Date: 1981-02-16
Speaker: ROBERT C. BYRD (democrat)
Chamber: S

In his Manual of Parliamentary Practice. Thomas Jefferson wrote that whether the rules of a legislative body "be in a cases the most rational or not. is really not of so great importance. It is much more material that there should be a rule to go by. than what that rule is. that there may be an uniformity of proceeding In business. not subject to the Caprice of the Speaker. or the captiousness of the members. It Is very material that order. decency. and regularity be preserved in a dignified public body." All legislative bodies need rules to follow if they are to transact business in an orderly fashion and If they are to operate fairly. efficiently. and expeditiously. The first Senate understood this. and on April 7. 1789. the next day after a quorum of Senators had appeared and taken their oath of office."a special committee was created to "Prepare a system of rules for conducting business.". The committee consisted of Senators Ellsworth (Connecticut).* Lee (Virginia). Strong (Massachusetts).. Maclay (Pennsylvania). and Bassett (Delaware). All five of these committee members were lawyers with experience In various legislative bodies. Lee had been President of the Continental Congress. as well as having been ii member of colonial Virginias House of Burgesses and of the State assembly. Mr. Maclay had served in the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly. and had been a member of that States supreme executive council. Ellsworth had been a member of the Connecticut General Assembly and of the Governors council. He had served in the Continental Congress for seven years. and had been a member of the Federal Constitutional Convention. Strong had been a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. and had served in both the upper and lower houses of the Massachusetts Legislature. Bassett had served for 10 years as a member of the Governors council in Delaware. and had also been a member of the Federal Constitutional Convention. The fiveman committee thus had a background of service in the legislatures of five different States. the procedures of all of which were indebted to the English parliament. Two had served In the Continental k ongress. which was also Indebted to Er -.lish precedents. and three had particig ated In the Constitutional Convention. the framers of which had created the Senate. It is clear. after reading the journal of committee member William Maclay. that there were some disagreements In the course of their deliberations. The Irascible Mr. Maclay. a strident AntiFederalist. prepared his own. more strict set of rules. They. Included a provision that the presiding officer should be In his chair a half hour before the Senate was .due to convene each day and that senators "shall immediately take their seats In a circular order: those from New Hampshire occpying the right of the Chair and those from Georgia the left." Maclay also found little support for his rule to permit four senators to call the question "in case of a debate becoming tedious." Similarly. he was in the minority with his proposal to appoint as committee chairman. the "Senator of the most northerly state of those from whom the committee are taken." Perhaps his most strict proposal. also never adopted. was the final rule on his list of sixteen. It provided that: These rules shall be engrossed on parchmernt and hung up in some conspicuous part of the Senate chamber. And every Senator who shall neglect attendance during a session. absent himself without leave or withdraw for more than a quarter of an hour without permission after a quorum Is formed. shall be guilty of disorderly behavior. and his name. together with the nature of the tran:sgression. shall be written on a slip of paper and annexed to the bottom or the rules: there to remain until the Senate. on his application or otherwise. shall take order onl the same. On April 13. 1789. the committee filed a report which ".was read. and ordered to Feobruary 16. 1981 Co) lie until tomnorrow. for consideration.#. On April 16. the new set of rules. consisting of nineteen rules. was adopted. but on April 18. another rule. numbered XX not reported by tihe committee. was adopted. In many Instances. the Sen&Wt rules adopted In 1789 bore a close resemblance to those of its Predecessors. the Continental Congress and the Congress of the Confederation. In fact. somec of the rules