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Lucius B. Peck of Montpelier were appointed. They will doubtless make report to you of their progress at an early period of the present session. The importance of having the laws, securing the rights and protecting the persons of individuals, stripped of their uncertainty and ambiguity and expressed in plain and intelligible language, cannot be too highly appreciated. Forty years have elapsed since an entire revision of our laws, such as is now making, has taken place: within that time they have probably undergone greater and more frequent alterations than those of any other state in the Union, the certain and inevitable consequences of which are confusion and uncertainty. This confusion has been greatly increased, by the peculiar phraseology of the repealing clause of very many of our laws, making our statutes a book of mysteries, which few, but the initiated, can understand and explain. Laws gain much of their respect from their permanency. Prudent and wise legislators will hesitate before exchanging a law, simple in its provisions, well understood by the people, and which does no manifest injustice in its operation, for one, which, though it may appear perfect in theory, is yet problematical in its effects.

It will become your duty at the present session to elect a senator to represent this state in the Congress of the United States, for the term of six years, from and after the 4th of March next.

Since the adjournment of the last General Assembly, communica tions upon various subjects have been received by me from the Ex ecutives of several states of the Union, which will be laid before you.

It has been well said that "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." Our fathers showed their jealousy of overgrown wealth by their legislative enactments. We have no large monopolists among us to exercise a sway; no privileged classes to exert a controlling influence over our popular assemblies: But the inquiry may well be made, whether our institutions are perfectly safe in another direction and from a different class. There is occasion to fear, that the demagogue, under the pretence of sympathy, may urge to a participation in our elective privileges, those who have sought an asylum among us, before they shall be qualified, either by length of residence, or attachment to our institutions, to exercise that sacred right. The pùrity of our elections should be matter of frequent and careful investigation.

Coming immediately from among the people, you must be intimately acquainted with their wants, and in the discharge of your duties, I can engage my cordial concurrence in all measures for the good of the people.

The responsible stations to which my fellow citizens have been pleased repeatedly to call me, entitle them to my most grateful acknowledgments; and this renewed mark of the public favor greatly increases my obligations. SILAS H. JENISON.

Montpelier, Oct. 13, 1838.

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Mr. Lawrence introduced the following resolution:

Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives, that both houses respectively, proceed at ten o'clock, forenoon, on Monday next, to elect a Senator to represent this state in the Senate of the United States, for six years from the fourth day of March next; and that both houses meet in the representatives' hall immediately thereafter, to complete said election according to law.

On motion of Mr. Steele,

Ordered, that the resolution be laid on the table,
The Senate adjourned.

AFTERNOON.

Mr. Briggs, from the committee on rules, reported the following, which were adopted as the

RULES OF THE SENATE:

1. The credentials of Senators shall be presented to the Secretary or Assistant Secretary previous to nine o'clock in the morning of the 2d Thursday of October, at which time the Senate shall be called to order. The names of the Senators shall be called over, and when a quorum shall have taken their seats, they shall, having first taken the necessary oaths, on nomination of the President, appoint a canvassing committee consisting of one Senator from each county, to join such committee as the House of Representatives may appoint, whose duty shall be to receive, sort and count the votes for Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Treasurer, and make report thereof to the Joint Assembly of both Houses.

2. The Senate shall meet every day (Sundays excepted) at 9 o'clock, in the morning, and 2 o'clock in the afternoon, unless otherwise specially ordered.

3. The President having taken the chair and a quorum being present, the journal of the preceding day shall be read and all errors therein corrected.

4. In case no quorum shall assemble within fifteen minutes after the time to which the Senate was adjourned, those present shall have power to send the Sergeant-at-Arms, or other officer, after the absentees, and compel their attendance.

5. Whenever the Senate shall assemble according to adjournment, or at the commencement of a session, and the President shall be absent, it shall be the duty of the Secretary, if present, if not, of a Senator, to call to order, and the Senators present, if a quorum, shall, by ballot, elect a President pro tempore.

