RULES AND RULINGS: SOURCES OF LEGISLATIVE RULES


  Overnight, the committee proposed the following rules based, no doubt,
on the recorded rules of the Michigan Legislative Council. Of the drafting
committee's 3 members two, Knapp and Vineyard, had served in Green Bay.
Within 24 hours after its first meeting, the Council had adopted the rules,
had
considered a resolution "That thirty copies of the Rules be printed
for the use
of the members of the Council", had amended the resolution "by
striking out
'thirty' and inserting 'fifty"', had "accepted" the amendment
and had
"adopted" the resolution. Both "regulations" (today called
"orders of busi-
ness") and "rules" were established:
    REGULATIONS FOR THE DAILY TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS.
      After the journal is read, and the Council is open for business, the
following order
    will govern:
      ist.--Petitions or Memorials to be offered.
      2nd.--Resolutions.
      3rd.--Reports of Committees.
      4th.--Bills, Resolutions and communications on the President's table.
      5th.--Bills and Resolutions ready for a second reading.
      6th.--Bills on their passage.
      7th.--Reports in possession of the Council, which offer grounds for
a bill, are to be
    taken up, that the bill may be ordered in.
      8th.--Bills or other matters before the Council, and unfinished the
preceding day.
      9th.--These matters being despatched, for expediting business, the
general file of bills
    and other papers are then taken up, agreeably to their first introduction
to the Council.
    Acting just as speedily as the Council, the 1836 House adopted regulations
(order of business) and rules at the same time, substituting "speaker"
for
"president" and "house" for "council" where
appropriate. With one impor-
tant difference, the orders of business adopted by the 1836 legislature of
the
Wisconsin Territory are similar to the sequence still followed today. In
1836,
unfinished business from prior calendars was to be handled after completion
of the business on today's calendar; today, unfinished business must be com-
pleted before current business is taken up.
   The Territorial Council adopted 42 rules numbered, in the fashion of the
time, by roman numerals from "I" to "XLII":
    STANDING RULES.
       1. The Council shall choose by ballot one of their own number to occupy
the Chair.
    He shall be styled President of the Council. He shall hold his office
during one session of
    the Council. He shall take the Chair at the hour to which the Council
is adjourned, and
    call the members to order; and, if a quorum be present, he shall direct
the minutes of the
    preceding day to be read, and mistakes, if any, corrected. He shall preserve
order and
    decorum, and shall decide questions of order, subject to an appeal to
the Council. In
    committee of the whole he shall call some member to the chair, and may
debate any
    question before the committee; but such substitution shall not extend
beyond an ad-
    journment. He shall, unless otherwise directed by the Council, appoint
all committees.
    He shall vote on a call of the yeas and nays. In the absence of the President,
the Council
    shall appoint a President pro tem.
    Rule 1 of the 1836 Wisconsin Council is amazing. Not only does it already
 provide for an appeal from a ruling of the Chair, but the words "such
substi-
 tution shall not extend beyond an ajournment" can still be found, without
 change and 150 years later, in Rule 2 (3) of the 1985 Wisconsin Senate and
 Rule 4 (3) of the 1985 Wisconsin Assembly!


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