"Owing to the fact that we could not transact business under the
rules, all business was done under unanimous consent or under
propositions to suspend the rules upon the two Mondays in each
month on which suspensions were allowed." As a two-thirds
majority was necessary to suspend the rules, any considerable
minority had a veto power.
The standing committees, whose ostensible purpose was to prepare
business for consideration, were characterized as legislative
cemeteries. Charles B. Lore of Delaware, referring to the
situation during the previous session, said: "The committees were
formed, they met in their respective committee rooms day after
day, week after week, working up the business which was committed
to them by this House, and they reported to this House 8290
bills. They came from the respective committees, and they were
consigned to the calendars of this House, which became for them
the tomb of the Capulets; most of them were never heard of
afterward. From the Senate there were 2700 bills.... Nine tenths
of the time of the committees of the Forty-eighth Congress was
wasted. We met week after week, month after month, and labored
over the cases prepared, and reported bills to the House. They
were put upon the calendars and there were buried, to be brought
in again and again in succeeding Congresses."
William D. Kelley of Pennsylvania bluntly declared: "No
legislation can be effectually originated outside the Committee
on Appropriations, unless it be a bill which will command
unanimous consent or a stray bill that may get a two-thirds vote,
or a pension bill.
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