Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/239

Rh Mr. :Did not the senator from Missouri [Mr. Vest] offer an amendment?


 * As I understand, he moved to refer the subject to the Committee on Revolutionary Claims.

pro tempore: Does the Chair understand that the senator from Missouri has offered an amendment?

Mr : Yes, sir; I move to refer the matter to the Committee on Revolutionary Claims.

Mr : Let the resolution be reported.

The acting secretary read the resolution.

The pro tempore: The senator from Missouri offers an amendment, that the subject be referred to the standing Committee on Revolutionary Claims. The question is on the amendment of the senator from Missouri. [Putting the question.] The noes appear to have it.

Mr. called for the yeas and nays, and they were ordered and taken.

Mr. [after having voted in the negative]: I have voted inadvertently. I am paired with the senator from Alabama [Mr. Pugh]. Were he present he would have voted "yea," as I have voted "nay." I withdraw my vote.

Mr. : I am paired with the senator from West Virginia [Mr. Davis], but as I understand he would vote "nay" on this question, I vote "nay."

Mr. : I am paired with the senator from Mississippi [Mr. Lamar].

The result was announced—yeas 22, nays 31. So the motion was not agreed to.

The pro tempore: The question recurs on the adoption of the resolution.

Mr. : Is it in order for me to move the reference of the subject to the Committee on the Judiciary?

The pro tempore: It is in order to move to refer the resolution to the Committee on the Judiciary, the Chair understands.

Mr. : Then I make a motion that the resolution be sent to the Committee on the Judiciary. I would state that I voted with some regret and hesitancy upon the motion of the senator from Missouri [Mr. Vest] to refer this matter to the Committee on Revolutionary Claims. My regret was owing to the fact that I do not wish even to seem to treat a subject of this character in a spirit of levity, or to indicate the slightest disrespect by such a reference, to those whose opinions upon this subject differ essentially from my own. I cast the vote because I considered it would be taking the subject virtually away from the consideration of congress at its present session. I do, however, hold that there is no necessity for the creation of a special committee to attend to this subject. The Committee on the Judiciary has within the last few years, upon many occasions, attempted to deal with it. Since you, sir, and I have been members of that committee—

Mr. : Mr. President—