West Virginia freeman. (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1881-1886, 1882-02-08

NFs
and therefore he is, constructivelv,
in his seat Now, if Mr.. Thomp-
son, who would vote no, is permit
ted to make an arrangement with
Mr.. Hall that will result in another
negative vote which would other
wise be given in the affirmative,
the defeat of the amendment vii,
be accomplished by indirection. A
lengthy and spirited discussion en-
sues. Inquiry is made of Mr.. Hall
whether he made the arrangement
inadvertently or with full under
standing of its effect. But there is
no response to that part of the in
quiry. Finally a point of order is
made and sustained, that members
within the bar Of the House must
vote. Still the member from Bar
bour does not respond to his name.
The dignity of the House is now
at stake. One of its solemn rules
is that members must vote; and
not until after much discussion and
a compulsory motion is made, does
Mr.. Hall announce that he had in
tended to vote aye, but as there is
an attempt to coerce him he will
vote no, And so the gentleman
from Barbour, hitherto unable to
know just what to do, having lodg-
ed his sovereignty" temporarily
under Mr.. Thompson's hat, under
this immense pressure, assumes the
responsibility and votes no, "for
spite," and will now go home and
tell his constituents how his whole
heart was in the measure, but he
just wanted to kill Mr.. Thompson's
vote anyhow.
Now we begin to realize that af-
ter the loss Of the votes of Crum-
rine and Hall the Amendment
cannot get the requisite two-thirds /;
SO in our disappointment we watch
the roll-call through.
Mr.. Kepner, Of Ohio, is paired
with Mr., Cressap, of Randolph.
All! now, if the Butcher of the
last Senatorial caucus would but
come to our rescue, as he came to
Mr.. Camden's in the hour of peril,
how happy we would be! But he
won't come. Absent without leave,
is Mr.. Cressap, and Mr. Kepner
votes aye, if the House will not
excuse him. The Chair decides
that the House can't excuse him,
and Mr.. Kepner is recorded AYE"
On we go. Mr.. Lowrey, Of Sum-
mers, says he is paired with Mr..
Wells, of Marion. "Mr. Wells, if
present, would vote no, and he
lowry would vote aye. But as
he was paired with the gentleman
from Marion, he would refrain from
voting" More discussion. More
compulsory motions. But it is said
that Mr. Wells and Messrs. Thomp-
son and Cressap too, for that matter,
have been seen onlya few minutes
ago, within the capital building,
and the record shows that Mr..
Wells answered to his name on an
other roll-call less than an hour ago.
Perhaps they are out looking for
somebody. But the House won't
excuse Captain Lowry. Finally it
is agreed to proceed through the
roll-call suspend the announcement
until tomorrow afternoon and have
the absentees brought in dead or
alive, Mr., Moffett suggested, but
Mr.. Ferguson could not endorse
such "bloody measure" as that
and thus break the pairs and allow
Mr.. Lowry to record his vote and
Mr.. Hall an opportunity to change
his vote.
Mr.. Lynch, Of Calhoun, votes no,
and again we have reason to lament
the frailty of human nature. Mr..
Lynch had said he was in favor of
the measure. No other incident of
interest occurs, and after nearly
two hours spent in getting through
that roll-call, the announcement of
the vote is suspended until to-mor-
row, and every body feels that it is
time to go to dinner, and we go.
We have only thirty-nine affirm
ative votes, and we need forty-four.
We think we shall have forty-two,
when the record is made up, but
we shall see.
Tomorrow comes. So comes