THE AUSTIN PAPETIS. 283 tioned to discharge the duties of Commissioners of the said Lottery agreeable to this act, and should any of said Commissioners die or refuse to act the Governor shall appoint another in his place '
4. PROTEST AGAINST PASSAGE OF CHARTER Oi' BANK OF MISSOURI 1
The undersigned members of the Legislative Counsel of the Terri- tory of :Missouri being in the Minority on the question to reconsider the vote postponing the Bill to incorporate the Stock holders of the Bank of :Missouri to the 1 •t Monday of Deer 1818 feel it incum- bent upon them as a part of that sacred duty they owe as legislators to themselves, to their Constituents and there Country to declare their dissent to and disapprobation of the proceedings of the Ma- jority of the Legislative _Councel in reviveing in an unpresidented unparliamentary and illegal manner the said Bill to incorporate the Bank of Missouri, and passing the same into an act after it hacl been • regularly layed over and postponed by a vote of the House to iat Monday of Deer 1818 • The undersigned recognise the principle and indeed they lay it down as an axiom that a departure from the established and long tested rules of parliamentary proceedings opens at once the doqr for corruption irregularity and inconsistency, totally anihilates the rights of the minority, and puts it in the power of a corrupt and venal majority to tryumph in their venality without check or re- straint, and to involve the whole proceedings of the Legislature in confusion, for a departure from parliamentary forms in one instance establishes the presedent that they may be disregarded in all the consequence of which would be a Body organised and governed only in conformity to the whims caprices and designing views of each succeeding Legislature an~l the Order, System and dignity which should preside in the Legislative Hall would degenerate and sink into the confusion and inconsistancy of a Town meeting or the assemblage of a l\1ob, where the feeble but perhaps just and reason- able voice of the minority is lost arid overwhelmed in the tumultuous violence of the majority-· The undersigned can therefore recognise no act of the Legislative Council as legal and obligatory in equity and justice which have originated progressed and passed in violation of any of the Rules ·of the Legislative Councel or of any of the acknowledged principles of parliamentary proceedings and they are therefore compelled to protest against the said decision of the Legislative Councel on the question to reconsider the vote postpon- ing said Bill incorporating the Bank of Missouri as unparlia- mentary and illegal and they do hereby enter their solemn protest
• Stephen F. Austin's writing.
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