Official proceedings of the National Democratic convention, held at New York, July 4-9, 1868.: Reported by George Wakeman, official reporter of the Convention.

OFFICIAL PIOCEEDINGS OF THE
Mr. MALONY, of Illinois.- Mr. President: I have a proposition to make,a motion to submit to the Convention. My motion is this: That every gentleman who has credentials entitling him to a seat on this floor shall be en.
titled to represent, by vote and voice, the district that in part sent him here.
Applause, and cries of "Take your seat!" and "Order!"
The PRESIDENT.- The gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Malony), if the Chair
understands his proposition, moves that each delegate shall have a right to
vote as he sees fit upon each nomination. The rule already adopted by the
Convention is this: That when the nominations are made, each delegation is
to vote through its chairman. That is now the rule of the Convention. The
motion, therefore, of the gentleman from Illinois is a motion to change the
rules of the Convention and the order of its proceedings. This can be done
only upon one day's notice, if any objections are made to such change. More
than that, the Chair will state that it understands (and I think in every Convention I have attended), when the question has been raised touching the
votes of the delegates, it has always been decided that each delegation has a
right to decide for itself how it would act as a whole. That was the decision
of the Convention which met in Baltimore.
A DELEGATE from California.- I object to the proposed change.
Mr. MALOXY. - DO I understand the Chair, then, to decide that I, who
differ from the expressed vote of the chairman of the Illinois delegation, must
permit his vote to be taken here and not mine?
The PRESIDENT.- The rule already adopted by the Convention will be read
by the Secretary, whose voice is so much clearer than my own, that the Convention will better understand it than if I state it.
Mr. BAYARD, of Delaware.- I understand the rule of the Convention to be
that the chairman is to announce the vote of each delegation.
The PRESIDENT. -It is.
Mr. BAYARD. -Does that involve the principle that individual members
are to be here as mere agents of the majority and not of the people they represent? I think not. I suppose this to be a deliberative body, as much so
as is the House of Representatives; and I should think it just as rational
that a majority of the members of the House of Representatives should undertake to control the individual opinions of the representativ'es, as that a
majority of a delegation should undertake here to control the individual
opinion of any member of this Convention. Such delegation is no longer a
representative of the sentiment of the people of the State, if such a principle
Is permitted to govern its action. It would be nothing more than a mode by
which faction and personal combinations might override public sentiment.
The Clerk then read the rule already adopted by the Convention,
as follows,
Resolved, That, in casting their votes for President and Vice-President, each
chairman of each delegation shall rise in his place and name how the delegation votes.
Mr. CLYMER. -Mr. President, this Convention adopted the rules which
governed the Convention at Chicago; that Convention adopted the rules of
the Conventions which sat at Charleston and at Baltimore. At Charleston
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