Note Return to text — Chapter VI · OF MOTIONS TO SUPPRESS.

65. But the previous question may be decided in the affirmative, as well as the negative, that is, that the main question shall now be put; in which case, that question is to be put immediately, without any further debate, and in the form in which it then exists. This operation of the previous question, when decided affirmatively, has led to the use of it for the purpose of suppressing debate on a principal question, and coming to a vote upon it immediately; and this is ordinarily the only object of the previous question as made use of in the legislative assemblies of the United States.[Footnote 10] The operation of a negative decision is different in different assemblies; in some, as, for example, in the house of representatives of Congress, it operates to dispose of the principal or main question by suppressing or removing it from before the house for the day; but in others, as in the house of representatives of Massachusetts, and the house of assembly of New York (in the former by usage only, and in the latter by a rule), the effect of a negative decision of the previous question is to leave the main question under debate for the residue of the sitting, unless sooner disposed of by taking the question, or in some other manner.