Robert\'s Rules of Order - Henry M. Robert
ROBERT'S RULES OF ORDER
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Pocket Manual
of
Rules Of Order
For
Deliberative Assemblies
---
Part I.
Rules of Order.
A Compendium of Parliamentary Law, based upon the rules
and practice of Congress.
Part II.
Organization and Conduct Of Business.
A simple explanation of the methods of organizing and
conducting the business of societies, conventions,
and other deliberative assemblies.
By Major Henry M. Robert,
Corps of Engineers, U.S.A.
Chicago:
S. C. Griggs & Company.
1876.
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---
Copyright, A.D. 1876,
by
H. M. Robert
---
Printed by Burdick & Armitage, Milwaukee
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PREFACE.
There appears to be much needed a work on parliamentary law, based, in
its general principles, upon the rules and practice of Congress, and
adapted, in its details, to the use of ordinary societies. Such a work
should give, not only the methods of organizing and conducting the
meetings, the duties of the officers and the names of the ordinary
motions, but in addition, should state in a systematic manner, in
reference to each motion, its object and effect; whether it can be
amended or debated; if debatable, the extent to which it opens the main
question to debate; the circumstances under which it can be made, and
what other motions can be made while it is pending. This Manual has
been prepared with a view to supplying the above information in a
condensed and systematic manner, each rule being either complete in
itself, or giving references to every section that in any way qualifies
it, so that a stranger to the work can refer to any special subject with
safety.
To aid in quickly referring to as many as possible of the rules relating
to each motion, there is placed immediately before the Index, a Table of
Rules, which enables one, without turning a page, to find the answers to
some two hundred questions. The Table of Rules is so arranged as to
greatly assist the reader in systematizing his knowledge of
parliamentary law.
The second part is a simple explanation of the common methods of
conducting business in ordinary
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meetings, in which the motions are classified according to their uses,
and those used for a similar purpose compared together. This part is
expressly intended for that large class of the community, who are
unfamiliar with parliamentary usages and are unwilling to devote much
study to the subject, but would be glad with little labor to learn
enough to enable them to take part in meetings of deliberative
assemblies without fear of being out of order. The object of Rules of
Order in deliberative assemblies, is to assist an assembly to accomplish
the work for which it was designed, in the best possible manner. To do
this, it is necessary to somewhat restrain the individual, as the right
of an individual in any community to do what he pleases, is incompatible
with the best interests of the whole. Where there is no law, but every
man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real
liberty. Experience has shown the importance of definiteness in the
law; and in this country, where customs are so slightly established and
the published manuals of parliamentary practice so conflicting, no
society should attempt to conduct business without having adopted some
work upon the subject, as the authority in all cases not covered by
their own rules.
It has been well said by one of the greatest of English writers on
parliamentary law: "Whether these forms be in all cases the most
rational or not is really not of so great importance. It is much more
material that there should be a rule to go by, than what that rule is,
that there may be a uniformity of proceeding in business, not subject to
the caprice of the chairman, or captiousness of the members. It is very
material that order, decency and regularity be preserved in a dignified
public body."
H. M. R.
December, 1875.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Introduction. Page.
Parliamentary Law .................................................. 9
Plan of the Work .................................................. 12
'' Part I .................................................... 13
'' Part II ................................................... 14
Definitions ....................................................... 15
Part I.--Rules of Order.
Art. I.--Introduction of Business.
Sec. 1. How introduced ................................................. 17
2. Obtaining the floor ............................................ 17
3. What precedes debate on a question ............................. 19
4. What motions to be in writing, and
how they shall be divided ...................................... 20
5. Modification of a motion by the mover .......................... 21
Art. II.--General Classification of Motions.
Sec. 6. Principal or Main motions ...................................... 22
7. Subsidiary or Secondary motions ................................ 22
8. Incidental motions ............................................. 23
9. Privileged motions ............................................. 24
Art. III.--Motions and their Order of Precedence.
Privileged Motions.
10. To fix the time to which to adjourn ........................... 25
11. Adjourn ....................................................... 26
12. Questions of privilege ........................................ 28
13. Orders of the day ............................................. 28
Incidental Motions.
14. Appeal [Questions of Order] ................................... 30
15. Objection to the consideration of a
question ...................................................... 32
16. Reading papers ................................................ 33
17. Withdrawal of a motion ........................................ 34
18. Suspension of the Rules ....................................... 34
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Subsidiary Motions.
