Of members of By the Act of February 26, 1853, it is provided "that if

Congress.

the House.

any person or persons shall, directly or indirectly, promise, offer or give, or cause or procure to be promised, offered, or given, any money, goods, right in action, bribe, present or reward, or any promise, contract, undertaking, obligation, or security for the payment or delivery of any money, goods, right in action, bribe, present or reward, or any other valuable thing whatever, to any member of the Senate or House of Representatives, after his election as such member, and either before or after he shall have qualified and taken his seat, or to any officer of the United States, or person holding any place of profit or trust, or discharging any official function under, or in connection with, any department of the government of the United States, or under the Senate or Or employés of House of Representatives of the United States, with intent to influence his vote or decision on any question, matter, cause, or proceeding which may then be pending, or may by law, or under the Constitution of the United States, be brought before him in his official capacity, or in his place of trust or profit, and shall be convicted thereof, such person or persons so offering, promising, or giving, or causing or procuring to be promised, offered or given, any such money, goods, right in action, bribe, present, or reward, or any promise, contract, undertaking, obligation, or security for the payment or delivery of any money, goods, right in action, bribe, present or reward, or other valuable thing whatever; and the member, officer or person who shall in anywise accept or receive the same, or any part thereof, shall be liable to indictment as for a high crime and misdemeanor in any court of the United States having jurisdiction for the trial of crimes and misdemeanors, and shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not exceeding three times the amount so offered, promised, or given, and imprisoned in a penitentiary not exceeding three years; and the person convicted of so accepting or receiving the same, or any part thereof, if an officer or person holding any such place of trust or profit as aforesaid, shall forfeit his office or place; and any person so convicted under this section shall forever be disqualified to hold any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States."-Stat. at Large, Vol. X, p. 171.

Acceptance of bribes.

Penalty for.

BUSINESS-DAILY ORDER OF.

Journal.

"The Speaker shall take the chair every day precisely at Reading of the the hour to which the House shall have adjourned on the preceding day; shall immediately call the members to order; and, on the appearance of a quorum, shall cause the Journal of the preceding day to be read."—Rule 1.

"The consideration of the unfinished business in which the Unfinished business of preceding House may be engaged at an adjournment shall be resumed day considered. as soon as the Journal of the next day is read, and at the same time each day thereafter until disposed of."-Rule 56.

mittees called

"As soon as the Journal is read, and the unfinished busi- Reports of comness in which the House was engaged at the last preceding for. adjournment has been disposed of, reports from committees shall be called for and disposed of; in doing which the Speaker shall call upon each standing committee in regular order, and then upon select committees; and if the Speaker shall not get through the call upon the committees before the House passes to other business, he shall resume the next call where he left off-September 15, 1837-giving preference to the report last under consideration: Provided, That whenever any committee shall have occupied the morning hour on two days, it shall not be in order for such committee to report further until the other committees shall have been called in their turn-December 7, 1857. On the call for reports from committees on each alternate Monday, which shall commence as soon as the Journal is read, all bills reported during the first hour after the Journal is read shall be committed, without debate, to the Committee of the Whole, and, together with their accompanying reports, printed; and if during the hour all the committees are not called, then, on the next alternate Monday, the Speaker shall commence where such call was suspended: Provided, that no bill reported under the call on alternate Mondays, and committed, shall be again brought before the House by a motion to reconsider."

Rule 51.

Territories for reand bills on leave.

Reports from committees having been presented and Call of States and disposed of, the Speaker shall call for resolutions from the solutions members of each State and delegate from each Territory,

Business on the
Speaker's table.

beginning with Maine and the Territory last organized, alternately; and they shall not be debated on the very day of their being presented, nor on any day assigned by the House for the receipt of resolutions, unless where the House shall direct otherwise, but shall lie on the table to be taken up in the order in which they were presented; and if on any day the whole of the States and Territories shall not be called, the Speaker shall begin on the next day where he left off the previous day: Provided, That no member shall offer more than one resolution, or one series of resolutions, all relating to the same subject, until all the States and Territories shall have been called."-Rule 52. And at this time bills on leave may be introduced.-Rule 115.

"After one hour shall have been devoted to reports from committees and resolutions, it shall be in order, pending the consideration or discussion thereof, to entertain a motion that the House do now proceed to dispose of the business on the Speaker's table, and to the orders of the day—January 5, 1832; which being decided in the affirmative, the Speaker shall dispose of the business on his table in the following order, viz.:

1st. Messages and other Executive communications.

