    [Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives, 105th Congress]
    [105th Congress]
    [House Document 104-272]
    [Jeffersons Manual of ParliamentaryPractice]
    [Pages 117-120]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 117]]

              JEFFERSON'S MANUAL OF PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE \1\

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                    sec. i.--importance of adhering to rules.

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    Sec. 283. Rules as related to the privileges of
    minorities.

      Mr.  Onslow, the ablest among the Speakers of the House of
    Commons, used to say, ``It was a maxim he had often heard when he was a
    young man, from old

      \1\ Jefferson's Manual was prepared by Thomas Jefferson for his
    own guidance as President of the Senate in the years of his Vice
    Presidency, from 1797 to 1801. In 1837 the House, by rule which still
    exists, provided that the provisions of the Manual should ``govern the
    House in all cases to which they are applicable and in which they are
    not inconsistent with the standing rules and orders of the House and
    joint rules of the Senate and House of Representatives.'' Rule XLII;
    Sec. 938, infra. In 1880 the committee which revised the Rules of the
    House declared in their report that the Manual, ``compiled as it was for
    the use of the Senate exclusively and made up almost wholly of
    collations of English parliamentary practice and decisions, it was never
    especially valuable as an authority in the House of Representatives,
    even in its early history, and for many years past has been rarely
    quoted in the House'' (V, 6757). This statement, although sanctioned by
    high authority, is extreme, for in certain parts of the Manual are to be
    found the foundations of some of the most important portions of the
    House's practice.

    Sec. 284. The Manual as a statement of
    parliamentary law.

      The Manual  is regarded by English parliamentarians as the best
    statement of what the law of Parliament was at the time Jefferson wrote
    it. Jefferson himself says, in the preface of the work:

      ``I could not doubt the necessity of quoting the sources of my
    information, among which Mr. Hatsel's most valuable book is preeminent;
    but as he has only treated some general heads, I have been obliged to
    recur to other authorities in support of a number of common rules of
    practice, to which his plan did not descend. Sometimes each authority
    cited supports the whole passage. Sometimes it rests on all taken
    together. Sometimes the authority goes only to a part of the text, the
    residue being in-

    [[Page 118]]

    and experienced Members, that nothing tended more to
    throw power into the hands of administration, and those who acted with
    the majority of the House of Commons, than a neglect of, or departure
    from, the rules of proceeding; that these forms, as instituted by our
    ancestors, operated as a check and control on the actions of the
    majority, and that they were, in many instances, a shelter and
    protection to the minority, against the attempts of power.'' So far the
    maxim is certainly true, and is founded in good sense, that as it is
    always in the power of the majority, by their numbers, to stop any
    improper measures proposed on the part of their opponents, the only
    weapons by which the minority can defend themselves against similar
    attempts from those in power are the forms and rules of proceeding

    ferred from known rules and principles. For some of the
    most familiar forms no written authority is or can be quoted, no writer
    having supposed it necessary to repeat what all were presumed to know.
    The statement of these must rest on their notoriety.
                      Continued

      ``I am aware that authorities can often be produced in opposition to
    the rules which I lay down as parliamentary. An attention to dates will
    generally remove their weight. The proceedings of Parliament in ancient
    times, and for a long while, were crude, multiform, and embarrassing.
    They have been, however, constantly advancing toward uniformity and
    accuracy, and have now attained a degree of aptitude to their object
    beyond which little is to be desired or expected.

    [[Page 119]]

    which have been adopted as they were found necessary, from time to time,
    and are become the law of the House, by a strict adherence to which the
    weaker party can only be protected from those irregularities and abuses
    which these forms were intended to check, and which the wantonness of
    power is but too often apt to suggest to large and successful
    majorities, 2 Hats., 171, 172.

      ``Yet I am far from the presumption of believing that I may not have
    mistaken the parliamentary practice in some cases, and especially in
    those minor forms, which, being practiced daily, are supposed known to
    everybody, and therefore have not been committed to writing. Our
    resources in this quarter of the globe for obtaining information on that
    part of the subject are not perfect. But I have begun a sketch, which
    those who come after me will successively correct and fill up, till a
    code of rules shall be formed for the use of the Senate, the effects of
    which may be accuracy in business, economy of time, order, uniformity,
    and impartiality.''

    _________________

    Sec. 285. Necessity of rules of action.

      And  whether these
    forms be in all 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 a uniformity of proceeding
    in business not subject to the caprice of the Speaker or captiousness of
    the members. It is very material that order, de-

      Jefferson also says in his preface, as to the source most desirable at
    that time from which to draw principles of procedure:

    Sec. 286. Relations of the parliamentary
    law to the early practice of Congress.

      ``But to what system  of rules is he to recur, as
    supplementary to those of the Senate? To this there can be but one
    answer: To the system of regulations adopted for the government of some
    one of the parliamentary bodies within these States, or of that which
    has served as a prototype to most of them. This last is the model which
    we have all studied, while we are little acquainted with the
    modifications of it in our several States. It is deposited, too, in
    publications possessed by many, and open to all. Its rules are probably
    as wisely constructed for governing the debates of a deliberative body,
    and obtaining its true sense, as any which can become known to us; and
    the acquiescence of the Senate, hitherto, under the references to them,
    has given them the sanction of the approbation.''

    [[Page 120]]

    cency, and regularity be
    preserved in a dignified public body. 2 Hats., 149.

    * * * * *

      Those portions of the Manual which refer exclusively to Senate
    procedure or which refer to English practice wholly inapplicable to the
    House of Representatives have been omitted. Paragraphs from the
    Constitution of the United States have also been omitted, as the
    Constitution is printed in full in this volume.
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