Sec. 19. Lie on the table .............................................. 35
20. Previous Question ............................................. 37
21. Postpone to a certain day ..................................... 40
22. Commit [or Re-commit] ......................................... 41
23. Amend ......................................................... 43
24. Postpone indefinitely ......................................... 46
Miscellaneous Motions.
25. Filling blanks, and Nominations ............................... 47
26. Renewal of a motion ........................................... 48
27. Reconsideration ............................................... 49
Art. IV.--Committees and Informal Action.
Sec. 28. Committees .................................................... 54
29. '' Form of their Reports .............................. 58
30. '' Reception '' .............................. 59
31. '' Adoption '' .............................. 61
32. Committee of the Whole ........................................ 61
33. Informal consideration of a question .......................... 65
Art. V.--Debate and Decorum.
Sec. 34. Debate ........................................................ 66
35. Undebatable questions and those opening
the main question to debate ................................... 68
36. Decorum in debate ............................................. 71
37. Closing debate, methods of .................................... 72
Art. VI.--Vote.
Sec. 38. Voting, various modes of ...................................... 74
39. Motions requiring more than a
majority vote ................................................. 80
Art. VII.--Officers and the Minutes.
Sec. 40. Chairman or President ......................................... 81
41. Clerk, or Secretary, and the Minutes .......................... 85
Art. VIII.--Miscellaneous.
Sec. 42. Session ....................................................... 90
43. Quorum ........................................................ 93
44. Order of business ............................................. 94
45. Amendment of the Rules of Order ............................... 97
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Part II.-Organization and Conduct of Business.
Art. IX.--Organization and Meetings.
Sec. 46. An Occasional or Mass Meeting.
(a) Organization .............................................. 99
(b) Adoption of resolutions .................................. 101
(c) Committee on '' .................................. 102
(d) Additional Officers ...................................... 105
47. A Convention or Assembly of
Delegates .................................................... 106
48. A Permanent Society.
(a) First meeting ............................................. 108
(b) Second meeting ............................................ 111
49. Constitutions, By-Laws, Rules of
Order and Standing Rules ..................................... 115
Art. X.--Officers and Committees.
Sec. 50. President or Chairman ........................................ 119
51. Secretary, or Clerk, and the Minutes ......................... 120
52. Treasurer .................................................... 123
53. Committees ................................................... 127
Art. XI--Introduction of Business.
Sec. 54. Introduction of Business ..................................... 129
Art. XII.--Motions.
Sec. 55. Motions classified according to their
object ....................................................... 131
56. To Amend or modify.
(a) Amend .................................................... 133
(5) Commit ................................................... 134
57. To Defer action.
(a) Postpone to a certain time ............................... 134
(b) Lie on the table ......................................... 135
58. To Suppress Debate.
(a) Previous Question ........................................ 136
(b) An Order limiting or closing
debate ................................................... 137
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Sec. 59. To Suppress the question.
(a) Objection to its consideration ........................... 138
(b) Postpone indefinitely .................................... 139
(c) Lie on the table ......................................... 139
60. To Consider a question the second time
(a) Reconsider ............................................... 140
61. Order and Rules.
(a) Orders of the day ........................................ 142
(b) Special orders ........................................... 143
(c) Suspension of the rules .................................. 144
(d) Questions of order ....................................... 144
(e) Appeal ................................................... 145
62. Miscellaneous.
(a) Reading of papers ........................................ 146
(b) Withdrawal of a motion ................................... 146
(c) Questions of privilege ................................... 146
63. To close a meeting.
(a) Fix the time to which to adjourn ......................... 147
(b) Adjourn .................................................. 147
64. Order of Precedence of motions ............................... 149
Art. XIII.--Debate.
Sec. 65. Rules of speaking in debate .................................. 150
66. Undebatable questions and those that
open the main question to debate ............................. 151
Art. XIV.--Miscellaneous.
Sec. 67. Forms of stating and putting questions ....................... 154
68. Motions requiring a two-thirds vote
for their adoption ........................................... 154
69. Unfinished business .......................................... 154
70. Session ...................................................... 155
71. Quorum ....................................................... 156
72. Order of Business ............................................ 156
73. Amendment of Constitutions, By-Laws
and Rules of Order ........................................... 157
Legal Rights of Deliberative Assemblies ............................ 158
Table of Rules Relating to Motions ................................. 166
Index .............................................................. 169
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INTRODUCTION.