2d. Messages from the Senate, and amendments proposed by the Senate to bills of the House.

3d. Bills and resolutions from the Senate on their first and

second reading, that they be referred to committees and put under way; but if, on being read a second time, no motion being made to commit, they are to be ordered to their third reading, unless objections be made; in which case, if not otherwise ordered by a majority of the House, they are to be laid on the table in the general file of bills on the Speaker's table, to be taken up in their turn. 4th. Engrossed bills and bills from the Senate on their third reading.

5th. Bills of the House and from the Senate, on the Speaker's table, on their engrossment, or on being ordered to a third reading, to be taken up and considered in the order of time in which they passed to a second reading. The messages, communications, and bills on his table

having been disposed of, the Speaker shall then proceed to call the orders of the day."-Rule 54.

fered with.

[The foregoing is the order of business which may be pur- May be sued, under the rules, each day except Fridays and Saturdays and the alternate Mondays; but it is often interfered with by questions of privilege, special orders, privileged questions, &c.]

inter

Saturday, and

ing on those

"Friday and Saturday in every week shall be set apart on Friday and for the consideration of private bills and private business, in mode of proceedpreference to any other, unless otherwise determined by a days. majority of the House."-Rule 128. [On those days, as soon as the Journal is read, and the unfinished business of the last private bill day, the Speaker proceeds to call the Committees for reports, of a private nature, which being disposed of, it is his practice, without motion, to lay before the House such private business as may be upon his table. It is then usual for some member (commonly the chairman of the Committee of Claims) to move that the House resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole on the private calendar. This motion may be, and often is, made as soon as the Journal is read. Although it takes precedence of the motion to go into Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union (unless there be a special order pending therein), and, if made, must be first voted on, the latter motion is often made and carried, and thus private bills fail to receive consideration.]

Fridays and Sa

month.

"On the first and fourth Friday and Saturday of each First and fourth month the calendar of private bills shall be called over (the turdays of the chairman of the Committee of the Whole House commencing the call where he left off the previous day), and the bills to the passage of which no objection shall then be made shall be first considered and disposed of.―January 25, 1839. But when a bill is again reached, after having been once objected to, the committee shall consider and dispose of the same, unless it shall again be objected to by at least five members."-Rule 129. It has been decided that this rule, so far as relates to the consideration of bills only which are not objected to, applies as well to private bills in the House as in committee.—Journal, 1, 31, p. 697.

On each alter- "All the States and Territories shall be called for bills nate Monday,call

and bills on leave.

for resolutions on leave and resolutions on each alternate Monday during each session of Congress; and, if necessary to secure the object on said days, all resolutions which shall give rise to debate shall lie over for discussion, under the rules of the House already established; and the whole of said days shall be appropriated to bills on leave and resolutions, until all the States and Territories are called through.-February 6, 1838. And the Speaker shall first call the States and Territories for bills on leave; and all bills so introduced during the first hour after the Journal is read shall be referred, without debate, to their appropriate committees: Provided, however, That a bill so introduced and referred shall not be brought back into the House upon a motion to reconsider." Rule 130.

On every Mor

day, after one

hour pired.

On Monday of every week, at the expiration of one hour has ex- after the Journal is read, the Speaker may entertain a motion to suspend the rules.-Rule 145.

Order of business

only changed by

"The order of business, as established by the rules, shall two-thirds vote, not be changed, except by a vote of at least two-thirds of the members present."-Rule 145. [And as the motion to suspend the rules can only be made on Mondays after the expiration of one hour after the Journal is read, and the last ten days of a session-Rule 145-no change of the order of business can ordinarily be made.]

When

may be made to go to.

BUSINESS-ON THE SPEAKER'S TABLE.

motion "After one hour shall have been devoted to reports from committees and resolutions, it shall be in order, pending the consideration or discussion thereof, to entertain a motion that the House do now proceed to dispose of the business on the Speaker's table."-Rule 54. [The "hour"-known as the When morning “morning hour"—is construed to begin from the announcement by the Speaker to the House that reports of committees are in order, and it is not necessary that resolutions shall have been called for. It is an invariable practice, too, to permit a member, upon the expiration of the morning hour, may be to take the floor, even though another may be occupying it,

hour begins.

Floor