Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1893-10-19
BURLINGTON, vTy THURSDAY, OCTOBER 49, 1893


vote would now be taken on the question
before the Senate; but as Mr.. Dolph de-
manded the yeas and nays and Mr. Wash
burn moved to lay the question on the table,
Mr.. Sherman passed beyond and addressed
the Senate While he concurred with the
senator from Oregon. he had no doubt that
the journal was correctly made up The
rules of the Senate, he went on TO say. were
made to expedite public business in an or
derby manner. There was no doubt of the
right and the necessity for every legislative
body to have exclusive power over its pro
cedure. while that was the primary object
of all rules
II was equally important to give to the
minority fun and fair opportunity of debate.
hut the rules of the body were used as an
obstruction by the minority in order TO
defeat the will of the majority. The rules,
therefore, should be at ance changed.
corrected and altered. Whenever
"a minority pressed it, means
Of obstruction unduly it acted in the nature
of revolution: it sought to use the rllses as
means to deprive the Senate Of its
Power to Make Lnws for the People.
The obstruction made during this heated
contest had gone far beyond anything he
had seen in his experience as senator and
was of kind never rcsoi1ed to before.
Then again. when senators while present
had refused to answer. they had. in his judy
nlent. violated the rules Of good order. He
thought that if not to-day, or not at this
session, possibly, the time had arrived when
the Senate must adopt rules and regulations
to prevent Instructions TO public business
There wasno legislative body in the world
that had not some power to control debate,
some cloturc rule, or some means by which
the majority could ras, laws The Senate
would have To follow Me example of other
legislative bodies. In Mis- Judgment the best
way would he in the neg session. TO have the
committee ON rules ssstr,ugthe TO a larger
number, and to LET thai committee examine
all these various rules and carefully limit
ing debate and giving 4 the minority an OPP
portunity to express it: hpinion. to prescribe
some reasonable rules ,,r which the ma iority
should fix the time wh'r the.
Final Vote should he Taken.
Mr.. Sherman then cnilpd attention tn thn
important legislation which had TO be dis
posed Of The SENATE. he snid had bneu in
session over two months and not u sinule
measure of Importance had been passed.
He said: The responsibility rests upon the
other side of the chamber. They say they
cannot agree. They must agree. or else
| surrender their political power | believed
in the policy of purchasing silver bullion
and wanted to give it .uo longest and most
| beneficial experiment. we have tried il and
we think it is not wiz to continue il fur
| thcr
We have silver bullion enough to supplv
all that can be coined m the next two or
| three years Therefor, ,re acunicScc i'm the
| president, , representation that the purchase
OF silver bullion tends to ocroate disturbance
in the markets of the world. and to excite Il
want of confidence in our ability to main
taina parity of gold and silver. The price
of silver has decreased Notwithstanding the
enormous purchases of it hv the government.
| We have more silver now i'm the United
| States than We ever had before in o,ll Whole
previous history.
| No one proposes To- disturb that silver.
| On the contrary we would hp clad to iojr
with our friend, ON the other side of the
| chamber To increase the subsidiary coin
| And any measure which tends to promote
the use of silver we are ready to helm But
we think. with the president. that tbo best
measure is. first to
|