Such is Parliamentary Law; and Mr. Jefferson has answered in advance
the possible objection, that this is English and not American. After
saying, in his preface to the “Manual,” that the Senate has given to
these rules “the sanction of their approbation,” he announces “the
law of proceedings in the Senate as composed of the precepts of the
Constitution, the regulations of the Senate, and, where these are
silent, of _the rules of Parliament_.” Such, according to him, is
the law of our proceedings. The “Manual” which he presents he hopes
others may fill up, “_till a code of rules_ shall be formed for the
use of the Senate, the effects of which may be accuracy in business,
economy of time, order, uniformity, and impartiality.” The last word is
“_impartiality_,” which, doubtless, is a main object to be secured.
Any one disposed to neglect these rules will find a warning from Mr.
Jefferson. In his opening chapter he quotes these words from the famous
Speaker Onslow:--
“That these forms, as instituted by our ancestors, operated as a
check and control on the actions of the majority, and that they
were in many instances a shelter and _protection to the minority
against the attempts of power_.”
Mr. Jefferson follows this quotation by declaring “the forms and rules
of proceeding” to be “the only weapons by which the minority can defend
themselves,” and by which “the weaker party can be protected from those
irregularities and abuses which these forms were intended to check, and
which the wantonness of power is but too often apt to suggest to large
and successful majorities.”
Thus is the parliamentary rule which forbids a person unfriendly to the
business of the committee, whatever it may be, whether bill or inquiry,
from serving on the committee, one of those inhibitions by which public
business is promoted, by which impartiality is secured, and especially
by which a minority is shielded against the wantonness of power.
“The Congressional Globe” makes it easy to apply what has been said to
several of this Committee. Unless the law, as illustrated by ancient
cases, and adopted by Mr. Jefferson, is entirely neglected, unless
the rule so frequently enunciated is set at defiance or treated as a
sham, there are at least three serving on the Committee in violation
of Parliamentary Law. In undertaking to serve, they were undoubtedly
oblivious of the time-honored requirement, or did not appreciate its
stringency.
Not only every Senator, but the whole country has an immeasurable
interest in the preservation of those rules by which what Mr. Jefferson
justly calls “the wantonness of power” is restrained, and minorities
are protected against majorities. Any shock to them, as in the present
case, becomes a precedent by which liberty and justice suffer. As a
Senator appearing before this Committee at their request, I deem it my
duty to file this Protest, in the sincere hope, that, whatever may be
the result of the present inquiry, the open violation of Parliamentary
Law in the formation and constitution of the Committee will not be
permitted to become a precedent hereafter. When law is sacrificed,
individuals may for a moment seem to triumph, but it is at the cost of
a great safeguard for the good of all.