In such cases the Speaker calls on two members, who come
forth and stand fronting each other before the chair, making a
gangway.
Through this the ayes walk like sheep, the tellers giving
them an accelerating poke when they fail to go on with rapidity.
Thus they are counted, and the noes are counted in the same way. It
seemed to me that it would be very possible in a dishonest
legislator to vote twice on any subject of great interest; but it
may perhaps be the case that there are no dishonest legislators in
the house of Representatives.
According to a list which I obtained, the present number of members
is 173, and there are 63 vacancies occasioned by secession. New
York returns 33 members; Pennsylvania, 25; Ohio, 21; Virginia, 13;
Massachusetts and Indiana, 11; Tennessee and Kentucky, 10; South
Carolina, 6; and so on, till Delaware, Kansas, and Florida return
only 1 each. When the Constitution was framed, Pennsylvania
returned 8, and New York only 6; whereas Virginia returned 10, and
South Carolina 5, From which may be gathered the relative rate of
increase in population of the free-soil States and the slave States.
All these States return two Senators each to the other House - Kansas
sending as many as New York. The work in the House begins at twelve
noon, and is not often carried on late into the evening. Indeed,
this, I think, is never done till toward the end of the session.
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