How To Behave: A Pocket Manual Of Republican Etiquette, And Guide To Correct Personal Habits Part 14

5. _Commitment._--A motion to commit is made when a question, otherwise admissible, is presented in an objectionable or inconvenient form. If there be no standing committee to which it can be properly submitted, a select committee may be raised for the purpose. It may be amended.

6. _Amendment._--The legitimate use of a motion to amend is to correct or improve the original motion or resolution; but a motion properly before an a.s.sembly may be altered in _any_ way; even so as to turn it entirely from its original purpose, unless some rule or law shall exist to prevent this subversion. An amendment may be amended, but here the process must cease. An amendment must of course be put to vote before the original question. A motion to amend holds the same rank as the previous question and indefinite postponement, and that which is moved first must be put first. It may be superseded, however, by a motion to postpone to a certain day, or a motion to commit.

7. _Orders of the Day._--Subjects appointed for a specified time are called orders of the day, and a motion for them takes precedence of all other business, except a motion to adjourn, or a question of privilege.

8. _Questions of Privilege._--These are questions which involve the rights and privileges of individual members, or of the society or a.s.sembly collectively. They take precedence over all other propositions, except a motion to adjourn.

9. _Questions of Order._--In case of any breach of the rules of the society or body, any member may rise to the point of order, and insist upon its due enforcement; but in case of a difference of opinion whether a rule has been violated or not, the question must be determined before the application of the rule can be insisted upon.

Such a question is usually decided upon by the presiding officer, without debate; but any member may appeal from his decision, and demand a vote of the house on the matter. A question of order is debatable, and the presiding officer, contrary to rule in other cases, may partic.i.p.ate in the discussion.

10. _Reading of Papers._--When papers or doc.u.ments of any kind are laid before a deliberative a.s.sembly, every member has a right to have them read before he can be required to vote upon them. They are generally read by the secretary, on the reading being called for, without the formality of a vote.

11. _Withdrawal of a Motion._--Unless there be a rule to that effect, a motion once before the a.s.sembly can not be withdrawn without a vote of the house, on a motion to allow its withdrawal.

12. _The Suspension of Rules._--When anything is proposed which is forbidden by a special rule, it must be preceded by a motion for the suspension of the rule, which, if there be no standing rule to the contrary, may be carried by a majority of votes; but most deliberative bodies have an established rule on this subject, requiring a fixed proportion of the votes--usually two thirds.

13. _The Motion to Reconsider._--The intention of this is to enable an a.s.sembly to revise a decision found to be erroneous. The time within which a motion to reconsider may be entertained is generally fixed by a special rule; and the general rule is, that it must emanate from some member who voted with the majority. In Congress, a motion to reconsider takes precedence of all other motions, except the motion to adjourn.

8. _Order of Business._

In all permanently organized bodies there should be an order of business, established by a special rule or by-law; but where no such rule or law exists, the president, unless otherwise directed by a vote of the a.s.sembly, arranges the business in such order as he may think most desirable. The following is the order of business of the New York Debating Club, referred to in a previous section. It may be easily so modified as to be suitable for any similar society:

1. Call to order.

2. Calling the roll.

3. Reading the minutes of previous meeting.

4. Propositions for membership.

5. Reports of special committee.

6. Balloting for candidates.

7. Reports of standing committee.

8. Secretary's report.

9. Treasurer's report.

10. Reading for the evening.

11. Recitations for the evening.

12. Candidates initiated.

13. Unfinished business.

14. Debate.

15. New business.

16. Adjournment.

9. _Order of Debate._

1. A member having got the floor, is ent.i.tled to be heard to the end, or till the time fixed by rule has expired; and all interruptions, except a call to order, are not only out of order, but rude in the extreme.

2. A member who temporarily yields the floor to another, is generally permitted to resume as soon as the interruption ceases, but he can not claim to do so as a right.

3. It is neither in order nor in good taste to designate members by name in debate, and they must in no case be directly addressed. Such forms as, "The gentleman who has just taken his seat," or, "The member on the other side of the house," etc., may be made use of to designate persons.

4. Every speaker is bound to confine himself to the question. This rule is, however, very liberally interpreted in most deliberative a.s.semblies.

5. Every speaker is bound to avoid personalities, and to exercise in all respects a courteous and gentlemanly deportment. Principles and measures are to be discussed, and not the motives or character of those who advocate them.[Q]

FOOTNOTE:

[Q] The foregoing rules of order have been mainly condensed from that excellent work, "The American Debater," by James N. McElligott, LL.D., to which the reader is referred for a complete exposition of the whole subject of debating. Published by Ivison and Phinney, New York, and for sale by Fowler and Wells.

XI.

MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS.

These, some will say, are little things. It is true, they are little but it is equally clear that they are necessary things.--_Chesterfield._

I.--REPUBLICAN DISTINCTIONS.

