question (which motions shall be decided without debate).

Rule XVI, clause 4.

A motion for adjournment can not be made by one Member while another is speaking.-Manual, p. 136.

A Member speaking may yield for a motion to adjourn or that the committee rise, without losing his right to the floor when the subject is resumed.

The motion can not be received after another question is actually put and while the House is actually engaged in voting.— Manual, p. 148.

A conference report may be presented pending a motion to adjourn or to fix the day to which the House shall adjourn, and its consideration having been entered upon takes precedence over the motion to fix day.-Congressional Record, 2, 50, p. 678.

A conference report may be presented pending a motion to adjourn―Journal, 1, 51, p. 822—provided that the absence of a quorum has not been disclosed; in which event no business could be transacted.

It was held in the 47th Congress that a motion to adjourn might be entertained after the House votes to resolve into Committee of the Whole, if made before the Speaker leaves the chair.-Journal, 1, 47, p. 609. It was likewise held in the 48th that the motion to fix the day to which the House shall adjourn might be entertained after the decision to resolve into Committee of the Whole.-Journal, 2, 48, pp. 208–210. Subsequently it was held not to be in order for the Speaker, after the House votes to resolve into Committee of the Whole, to entertain a motion to adjourn or to fix the day to which the House shall adjourn, the effect of the vote being ipso facto to resolve the House into committee-Congressional Record, 2, 49, p. 917—and this has since been the practice. For the same

reason, if the point were made, it would not be in order to entertain a motion to reconsider the vote by which the House resolved into committee.

A motion to reconsider the vote by which the House refuses to adjourn is not in order.-Journal, 2, 45, p. 139.

A motion to fix the hour to which the House shall adjourn is not a privileged motion.

A motion to adjourn can not be amended, as by adding "to 6913-16

a particular day," but must be simply "that this House do now adjourn;" and if carried in the affirmative, it is adjourned to the next sitting day, unless it has come to a previous resolution "that at its rising it will adjourn to a particular day," and then the House is adjourned to that day.-Manual, p. 183.

A motion to adjourn may be repeated, although no question has been put or decided since the former motion.―Journal, 1, 23, p. 651-but there must have been some intervening business.-Ibid., 1, 31, 1092.

Pending a motion to suspend the rules, a motion to adjourn having been voted down and no quorum voting to second the former motion, a motion to adjourn is again in order though no other business has intervened.-Mr. McCreary, Speaker pro tempore, Journal, 2, 50, p. 103.

A vote of the House on a motion for a call of the House, on a motion for recess, or other proposition, is such intervening business as will authorize the repetition of the motion to adjourn.

A motion to fix a day to which the House shall adjourn having been rejected, that motion can not be repeated, no proceeding having taken place in the meantime except a refusal to adjourn.-Journal, 2, 48, pp. 298 and 428; Congressional Record, 1, 50, p. 2709.

A motion to fix a certain day to which the House shall adjourn which has been voted down may be renewed in the same terms on the same legislative day.-Journal, 2, 52, p. 104.

The refusal of the House to agree to a motion to fix the day to which the House shall adjourn constitutes business in a parliamentary sense.-Journal, 2, 48, p. 430.

A motion to adjourn is in order before the Journal is read.Congressional Record, 2, 50, p. 677.

While ordinarily, under the rules, the motion to fix day has precedence over the motion to adjourn, it was held that the motion to fix the day, being business in a parliamentary sense, was not in order before the Journal is read, this constituting an exception to the rule which gives such motion precedence over the motion to adjourn.-Congressional Record, 2, 50, p. 677. In the 52d Congress, however, certain privi leged motions, which constituted business, were held to be in

order before the reading of the Journal.-Journal, 2, 52, pp. 91, 98.

The hour at which the House adjourns shall be entered on the Journal. Rule XVI, clause 5.

If a question be put for adjournment, it is no adjournment till the Speaker pronounces it.-Manual, page 183.

If, by reason of an error in reporting the result of a roll call, the Speaker announces that the House decides to adjourn, and the house does in fact accordingly disperse and adjourn, although the vote as actually recorded shows a refusal to adjourn, the session of the House when it next meets will be considered not a continuation of the preceding session but as of a new legislative day.-Congressional Record, 2, 49, p. 314. There must be an adjournment before the legislative day will terminate-Journal, 1, 33, p. 801-and an adjournment does not take place by reason of the arrival of the time for the regular daily meeting of the House.-Ibid., pp. 803, 811. And an adjournment does not necessarily take place at 12 p. m. on Saturday, nor is it against order for a majority to continue in session after the said hour, it being a question which must be left to be decided by the judgment and discretion of the House itself. Journal, 1, 24, pp. 577, 582.

