The VICE PRESIDENT (Mr. Sherman). On this vote the yeas are 44 and the nays are 44. The Chair votes in the affirmative. The yeas have it, and the amendment is agreed to. The question now is on agreeing to the joint resolution as amended, and it was agreed to-yeas 64, ays 24, two-thirds of the Senators present having voted therefor. (See Cong. Record, pp. 1879 to 1924.)

NOTE. The adoption of this amendment clearly shows the importance and power of a single vote. The joint resolution, with the amendment, was sent to conference. The conference committee reported to the two Houses agreeing to the amendment as adopted in the Senate by the vote of the Vice President. The conference report was agreed to by both Houses and the amendment adopted by the vote of the Vice President is now in the statutes.

33. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON.

A motion to adjourn, in its simple form, may not be amended (See Adjournment, 1.) A motion to fix a day to which the Senate shall adjourn may be amended. (See Adjournment, 1.)

Two Speakers of the House of Representatives, Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, of Massachusetts (30th Cong., 2d sess., Jan. 22, 1849), and James L. Orr, of South Carolina (35th Cong., 2d sess., Feb. 24, 1859), have rendered decisions that a motion to suspend the rules may not be amended.

The rules of the Senate do not now recognize a motion to suspend the rules. Amendments as to the numbering of the sections in a bill or resolution, that the numbering may be consecutive, are regarded as purely clerical and may be left to the clerk of the committee reporting the measure or to the engrossing clerks of the Senate. In Section XXXV of Jefferson's Manual are the following observations:

"The number prefixed to the section of a bill, being merely a marginal indication and no part of the text of the bill, the Clerk regulates that; the House or committee is only to amend the text.

"A bill passed by the one House with blanks. These may be filled up by the other by way of amendments, returned to the first as such, and passed." (Hatsell, vol. 3, p. 115.)

An amendment in the nature of a substitute, may be engrafted on a bill immediately following the enacting clause. (Jefferson's Manual, Sec. XXXV; Hatsell, Vol. II, p. 127, and 130, note.)

There is nothing in the rules of the Senate that declares such an amendment shall be germane, except as regards appropriation bills. Clause 3 of Rule XVI reads, in part: "No amendment which proposes general legislation shall be received to any general appropriation bill, nor shall any amendment not germane or relevant to the subject matter contained in the bill be received; nor shall any amendment to any item or clause of such bill be received which does not directly relate thereto; and all questions of relevancy of amendments under this rule, when raised, shall be submitted to the Senate and be decided without debate."

The preamble to a bill or resolution may be withdrawn before it is amended. Rule XXIII of the Senate rules provides that "When a bill or resolution is accompanied by a preamble, the question shall first be put on the bill or resolution and then on the preamble, which may be withdrawn by a mover before an amendment of the same, or ordering of the yeas and nays; or it may be laid on the table without prejudice to the bill or resolution, and shall be a final disposition of such preamble." (Jefferson's Manual, Sec. XXVI.)

AMENDMENTS TO GENERAL APPROPRIATION BILLS.

1. General remarks on.

2. Agricultural.

3. Army.

4. Diplomatic and Consular.

5. District of Columbia.

6. Fortifications.

7. General deficiency.

8. Indian.

9. Legislative, executive, and judicial.

10. Military Academy.

11. Naval.

12. Pension.

13. Post Office.

14. River and harbor.

15. Sundry civil.

16. Urgent deficiency, amendments to. (See General deficiency.)

1. GENERAL REMARKS ON.

APPROPRIATION BILLS, GENERAL.

The title of the first appropriation bill received from the House of Representatives, September 25, 1789, was "An act making appropriation for the service of the present year." In the early days of Congress appropriation bills were referred to and reported upon by special committees appointed to consider each bill. From one, the general appropriation bills have grown to the number of fourteen, viz:

- Agricultural.

- Army.

-Diplomatic and Consular.

- District of Columbia.

Fortifications.

General deficiency.

-Indian.

-Invalid and other pensions.

-Legislative, executive, and judicial.

Military Academy.

- Naval.

-Post Office.

- Rivers and harbors.

Sundry civil.

An occasional urgent deficiency bill has been passed in the late Congresses, but it has not been reckoned as a general appropriation bill, but is governed by the same rules as apply to general appropriation bills.