We have defined equality in another place. We fully accept the doctrine as there set forth. We have no respect for mere conventional and arbitrary distinctions. Hereditary t.i.tles command no deference from us. Lords and dukes are ent.i.tled to no respect simply because they are lords and dukes. If they are really _n.o.ble men_, we honor them accordingly. Their t.i.tles are mere social fictions.

True republicanism requires that every man shall have an equal chance--that every man shall be free to become as unequal as he can.

No man should be valued the less or the more on account of his grandfather, his position, his possessions, or his occupation. The MAN should be superior to the accidents of his birth, and should take that rank which is due to his merit.[R]

The error committed by our professedly republican communities consists, not in the recognition of cla.s.ses and grades of rank, but in placing them, as they too often do, on artificial and not on natural grounds. We have had frequent occasion, in the preceding pages, to speak of superiors and inferiors. We fully recognize the relation which these words indicate. It is useless to quarrel with Nature, who has nowhere in the universe given us an example of the absolute, unqualified, dead-level equality which some pseudo-reformers have vainly endeavored to inst.i.tute among men. Such leveling is neither possible nor desirable. Harmony is born of difference, and not of sameness.

We have in our country a cla.s.s of toad-eaters who delight in paying the most obsequious homage to fict.i.tious rank of every kind. A vulgar millionaire of the Fifth Avenue, and a foreign adventurer with a meaningless t.i.tle, are equally objects of their misplaced deference.

Losing sight of their own manhood and self-respect, they descend to the most degrading sycophancy. We have little hope of benefiting them.

They are "joined to their idols; let them alone."

But a much larger cla.s.s of our people are inclined to go to the opposite extreme, and ignore veneration, in its human aspect, altogether. They have no reverence for anybody or anything. This cla.s.s of people will read our book, and, we trust, profit by its well-meant hints. We respect them, though we can not always commend their manners. They have independence and manliness, but fail to accord due respect to the manhood of others. It is for their special benefit that we leave touched with considerable emphasis on the deference due to age and _genuine_ rank, from whatever source derived.

Your townsman, Mr. Dollarmark, has no claim on you for any special token of respect, simply because he inherited half a million, which has grown in his hands to a million and a half, while you can not count half a thousand, or because he lives in his own palatial mansion, and you in a hired cottage; but your neighbor, Mr. Anvil, who, setting out in life, like yourself, without a penny, has ama.s.sed a little fortune by his own unaided exertions, and secured a high social position by his manliness, integrity, and good breeding, is ent.i.tled to a certain deference on your part--a recognition of his merits and his superiority. Mr. Savant, who has gained distinction for himself and conferred honor on his country by his scientific discoveries, and your aged friend Mr. Goodman, who, though a stranger to both wealth and fame, is drawing toward the close of a long and useful life, during which he has helped to build up and give character to the place in which he lives, have, each in his own way, _earned_ the right to some token of deference from those who have not yet reached an equally elevated position.

It is not for birth, or wealth, or occupation, or any other accidental circ.u.mstance, that we ask reverence, but for _inherent n.o.bility wrought out in life_. This is what should give men rank and t.i.tles in a republic.

Your hired man, Patrick, may be your inferior, but it is not because he is your hired man. Another man, who is your _superior_ in every way, may stand in the same business relation to you. He may sell you certain stipulated services for a stipulated amount of money; but you bargain for no deference that your real social position and character do not call for from him. He, and not you, may be ent.i.tled to the "wall side," and to precedence everywhere.

II.--CITY AND COUNTRY.

The words _civil_ and _civilized_ are derived from the Latin _civitas_ (Ital., _citta_), a city, and _polite_, from the Greek [Greek: polis]

(_polis_), a city; because cities are the first to become civilized, or _civil_, and polite, or _polished_ (Latin, _polire_). They are still, as a general rule, the home of the most highly cultivated people, as well as of the rudest and most degraded, and unquestioned arbiters of fashion and social observances. For this reason the rules of etiquette laid down in this and all other works on the subject of manners, are calculated, as the astronomers say, for the meridian of the city. The observances of the country are borrowed from the city, and modified to suit the social condition and wants of the different localities. This must always be borne in mind, and your behavior regulated accordingly. The white or pale yellow gloves, which you must wear during the whole evening at a fashionable evening party in the city, under pain of being set down as unbearably vulgar, would be very absurd appendages at a social gathering at a farm-house in the country. None but a _sn.o.b_ would wear them at such a place. So with other things.

III.--IMPORTED MANNERS.

N. P. Willis says, "We should be glad to see a distinctly American school of good manners, in which all useless etiquette were thrown aside, but every politeness adopted or invented which could promote sensible and easy exchanges of good-will and sociability. Good sense and consideration for others should be the basis of every usage of polite life that is worth regarding. Indeed, we have long thought that our country was old enough to adopt measures and etiquettes of its own, based, like all other politeness, upon benevolence and common sense. To get rid of imported etiquette is the first thing to do for American politeness."