Mr. Jefferson furnishes other and most important words of his own:--
“And when any member who is against the bill hears himself named of its committee, _he ought to ask to be excused_.”[34]
This is the language of our Manual, declaring the duty of a member who hears himself named of a committee on a bill he is against. Of course the general rule is applicable to any other matter referred to a committee. The words are, “he _ought_ to ask to be excused.” Of course his continuance on the committee, or any attempt to exercise its duties, is a violation of Parliamentary Law, unless you are ready to discard this positive injunction.
Mr. Jefferson then adds, by way of illustration:--
“Thus, March 7, 1606, Mr. Hadley was, on the question being put, excused from being of a committee, declaring himself to be against the matter itself.”[35]
And our great authority declares that this is “a constant rule.”[36]
Such is Parliamentary Law; and Mr. Jefferson has answered in advance the possible objection, that this is English and not American. After saying, in his preface to the “Manual,” that the Senate has given to these rules “the sanction of their approbation,” he announces “the law of proceedings in the Senate as composed of the precepts of the Constitution, the regulations of the Senate, and, where these are silent, of _the rules of Parliament_.” Such, according to him, is the law of our proceedings. The “Manual” which he presents he hopes others may 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.” The last word is “_impartiality_,” which, doubtless, is a main object to be secured.
Any one disposed to neglect these rules will find a warning from Mr. Jefferson. In his opening chapter he quotes these words from the famous Speaker Onslow:--
“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_.”
Mr. Jefferson follows this quotation by declaring “the forms and rules of proceeding” to be “the only weapons by which the minority can defend themselves,” and by which “the weaker party can 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.”