46th Cong., 2d sess.; J., p. 618.]

MAY 26, 1880.

By a vote of yeas 47, nays 4, the Senate decided that the general deficiency appropriation bill was a general appropriation bill within the meaning of the rules of the Senate. (See Cong. Record, pp. 3797-3801.)

WHAT IS NOT A GENERAL APPROPRIATION BILL.

ARREARS OF PENSIONS.

45th Cong., 3d sess.; J., p. 400.]

FEBRUARY 27, 1879.

The Senate having under consideration the bill making appropriations for the payment of arrears of pensions, an amendment having been proposed by Mr. Ingalls, Mr. Edmunds raised a question of order, viz, that the amendment proposed general legislation to a general appropriation bill, and was not in order under the first clause of the twenty-ninth rule. Question submitted to the Senate, Is the pending bill a general appropriation bill within the meaning of the twenty-ninth rule? and it was determined in the negative. (See Cong. Record, pp. 1981, 1984.)

The House of Representatives has assumed to itself the exclusive power to originate appropriation bills, but a plain and literal interpretation of the first clause of the seventh section of the first article of the Constitution which says, "All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills," gives the power to originate to the Senate, as well as to the House. This interpretation was clearly upheld in the Senate by reports from a conference committee of March 2, 1871, and from the Committee on Privileges and Elections, April 24, 1872, by Mr. Carpenter, who said, "The fact that the Constitution so carefully provides that 'bills for raising revenue' shall originate in the House of Representatives, and made no such provision in regard to bills appropriating money, is conclusive that it was intended to restrict the Senate in the one case and not in the other." Mr. Knott, on February 2, 1881, from the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, elaborately discussed the power of the two Houses to originate appropriation bills; and the committee recommended the adoption of the following resolution relating to an appropriation bill passed by the Senate and referred to them "authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to purchase additional lots of ground adjoining the new building for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing:"

Resolved, That the Senate had the constitutional power to originate the bill referred, and that the power to originate bills appropriating money from the Treasury of the United States is not exclusive in the House of Representatives. By recommendation of the committee the bill was referred to the Committee on Appropriations.

GENERAL LEGISLATION.

The rule of the Senate relating to appropriation bills is as follows:

RULE XVI-AMENDMENTS TO APPROPRIATION BILLS.

1. All general appropriation bills shall be referred to the Committee on Appropriations, except the following bills, which shall be severally referred as herein indicated, namely: The bill making appropriations for rivers and harbors, to the Committee on Commerce; the agricultural bill, to the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry; the Army and the Military Academy bills, to the Committee on Military Affairs; the Indian bill, to the Committee on Indian Affairs; the naval bill, to the Committee on Naval Affairs; the pension bill, to the Committee on Pensions; the Post Office bill, to the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads; and no amendments shall be received to any general appropriation bill the effect of which will be

to increase an appropriation already contained in the bill, or to add a new item of appropriation, unless it be made to carry out the provisions of some existing law, or treaty stipulation, or act, or resolution previously passed by the Senate during that session; or unless the same be moved by direction of a standing or select committee of the Senate, or proposed in pursuance of an estimate of the head of some one of the departments. (Jefferson's Manual, Sec. XXXV.)

2. All amendments to general appropriation bills moved by direction of a standing or select committee of the Senate, proposing to increase an appropriation already contained in the bill, or to add new items of appropriation, shall, at least one day before they are considered, be referred to the Committee on Appropriations, and when actually proposed to the bill no amendment proposing to increase the amount stated in such amendment shall be received; in like manner, amendments proposing new items of appropriation to river and harbor bills shall, before being considered, be referred to the Committee on Commerce; also amendments to bills establishing post roads, or proposing new post roads, shall, before being considered, be referred to the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads. (Jefferson's Manual, Sec. XXXV.) 3. No amendment which proposes general legislation shall be received to any general appropriation bill, nor shall any amendment not germane or relevant to the subject-matter contained in the bill be received; nor shall any amendment to any item or clause of such bill be received which does not directly relate thereto; and all questions of relevancy of amendments under this rule, when raised, shall be submitted to the Senate and be decided without debate; and any amendment to a general appropriation bill may be laid on the table without prejudice to the bill. (Jefferson's Manual, Sec. XXXV.)

