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WITHDRAWAL OF PAPERS.

No memorial or other paper presented to the House shall be withdrawn from its files without its leave, and if withdrawn therefrom, certified copies thereof shall be left in the office of the Clerk; but when an act may pass for the settlement of a claim, the Clerk is authorized to transmit to the officer charged with the settlement thereof the papers on file in his office relating to such claim, or may loan temporarily to any officer or bureau of the Executive Departments any papers on file in his office relating to any matter pending before such officer or bureau, taking proper receipt therefor.-Rule XXXIX. (See Files.)

WITNESSES.

Witnesses are summoned in pursuance and by virtue of the authority conferred upon a committee "to send for persons and papers."-Journal 1, 35, pp. 88, 175.

The President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, or a chairman of the Committee of the Whole, or of any committee of either House of Congress, is empowered to administer oaths to witnesses in any case under their examination.-R. S., sec. 101.

Any Member of either House of Congress may administer oaths to witnesses in any matter depending in either House of Congress of which he is a Member, or any committee thereof— Stats. at L., vol. 26, p. 60.

The rule for paying witnesses subpœnaed to appear before the House, or either of its committees, shall be as follows: For each day a witness shall attend, the sum of $2; for each mile he shall travel in coming to or going from the place of examination, the sum of 5 cents each way; but nothing shall be paid for traveling when the witness has been summoned at the place of trial.-Rule XXXVII.

By the act of May 3, 1876 (Sess. Laws, 1, 44, p. 44), witnesses residing in the District of Columbia summoned to give testimony before any committee of the House of Representatives shall not be allowed exceeding $2 for each day's attendance before said committee.

(See Warrants, Writs, etc.)

Every person who having been summoned as a witness by the authority of either House of Congress, to give testimony or to produce papers upon any matter under inquiry before either House, or any committee of either House of Congress, willfully makes default, or who, having appeared, refuses to answer any question pertinent to the question under inquiry, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars nor less than one hundred dollars, and imprisonment in a common jail for not less than one month nor more than twelve months.-R. S., sec. 102.

No witness is privileged to refuse to testify to any fact or to produce any paper respecting which he shall be examined by either House of Congress, or by any committee of either House, upon the ground that his testimony to such fact or his production of such paper may tend to disgrace him or otherwise render him infamous.-R. S., sec. 103.

No testimony given by a witness before either House, or before any committee of either House of Congress, shall be used as evidence in any criminal proceeding against him in any court, except in a prosecution for perjury committed in giving such testimony. But an official paper or record produced by him is not within the said privilege.-R. S., sec. 859.

Whenever a witness, summoned as mentioned in section one hundred and two, fails to testify, and the facts are reported to either House, the President of the Senate or the Speaker of the House, as the case may be, shall certify the fact under the seal of the Senate or House to the district attorney for the District of Columbia, whose duty it shall be to bring the matter before the grand jury for their action.-R. S., sec. 104.

In one case where a witness refused to answer a question propounded to him by a select committee, it was ordered and adjudged by the House that he be committed to the commnon jail of the District of Columbia, to be kept in close custody until he should signify his willingness to purge himself of the contempt.-Journal, 1, 35, pp. 387 to 389. And after having been so imprisoned for more than three months, he was, by the further order of the House, on the 22d of March, released from jail and delivered over to the marshal of the said District to answer a presentment against him in the United States criminal court therein.-Ibid., pp. 535 to 539.

A witness having refused to answer a question during an examination by an investigating committee of the House was committed to the custody of the Sergeant-at-Arms, and, persisting in the refusal, was confined in the District jail. The imprisonment was afterwards decided by the courts to have been illegal on the ground that neither House of Congress is vested by the Constitution with the power to punish for contempt a person not a member of such House, and a verdict was obtained for a large sum in damages in a suit by the witness against the Sergeant-at-Arms. (See proceedings in case of Hallett Kilbourne, first session Forty-fourth Congress; also case of Kilbourne vs. Thompson, United States Supreme Court Reports, vol. 103, p. 168.)

