Omaha daily bee., 1894-02-05
CONVERSATIONAL RESERVATIONS.

II Is quite possible that the attempt of
Congressman Sibley of Pennsylvania to with
draw his resignation from the hands of the
governor may raise the question in congress
whether he has any legal authority to do
so. 1t will be readily remembered that
Mr.. Sibley's attitude upon the Wilson tar
if bill has been displeasing to a number Of
his democratic constituents who think that
every democratic congressman ought to sup
port each party measure. Upon this
point he had a right to disagree with
them but the constant prodding received at
the hands of democratic papers in his dis
trict so nettled him that he finally sent in
his resignation to Governor Pattison. Mr..
Sibley had only to announce his prospective
retirement to learn how popular his attitude
upon the tariff question was with his friends.
Letters began to pour in upon him request
ing him to reconsider his decision, the gov
ernor added his own personal appeal and Mr..
Sibley at last yielded to their opportunities
and asked the governor to return him his
letter of resignation.
The question now arises whether a con-
gresham has any power over his resigna-
tion once let 1t get beyond his own hands.
So far as the constitution Is concerned, 1t
says not one word about designations of
congressman and 1t has even been doubted
whether congressman. can constitutionally
resign. In Great Britain there is no
such thing as a member of the House
OF Commons retiring by this method
and the British constitution was the one
held in mind by the trainers of our
federal government. AS a matter of fact,
however, custom has permitted congressman
to resign, the usual practice being to send
the resignation to the governor of the state
from which he has been elected, and at the
same time to notify the speaker of the
house. There is nothing either in statutory
or constitutional law which authorizes a gov
ernor to either accept or refuse such resig-
nation, but here again the practice has been
to accept 1t as a matter of course.
Since. then. the whole matter is one Of
question whether a resignation may be with
raised, have to be decided by congress on
its own merits. There has been at least one
precedent somewhat in point and that was
decided against the existence of the power In
question. During the Forty-frst congress
Jacob S. Galloday, a member from Kentucky,
went through the usual forms of reslgning,
o"hi6 " ldiu CHuIBtS that Ddu Deem
made against him and which he
considered as rejecting upon his honor.
The governor telegraphed back that he
would not accept the resignation because he
thought Mr.. Galloday should remain in the
house to vindicate himself. A few days
later a fellow member, arising to a question
OF privilege, explained the status of Mr..
Galloday's resignation, and offered a resolu-
ton allowing him to withdraw from the
house the notice which he had given, and
to participate in the proceedings of that
body. On a point of order, Speaker
Blaine ruled against the matter as
one of personal privilege, declared
Mr., Galloday no longer a member OF the
house and refused to put the resolution to a
vote. The Sibley case differs from this in
several material particulars, the chief being
that he had not yet notified the speaker nor
had the designation gone into effect by it's
own etrms. Should Mr.. Sibley's right to
vote as a member of the house be challenged
an interesting discussion on the points of
constitutional law involved must ensue and
a precedent Will be set that will be valuable
to congressman who may in the future be
impelled to resign on the spur of the
moment and to regret their action after
ward,