6. No Senator shall be absent without leave, unless he is sick or otherwise necessarily detained.

7. No Senator shall audibly speak to another, or otherwise interrupt the business of the Senate while the journals or other public papers are being read, or while a Senator is orderly speaking in debate.

8. Every Senator when he speaks shall, standing in his place, address the President, and when he has finished, shall sit down.

9. No Senator shall speak more than twice on the same question

without leave of the Senate, and Senators, who have once spoken, shall not again be entitled to the floor (except for the purpose of explanation,) to the exclusion of another who has not spoken.

10. In all cases, the Senator first arising and addressing the President (subject to the restriction of rule 9,) shall be entitled to the floor, and when two or more arise at the same time, the President shall name the one who is to speak.

11. When a Senator shall be called to order, he shall sit down, and every question of order shall be decided by the President without debate, subject to an appeal to the Senate.

12. If a Senator be called to order, for the words spoken, the exceptionable words shall be immediately taken down in writing, by the Senator calling to order, that the President may be better enabled to judge of the matter.

13. The first hour of each morning's sitting may be devoted to the reception and disposal of petitions, memorials, remonstrances, motions, resolutions, and the introduction of bills; after which the orders of the day or other proper business shall be announced, always commencing with the unfinished business of the last sitting. The first hour of the afternoon's sitting may be occupied in the receiving and disposing of reports of committees and in completing the business of the morning hour; at the expiration of which the Senate will again take up the orders of the day.

14. Reports of committees may be signed by any member in behalt of the committee, and shall be by him presented to the Senate when a call for reports is made. The signer of each report shall be held responsible for the accuracy of its statements and the propriety of its language, and when the same shall be under consideration, he shall be futher liable to give additional statements of facts or other explanations in answer to the call of any Senator.

15. The proceedings of the Senate, except when acting as in Committee of the Whole, einbracing the titles of bills and such parts thereof as may be affected by proposed amendments, and also the names of Senators and the votes which they give on every question decided by yeas and nays, shall be by the Secretary accurately and concisely inserted in the journals.

16. The Senate shall, annually, within the first four days of actual sitting, elect by ballot (and a majority of all present shall be necessary to a choice) a Secretary, an Assistant Secretary, who shall be ex-officio Engrossing Clerk, a Sergeant-at-Arms, who shall be ex-officio doorkeeper, and an Assistant Door-Keeper who shall be ex-officio Messenger, who shall severally be sworn to the faithful discharge of their duties, and shall hold said offices until superseded by a new election. The Senate shall also, within the same time, elect the following Standing Committees, to consist of three members each, to wit: On Finance,-on the Judiciary,―on Claims,-on Education, -on Agriculture,-on Manufactures, on Elections,-on Rules,-on Military Affairs,-on Roads and Canals,-on Banks, and on Land Taxes.

17. In the appointment of committees, (except the one mentioned in Rule 1,) the Senate will proceed by ballot severally to appoint a chairman of each, and then by one ballot the other members necessary to complete the same. In the election of a chairman a majority of the votes given shall be necessary, but for the others a plurality shall be sufficient. Provided, The Senate may, without formally suspending

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this rule, direct a select committee to be appointed by the President.
18. All bills, after the second reading, and all petitions, memorials,
remonstrances, resolutions and other papers calling for legislative
action, [except such as have been reported by a committee,] no objec-
tion being made, shall be referred by the President to appropriate com-
mittees.

19. Before any resolution, any petition or other paper addressed to the Senate, shall be received and read, whether the same shall be introduced by the President or a Senator, the title shall be fairly endorsed thereon, and a brief statement of its object or contents shall be made by the introducer.

20. Every motion shall be reduced to writing by the mover, if required thereto by the President or a Senator, and a motion to lay another motion, the latter not being in writing, on the table, or otherwise to dispose of it, shall not be in order.