Parliamentary Law.
Parliamentary Law refers originally to the customs and rules of
conducting business in the English Parliament; and thence to the customs
and rules of our own legislative assemblies. In England these customs
and usages of Parliament form a part of the unwritten law of the land,
and in our own legislative bodies they are of authority in all cases
where they do not conflict with existing rules or precedents.
But as a people we have not the respect which the English have for
customs and precedents, and are always ready for innovations which we
think are improvements, and hence changes have been and are being
constantly made in the written rules which our legislative bodies have
found best to adopt. As each house adopts its own rules, it results
that the two houses of the same legislature do not always agree in their
practice; even in Congress the order of precedence of motions is not
the same in both houses, and the Previous Question is admitted in the
House of Representatives, but not in the Senate. As a consequence of
this, the exact method of conducting business in any particular
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legislative body is to be obtained only from the Legislative Manual of
that body.
The vast number of societies, political, literary, scientific,
benevolent and religious, formed all over the land, though not
legislative, are still deliberative in their character, and must have
some system of conducting business, and some rules to govern their
proceedings, and are necessarily subject to the common parliamentary law
where it does not conflict with their own special rules. But as their
knowledge of parliamentary law has been obtained from the usages in this
country, rather than from the customs of Parliament, it has resulted
that these societies have followed the customs of our own legislative
bodies, and our people have thus been educated under a system of
parliamentary law which is peculiar to this country, and yet so well
established as to supersede the English parliamentary law as the common
law of ordinary deliberative assemblies.
The practice of the National House of Representatives should have the
same force in this country as the usages of the House of Commons have in
England, in determining the general principles of the common
parliamentary law of the land; but it does not follow that in every
matter of detail the rules of Congress can be appealed to as the common
law governing every deliberative assembly. In these matters of detail,
the rules of each House of Congress are adapted to their own peculiar
wants, and are of no force whatever in other assemblies.
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But upon all great parliamentary questions, such as what motions can be
made, what is their order of precedence, which can be debated, what is
their effect, etc., the common law of the land is settled by the
practice of the U. S. House of Representatives, and not by that of the
English Parliament, the U. S. Senate, or any other body.
While in extreme cases there is no difficulty in deciding the question
as to whether the practice of Congress determines the common
parliamentary law, yet between these extremes there must necessarily be
a large number of doubtful cases upon which there would be great
difference of opinion, and to avoid the serious difficulties always
arising from a lack of definiteness in the law, every deliberative
assembly should imitate our legislative bodies in adopting Rules of
Order for the conduct of their business.* [Where the practice of
Congress differs from that of Parliament upon a material point, the
common law of this country follows the practice of Congress. Thus in
every American deliberative assembly having no rules for conducting
business, the motion to adjourn would be decided to be undebatable, as
in Congress, the English parliamentary law to the contrary
notwithstanding; so if the Previous Question were negatived, the debate
upon the subject would continue as in Congress, whereas in Parliament
the subject would be immediately dismissed; so too the Previous Question
could be moved when there was before the assembly a motion either to
amend, to commit, or to postpone definitely or indefinitely, just as in
Congress, notwithstanding that, according to English parliamentary law,
the Previous Question could not be moved under such circumstances.
When the rules of the two Houses of Congress conflict, the H. R. rules
are of greater authority than those of the Senate in determining the
parliamentary law of the country, just as the practice of the House of
Commons, and not the House of Lords, determines the parliamentary law of
England. For instance, though the Senate rules do not allow the motion
for the Previous Question, and make the motion to postpone indefinitely
take precedence of every other subsidiary motion [Sec. 7] except to lie on
the table, yet the parliamentary law of the land follows the practice of
the House of Representatives, in recognizing the Previous Question as a
legitimate motion, and assigning to the very lowest rank the motion to
postpone indefinitely. But in matters of detail, the rules of the House
of Representatives are adapted to the peculiar wants of that body, and
are of no authority in any other assembly. No one for instance would
accept the following H. R. rules as common parliamentary law in this
country: That the chairman, in case of disorderly conduct, would have
the power to order the galleries to be cleared; that the ballot could
not be used in electing the officers of an assembly; that any fifteen
members would be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members
and make them pay the expenses of the messengers sent after them; that
all committees not appointed by the Chair would have to be appointed by
ballot, and if the required number were not elected by a majority vote,
then a second ballot must be taken in which a plurality of votes would
prevail; that each member would be limited in debate upon any question,
to one hour; that a day's notice must be given of the introduction of a
bill, and that before its passage it must be read three times, and that
without the special order of the assembly it cannot be read twice the
same day. These examples are sufficient to show the absurdity of the
idea that the rules of Congress in all things determine the common
parliamentary law.]
