The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1880-03-19
Fifty-third Days Proceedings.
HOUSE or REPRESENTATIVES,, !
Hats OF Louisiana
New Orleans. Wednesday, March n, 1851.

House or REPRESENTATIVES,. !
Htats of Louisiana. !
New Orleans. Wednesday,. March n. 1850.
The House was called TO order Mt IA IN.
Pressnt-Hon. n. N. Ogden, speaker, and
Messrs. Allan. Archer, Armstrong, Atkins,
ollie, Gosgrove, Grain. Curley, Davidson. Del
bel. Dsversaux, Diekerson. billiard, Duden-
hsfer,. Essex, Faulkner, Feazsl. Franz. Fra
Msr. Gardner. Gibson, aolsan. HILL, uaney,
ring. Ives, Jackson 81 81. Mary. Joffrlon.
Jones, Kirk, Klslnpeter Lancaster, Landry.
Leueridrs. Lsttsu, Lueks, Mahoney. Millau-
don, Nixon. Morel, Morgan. Munday, Mo
gullongh Mespenalq, MepoTsll MeLssrey.
P PeHt . Quinn, hlehsrdson, hebsrtsen..
varnaao, Vaughan. vsrrst. Vincent, teorhies,
Wearns, Williams Of Terrsbonne. Williams Of
MSssass wss Y 1ls aq Y. Fl ss1s
Billlu. buchanan, Farmer, jackson Of Natchl-
tochee, Kavanagh. Lyons. Mccain. Newsotn,
Ogden Of Bossier. schneider. btringfellow.
Young Of Ut. Landry-15.
Prayer was offered by the Rsv. DR.. Walker.
The journal Of Tuesday. March 16. was read
and adopted.
RULING by THE SPEAKER.
The Speaker presented the following rea-
sons for his ruling on the resolution offered
by Mr.. Henry and adopted by the House:
The decision Of the speaker, arising from
the resolution introduced by Mr.. Henry and
adopted BY the House, has unfortunately not
met with the approval OF some Of his warm
eat and most highly esteemed friends. In
consideration Ut them. and knowing the i'm
possibility Of q House excited or Interested
In debate calmly to dlvest itself 81 the extra
neOus influences, such rs q desire either to
sec measure succeed or defeated.
he has noted down the reasons for hls
decision. In hopes that those who opposed biz
ruling may bs convinced that he had reasona-
Bile ground for his action. and has not acted
arbitrarily In his decision
In the first plnee. the attention Of the House
was called to the danger and trouble that
would arise under this resolution, and the
Speaker urged the Importance Of reconsider
Ing the vote and withdrawing the resolution !;
the House, by not doing 80, forced the neces-
atty upon he ne Speaker t q It,
adopted 1t became = rule OF the House. 80 far
as II did not conflict with what may be called
the constitutional rights Of parliamentary
usage" In other words, IL obliges the
| House to meet at II o'clock and to adjourn at
s, unless the calendar was cleared before :, at
which earlier period the House stood adj
journed. The operation Of this resolution ID
unilateral; 1t requires the House to meet at
House cannot, without changing It's rules,
that Ia. resembling this resolution, meet
later than ii, nor can II continue lts session
later than 5. The language Of the regolu-
tion Is imperative, and to change the rule re-
quires one days notice and two thirds vote.
But parliamentary practice. parliamentary
usage, the custom In every Legislative body,
has been to entertain the motion to adjourn.
II is, II not the highest preference question,
amongst the highest. It is not debatable, and
can be made when other motions are out oi
order 70 fix then an hour to adjourn would
he to preclude this motion until that hour
which would virtually be destroying this
preference motion, and would logically lead
to the extinguishment Of every other motion
I for clearly, X, by resolution, the House 70
fuses to allow the motion to adjourn to b<
put, except at fixed time, the House can de-
clare motion to table, to commit, to amend
to postpone, or the pr svious question, could
only be put at certain hours. This must
strike the mind Of every reasonable man Al
absurd and supplementary, and is In direct
!, opposition to all the principles OF civilized
, parliamentary usage that has been handed
!. down from time immemorial. Therefore tn
, Speaker decided that when the hou
. OF arrived, under the rules OF thu
house, the house stood adjourned
, for the House can fix day certain when Il
, adjourn, and can, therefore, fix an hour Ger
tain, and this limits them to that time. The,
cannot 60 beyond II unless they reconside
!, their action; but, clearly, 1t does not requir
: them to con1nueiQ session until that hour,
, Ia majority Of the House approve the motiOl
!, / to ad10urn-a m0t3on that no individual mem