s shown above), any one can call up the
motion to reconsider and have it acted upon--excepting that when its
effect extends beyond the meeting at which the motion was made, no one
but the mover can call it up at that meeting. But the reconsideration
of an Incidental [Sec. 8] or Subsidiary [Sec. 7]

=== Page 52 ============================================================

motion shall be immediately acted upon, as otherwise it would prevent
action on the main question.

The Effect of the adoption of this motion is to place before the
assembly the original question in the exact position it occupied before
it was voted upon; consequently no one can debate the question
reconsidered who had previously exhausted his right of debate [Sec. 34] on
that question; his only resource is to discuss the question while the
motion to reconsider is before the assembly.

When a vote taken under the operation of the previous question [Sec. 20] is
reconsidered, the question is then divested of the previous question,
and is open to debate and amendment, provided the previous question had
been exhausted [see latter part of Sec. 20] by votes taken on all the
questions covered by it, before the motion to reconsider was made.

A reconsideration requires only a majority vote, regardless of the vote
necessary to adopt the motion reconsidered. [For reconsidering in
committee see Sec. 28].

Note On Reconsider.--In the English Parliament a vote once taken
cannot be reconsidered, but in our Congress it is allowed to move a
reconsideration of the vote on the same or succeeding day, and after the
close of the last day for making the motion, any one can call up the
motion to reconsider, so that this motion cannot delay action more than
two days, and the effect

=== Page 53 ============================================================

of the motion, if not acted upon, terminates with the session. There
seems to be no reason or good precedent for permitting merely two
persons, by moving a reconsideration, to suspend for any length of time
all action under resolutions adopted by the assembly, and yet where the
delay is very short the advantages of reconsideration overbalance the
evils.

Where a permanent society has meetings weekly or monthly, and usually
only a small proportion of the society is present, it seems best to
allow a reconsideration to hold over to another meeting, so that the
society may have notice of what action is about to be t