4. No amendment the object of which is to provide for a private claim shall be received to any general appropriation bill, unless it be to carry out the provisions of an existing law or a treaty stipulation, which shall be cited on the face of the amendment. (Jefferson's Manual, Sec. XXXV.)

No subject is more widely discussed in the Senate during the consideration of appropriation bills and amendments thereto than the question, "What is general legislation on a general appropriation bill?”

The Century Dictionary says:

"General legislation, that legislation which is applicable throughout the State generally, as distinguished from special legislation, which affects only particular persons or localities."

"Local legislation, local statute, such legislation or statute as is in terms applicable, not to the State at large, but only to some district or locality and to the people therein." Bouvier (vol. 1, p. 877): “General law (legislation), laws which apply to and operate uniformly upon all members of any class of persons, places, or things, requiring legislation peculiar to themselves in the matters covered by the laws." "Statutes which relate to persons and things as a class. Laws that are framed in general terms, restricted to no locality, and operating equally upon all of a group of objects which, having regard to the purpose of the legislation, are distinguished by characteristics sufficiently marked and important to make them a class by themselves."

"" * *

*

"General,' with reference to the subject matter of the statute, is synonymous with 'public' and opposed to 'private,' but with reference to the extent of territory over which it is to operate, is opposed to 'local' * * and means that the statute to which it applies operates throughout the whole of the territory subject to the legislative jurisdiction.' * "Further, when used in antithesis to 'special,' it means relating to all of a class instead of to men only of that class." * deciding whether or not a given law is general, the purpose of the act and the objects on which it operates must be looked to. If these objects possess sufficient characteristics peculiar to themselves and the purpose of the legislation is germane thereto,

*

* "In

they will be considered as a separate class, and legislation affecting them will be general; but if the distinctive characteristics of the class have no relation to that purpose of the legislature, or if objects which would appropriately belong to the same class have been excluded, the classification is faulty, and the law not 'general.' The effect, not the form of the law, determines its character."

ORIGINATING REVENUE-RAISING BILLS.

FEBRUARY 25, 1830.

21st Cong., 1st sess.; J., pp. 155, 156.] A bill "to provide for the abolition of unnecessary duties, to relieve the people from sixteen millions of taxes," etc., was read the second time and was being considered in Committee of the Whole, when the Vice President (Mr. Calhoun) expressed a doubt whether it was in order to originate in the Senate a bill containing provisions of the character of those contained in the third section as follows: "That, from and after the first day of January, in the year 1832, a duty of thirty-three and one-third per cent on the value shall be levied on all furs and raw hides imported into the United States from countries which shall not have secured the continuance of their free admission by granting equivalent advantages to the like productions of the United States." He submitted the question for the decision of the Senate, when, on motion of Mr. Webster, it was ordered that the bill, "together with the question of order," be laid upon the table.

2. AGRICULTURAL.

IN ORDER

1. Not general legislation.

2. Increases an item already in the bill, and also not estimated for, but reported by a committee.

The Senate, by yeas 29, nays 23, decided that the reported amendment to the agricultural appropriation bill, "that any manufacturer of sugar from sorghum may remove from distillery warehouses to factories used solely for the manufacture of such sugar from sorghum, distilled spirits in bond, free of tax," etc., was not general legislation on a general appropriation bill. (See Cong. Record, p. 3650.)

60th Cong., 2d sess.; J., p. 221.]

FEBRUARY 25, 1909.

H. R. 27053 "making appropriations for the Department of Agriculture," etc., being under consideration:

On the question to agree to the reported amendment on page 55, after line 23, viz, Commission on Country Life: For all necessary expenses to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to digest, compile, and publish the material already gathered by the Commission on Country Life, including the employment of the necessary clerical assistance in the city of Washington and elsewhere, $25,000.

Mr. Kean raised a question of order, viz, that the amendment as amended proposed general legislation to a general appropriation bill, and was therefore not in order.

The Vice President submitted the question to the Senate: Is the amendment as amended in order?

It was determined in the affirmative; yeas 48, nays 19. (See Cong. Record, pp. 3075-3078.)