At the second session of the Fifty-third Congress, certain witnesses who had been duly summoned and who testified before an investigating committee of the Senate, having refused to answer questions deemed by the Committee to be pertinent to the subject under investigation, the Committee reported that said witnesses were in contempt of the Senate; and also that the said witnesses had violated the provisions of sections 102 and 103 of the Revised Statutes. This report was made to the end that the President of the Senate might certify said failure to testify and refusal to answer, and all the facts, under seal of the Senate, to the United States district attorney for the District of Columbia, in order that said witnesses might be proceeded against as provided by law. (See Senate Report 606, 53d Congress, Aug. 2, 1894.) The facts so reported were accordingly, without further action by the Senate, certified by the Vice-President to the district attorney, and proceedings thereupon instituted to punish the recusant witnesses, pursu ant to R. S., section 104.

The validity and constitutionality of R. S., section 102, was, on January 7, 1895, sustained by the District Court of Appeals, upon an appeal from an order of the Supreme Court of the District in the above-mentioned proceedings.

YEAS AND NAYS.

"The yeas and nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be en

tered on the Journal" (Const., 1, 5, 3, 5). And "in all such cases" (reconsideration of vetoed bills) "the votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively" (Ibid., 1, 7, 2, 6).

"One-fifth of those present" is construed to mean one-fifth of the last vote; but if a count of the other side-i. e., those opposed to the yeas and nays-be called for, then one-fifth of those who vote on the question of ordering the yeas and nays, constitute the number required to order them. (See Cong. Record, 1, 49, vol. 17, part 1, p. 176; Journals, 1, 45, p. 290; 2, 50, p. 201; 1, 51, p. 903.)

A quorum is not required to vote on the question of ordering the yeas and nays, nor on the question of reconsidering the vote by which the yeas and nays have been ordered or refused.-Congressional Record, 1, 50, p. 7546.

Ordering the yeas and nays is a proceeding by which the method of taking a vote is determined, and is not the transac tion of business.-Journal, 2, 50, p. 204.

After the yeas and nays are ordered and a Member has answered to his name the roll call must progress without debate.-Cong. Globe, 1, 31, p. 1686; Journal, 1, 47, pp. 597–641.

MAY BE DEMANDED, WHEN.

The yeas and, nays may be called for while a vote on a di vision or by tellers is being taken (Cong. Globe, 2, 28, p. 121), or while the Speaker is announcing the result of such vote (Ibid., 1, 29, p. 420), or even after the announcement, and before passing to any other business (Ibid., 1, 31, p. 277); but not after the result is announced, if delayed until the Speaker shall be in the act of putting another question.-Journal, 1, 32, p. 254.

The yeas and nays may be demanded on questions arising during a call of the House in like manner as on other occasions.-Journal, 1, 46, p. 376.

Whenever on any question a quorum fails to vote, either by the Speaker's count or by tellers, a demand for the yeas and nays takes precedence over a motion for a call of the House.Journal, 3, 46, p. 596.

The yeas and nays can not be taken on any question in Committee of the Whole.-Congressional Globe, 1, 28, p. 618.

The yeas and nays can not be demanded on seconding the motion to suspend the rules; the vote on seconding the motion. being required to be taken by tellers, and the question of suspending the rules not being in fact before the House until seconded by a majority as counted by tellers. (See Rule XXVIII, clause 2:)

RECORD OF.

A Member has the right to change his vote before the decision of the question has been finally and conclusively pronounced by the Chair (Journal, 2, 20, pp. 357, 358); but not afterwards.

And it is not competent for a Member to have the Journal amended, so as to have the record of his vote changed upon a representation that such vote, though recorded as given, was given under a misapprehension.-Journals, 2, 8, p. 167; 2, 27, p. 263.

A Member has a right to have an erroneous record of his vote corrected after the announcement of the result of a vote.-Journal, 1, 38, pp. 586, 587.

Every Member shall be present within the Hall of the House during its sittings, unless excused or necessarily prevented; and shall vote on each question put, unless, on motion made before division or the commencement of the roll call and decided without debate, he shall be excused, or unless he has a direct personal or pecuniary interest in the event of such question; and on a roll call, should he not vote, he shall answer "present."-Rule VIII, clause 1.

Pairs shall be announced by the Clerk, after the completion of the second roll call, from a written list furnished him, and signed by the Member making the statement to the Clerk, which list shall be published in the Record as a part of the proceedings, immediately following the names of those not voting: Provided, That pairs shall be announced but once during the same legislative day.-Rule VIII, clause 2.

Upon every roll call the names of Members shall be called alphabetically by surname, except when two or more have the same surname, in which case the name of the State shall be added; and if there be two such Members from the 5585- -37

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