21. Every bill shall receive three readings before it is passed; the President shall give notice at each reading whether it be the first, second, or third; the last of which readings of public bills shall be at least twenty-four hours after the first reading, unless the Senate unanimously direct otherwise. Provided, That private bills shall be read the second time by their title. Resolutions, requiring the approbation and signature of the Governor, shall be treated in all respects as bills.

22. On the demand of a Senator, public bills, after a second reading, shall be considered by the Senate as in committee of the whole.

23. The final question upon the second reading of every bill which originated in the Senate shall be 'Shall this bill be engrossed and read a third time? No amendment shall be received at the third reading, but it may be committed for amendment at ang time before its final passage.

24. Motions on bills and resolutions shall be sustained in the following order: 1. To postpone indefinitely. 2. To lay upon the table. 3. To commit. 4. To amend.

25. A call for the previous question shall not at any time be in order. A motion to adjourn shall always be in order, and shall be decided without debate.

26. If the question in debate contain several points, the same shall be A motion to strike out and divided on the demand of a Senator.

insert shall not be divided, but the rejection of a motion to strike out and insert one proposition shall not preclude a motion to strike out and insert a different one, or a motion simply to strike out, nor shall the rejection of a motion simply to strike out, prevent a subsequent one to strike out and insert.

27. In filling blanks the largest sum and the longest time shall be first in order.

28. When the reading of a paper is called for and the same is objected to by a Senator, the question shall be determined by a vote of the Senate.

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29. The yeas and nays shall be taken on the call of a Senator, and every Senator present shall vote unless excused by the Senate; but no Senator shall be compelled to vote who was absent when the question was stated by the President, nor shall any one be permitted to vote who was absent when his name was called, nor after the decision of the question has been an nounced from the chair.

30. No Senator in the minority, nor one who did not vote in the decision of a question, shall have a right to move a reconsideration thereof; nor shall any motion for reconsideration be in order, unless, made before the close of the next day of actual sitting of the Senate after that in which the vote was taken, and before the bill, resolution, report, amendment, address or motion upon which the vote was taken, shall, in the regular progress of business, have gone out of the possession of the Senate.

31. On all questions, in the decision of which, a simple majority is required, when the Senate is equally divided, the Secretary shall take the casting vote of the President. In all such cases, a motion for reconsideration, if made in time, shall be in order from any Senator who voted on the question.

32. The President shall have the right to call upon any Senator to discharge the duties of the chair, whenever he shall find it necessary, temporarily, to retire; but such substitution shall not extend beyond more than one adjournment.

33. The Senate having taken a final vote on any question, the same shall not again be in order during the same session in any form whatever, except by way of reconsideration, and when a motion for recon. sideration has been decided, that decision shall not be reconsidered.

34. No proposition to amend the rules of the Senate, or the joint rules of both houses, shall be acted on until the same shall have been before the Senate at least twenty-four hours.

35. Messages shall be sent to the House of Representatives by the Secretary or Assistant Secretary.

36. Reporters may be placed on the floor of the Senate, under the direction of the Secretary, with the approbation of the President.

37. No persons shall be admitted within the lobby of the Senate chamber except the Governor, Treasurer of the State, Auditor of accounts, members of the other house, Judges of the Supreme Court, Senators and Representatives in Congress, Ex-Governors and Lieutenant Governors; Ex Judges of the Supreme Court, Ex-Senators and Representatives in Congress, District Judge and Attorney of the United States, members of other state Legislatures, and such gentlemen and ladies as the President or a Senator may introduce.

38. When in session the Senators shall sit with their heads uncov ered.

39. All gentlemen in the lobby and gallery shall sit with their heads uncovered, and upon any disorderly conduct in the gallery, the Presi dent may order the same to be cleared.

40. Whenever a bill or resolution is laid on the table by order of the Senate, and shall have remained on the table twenty-four hours, it shall be subject to be taken up by the chair and presented for the consideration of the Senate, without a call or order on the subject.

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