RULES
OF
PROCEEDING AND DEBATE
IN
DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLIES.
REVISED BY
FRANCES P. SULLIVAN.
Copyright, 1887,
BY M. J. IVERS & CO.
NEW YORK:
M. J. IVERS & CO.
379 Pearl Street
The following treatise forms a part only ofa much larger and more comprehensive work,covering the whole ground of parliamentarylaw and practice, which the author has forsome time been engaged in preparing; andwhich it is his intention to complete and publish,as soon as possible. In the mean time,this little work has been compiled, chieflyfrom the larger, at the request of the publishers,and to supply a want which was supposedto exist to a considerable extent.
The treatise, now presented to the public,is intended as a Manual for Deliberative Assembliesof every description, but more especiallyfor those which are not legislative intheir character; though with the exceptionof the principal points, in which legislativebodies differ from others, namely, the severaldifferent stages or readings of a bill, and[p5] conferences and amendments between the twobranches, this work will be found equallyuseful in legislative assemblies as in others.
The only work which has hitherto been ingeneral use in this country, relating to theproceedings of legislative assemblies, is thecompilation originally prepared by Mr. Jefferson,when vice-president of the United States,for the use of the body over which he presided,and which is familiarly known asJefferson’s Manual. This work, having beenextensively used in our legislative bodies, and,in some States, expressly sanctioned by law,may be said to form, as it were, the basis ofthe common parliamentary law of this country.Regarding it in that light, the author of thefollowing treatise has considered the principlesand rules laid down by Mr. Jefferson(and which have been adopted by him chieflyfrom the elaborate work of Mr. Hatsell) asthe established rules on this subject, and hasaccordingly made them the basis of the presentcompilation, with an occasional remark,in a note, by way of explanation or suggestion,whenever he deemed it necessary.
Members of legislative bodies, who mayhave occasion to make use of this work, will[p6] do well to bear in mind, that it contains onlywhat may be called the common parliamentarylaw; which, in every legislative assembly, ismore or less modified or controlled by specialrules.
L. S. C.
Boston, November 1, 1844.