An adjournment terminates proceedings under a call of the House unless otherwise ordered by the House. The House may, however, by resolution, continue in force beyond an adjournment the order that the Sergeant-at-Arms take into cus tody and bring to the bar absent Members, and may make such order returnable to a day subsequent to the day of adjournment.-Journal, 1, 30, pp. 1034, 1035; also Speaker Crisp, Journal, 1, 52, pp. 166, 167.

Absent Members taken into custody after adjournment, under such order so continued in force, have the same status and are subject to the same restrictions as if they had been taken and brought to the bar before the adjournment.-Journal, 1, 52, p. 167.

ADJOURNMENT BEYOND THREE DAYS.

Neither House during the session of Congress shall, with. out the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days,

nor to any other place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.-Const., 1, 5, 4, 5.

Such adjournment is effected by a concurrent resolution, of which the following is the usual form:

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That when the two Houses adjourn on — the day of

they stand adjourned until 12 o'clock meridian on the day of

Where the two Houses adjourn for more than three days, and not to, or beyond the period fixed by the Constitution or law for the next regular session, the session is not thereby terminated, but continues until an adjournment without day, or until the next regular session. See Journals, 1, 39, pp. 107, 108; 2, 39, p. 106; 1, 40, pp. 157, 158, 184. And it is competent by concurrent resolution to provide for an adjournment to a particular day, and if upon that day a quorum is not present in each House, that the session shall terminate.-Journal, 1, 40, pp. 157, 158, 184.

In case of disagreement between them (the two Houses) with respect to the time of adjournment, the President may adjourn the two Houses to such a time as he may think proper.-Const., 2, 3, 17.

ADJOURNMENT SINE DIE.

The adjournment of a session (other than that which terminates with the expiration of the term of service of the Members) is provided for by the joint vote of the two Houses, and usually in the following form: "Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives, That the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives be authorized to close the present session by adjourning their respective houses on the day of at o'clock - m." And such resolutions have always been held as privileged.

A resolution fixing the day for final adjournment is subject to the motion to commit.-Journal, 1, 50, p. 2941.

Upon the arrival of the day and hour fixed, or the hour of 12 o'clock m. of the 4th of March of each alternate year, when, by the usage, the last session of a Congress terminates, the Speaker (either on or without motion) pronounces the House adjourned

sine die.-Journals, 1, 28, p. 1175; 1, 33, p. 1345; 1, 35, p. 1148; 2, 32, p. 431; 3, 34, p. 691; 2, 35 p. 625.

The day of the expiration of a Congress, March 4, is not specifically fixed by the Constitution or any statute. It results from the fact that the First Congress under the Constitution. was authorized to commence, and did commence, its proceedings on the first Wednesday in March, 1789, which fell on the 4th day of the month. Article I, section 2 of the Constitution, providing that members shall be chosen every second year, has been construed by usage, at least, as limiting the term to two years. Whence it follows that a Congress must expire on the 4th day of March of every odd year. This construction is also recognized in the act of February 2, 1872 (R. S., sec. 25), which fixes the day for the election of Representatives and Delegates to "the Congress commencing on the fourth day of March next thereafter."

A reviewof the proceedings in detail, by virtue of which the commencement and termination of the Congress is thus estabished, written by Hon. George S. Boutwell, the Commissioner who prepared the Revised Statutes of 1878, is, by his permission, here appended as follows:

On the 13th of September, 1787, Mr. Johnson, of Connecticut, from the Committee on Style, reported to the Federal Convention that formed the Constitution of the United States two resolutions, the second of which is as follows:

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this convention that as soon as the conventions of nine States shall have ratified this Constitution the United States, in Congress, shall fix a day on which electors shall be appointed by the States which shall have ratified the same, and a day on which the electors shall assemble to vote for President, and the time and place for commencing the proceedings under this Constitution; that after such publication the electors should be appointed, and the Senators and Representatives elected; that the electors should meet on the day fixed for the election of the President, and should transmit their votes certified, signed sealed, and directed, as the Constitution requires, to the Secretary of the United States in Congress assembled; that the Senators and Representatives shall convene at the time and place assigned; that the Senate should appoint a president for the sole purpose of receiving, opening, and counting the votes for President, and that after he shall be chosen the Congress, together with the President, should, without delay, proceed to execute this Constitution.