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Plan of the Work.
This Manual is prepared to partially meet this want in deliberative
assemblies that are not legislative in their character. It has been
made sufficiently complete to answer for the rules of an assembly, until
they see fit to adopt special rules conflicting with and superseding any
of its rules of detail, such as the Order of Business [Sec. 44], etc. Even
in matters of detail the practice of Congress is followed, wherever it
is not manifestly unsuited to ordinary assemblies, and in such cases, in
Part I, there will be found, in a foot note, the Congressional practice.
In the important matters referred to above, in which the practice of the
House of
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Representatives settles the common parliamentary law of the country,
this Manual strictly conforms to such practice.* [On account of the
party lines being so strictly drawn in Congress, no such thing as
harmony of action is possible, and it has been found best to give a bare
majority in the House of Representatives (but not in the Senate) the
power to take final action upon a question without allowing of any
discussion. In ordinary societies more regard should be paid to the
rights of the minority, and a two-thirds vote be required, as in this
Manual [Sec. 39], for sustaining an objection to the introduction of a
question, or for adopting a motion for the Previous Question, or for
adopting an order closing or limiting debate. In this respect the
policy of the Pocket Manual is a mean between those of the House and
Senate. But some societies will doubtless find it advantageous to
follow the practice of the H. R., and others will prefer that of the
Senate. It requires a majority, according to the Pocket Manual, to
order the yeas and nays, which is doubtless best in the majority of
assemblies; but in all bodies in which the members are responsible to
their constituents, a much smaller number should have this power. In
Congress it requires but a one-fifth vote, and in some bodies a single
member can require a vote to be taken by yeas and nays. Any society
adopting this Manual, should make its rules govern them in all cases to
which they are applicable, and in which they are not inconsistent with
the By-Laws and Rules of Order of the society. Their own rules should
include all of the cases where it is desirable to vary from the rules in
the Manual, and especially should provide for a Quorum [Sec. 43], and an
Order of Business [Sec. 44], as suggested in these rules.]
The Manual is divided into two distinct parts, each complete in itself.
[The table at the end contains a large amount of information in a
tabular form, for easy reference in the midst of the business of a
meeting.]
Part I contains a set of Rules of Order systematically arranged, as
shown in the Table of Contents. Each one of the forty-five sections is
complete in itself, so that no one unfamiliar with the work can be
misled in examining any particular subject. Cross references are freely
used to save repeating
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from other sections, and by this means the reader, without using the
index, is referred to everything in the Rules of Order that has any
bearing upon the subject he is investigating. The references are by
sections, and for convenience the numbers of the sections are placed at
the top of each page. The motions are arranged under the usual classes,
in their order of rank, but in the index under the word motion will be
found an alphabetical list of all the motions generally used. In
reference to each motion there is stated:
(1) Of what motions it takes precedence (that is, what motions may,
be pending, and yet it be in order to make this motion).
(2) To what motions it yields (that is, what motions may be made
while this motion is pending).
(3) Whether it is debatable or not.
(4) Whether it can be amended or not.
(5) In case the motion can have no subsidiary motion applied to it,
the fact is stated [see Adjourn, Sec. 11, for an example: the
meaning is, that the particular motion to adjourn, for example,
cannot be laid on the table, postponed, committed or amended].
(6) The effect of the motion if adopted.
(7) The form of stating the question when peculiar, and whatever other
information is necessary to enable one to understand the question.
Part II. While the second part covers the entire ground of the first
part, it does so in a much simpler manner, being intended for those who
have
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no acquaintance with the usages of deliberative assemblies. It also
explains the method of organizing an assembly or society, and conducting
a meeting. The motions are treated on an entirely different plan, being
classified according to the objects for which they are used, and those
of each class compared together so that the reader may obtain the best
motion for the accomplishment of any given object. It omits the
complications of parliamentary law, and has but few references to the
rules of Congress, or those in this Manual. In order to make it
complete in itself, it was necessary to repeat a few pages from the
first part.
Definitions.
In addition to the terms defined above (taking precedence of, yielding
to and applying to, see p. 14), there are other terms that are liable to
be misunderstood, to which attention should he called.