[Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives, 118th Congress]
[118th Congress]
[House Document 117-161]
[Jeffersons Manual of ParliamentaryPractice]
[Pages 131-134]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                 sec. i--importance of adhering to rules



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 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 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.
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  \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 that 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 Rules and orders of the House.'' Rule XXIX, 
Sec. 1105, infra. In 1880 the committee that 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.

  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 inferred 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.

  ``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.

  ``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.''

  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.''


  Those portions of the Manual that refer exclusively to Senate 
procedure or that refer to English practice wholly inapplicable to the 
House have been omitted. Paragraphs from the Constitution of the United 
States have also been omitted, because the Constitution is printed in 
full in this volume.
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[[Page 134]]

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


* * * * *


  Whether the House is in order so that a Member may proceed in debate 
is determined by the Chair (Speaker McCormack, Dec. 9, 1963, p. 23831; 
Apr. 23, 2008, pp. 6748, 6749), who may refuse to proceed with business 
in the face of a breach of decorum (Mar. 13, 2014, p. 4393), such as the 
mass presence of Members in the well while not under recognition 
(Precedents (Wickham), ch. 6, Sec. 6.1). Alleged partiality in making 
such a determination has been renounced (July 31, 2008, p. 17495). The 
comportment of a presiding officer has formed the basis of a question of 
privilege (Aug. 3, 2007, p. 22783).