority to revolutionize this government
by destroying the other coordinate bran
ches, and vesting all The powers OF the
government in Congress. In the steps
taken to depose the President of the Uni
ted States, we are admonished that there
is no end to these oppressive measures to
cripple the power and silence the voice Of
| the minority.
The resolution was rushed through
the house under the operation Of the pre-.
vious question, referring the matter to
the Committee on reconstruction. The
committee, in hot haste, sitting while the
house was in session, considered, and by a
strict party vote, adopted and presented
it again to the house for its action, and
then was exhibited one Of the most ex-
traordinary sprctacles ever witnessed in a
dcliberative parliamentary body.
members were allowed, some thirty
minutes, some twenty, some ten, some
five, and some one minute only, TO discuss
the most momentous questions ever pre-.
sentcd in Congress. Many could not even
get one minute under the arbitrary rule Of
the majority and more than half of those
even of the party voting TO enforce the
previous question who desired to be heard
were permitted only to print speeches in
the Globe, after the question upon the
resolution was decided, and which were
never delivered in the house. No COM
ment can demonstrate more completely
than the facts themselves the viciousness
and illegslity of such proceedings. But
this wanton and excessived use of the
power of the majority does not stop here.
"While the committee were in session
upon the further proceedings to remove
the President, and in anticipation OF its
action, under the operation of the previ,
GUS question, without debate, IR violation
of an express rule, new special and most
extraordinary rules for the conduct of this
proceeding, changing, without previous
notice, the standing rules Of the house
, were adopted, to further limit debate, and
more completely to place the minority in
the power and at the mercy of the major
i,y.
THUS, while the majority of Congress
I is warning upon the other CO ordinate de-
D partments, the executive aud the judicial
p endeavoring to subjugate and bring them
both under the will and control of Con
sress, the minority of the house of Rep
resentatives are steadily and surely being
stripped of all power, and their constitn
ents deprived of all representative voic,
r in the councils of the nation. We do
n therefore, most soIemnly protest agains
the indecorous and undignifed haste will
which the majority of this house inaugur
ated, presented and rushed through, b,
Q a strict party vote, in plain and palpabl
r violation of one of the standing rules Q
Q the house. q resolution demanding i'm