" The
messenger was to be announced at the door and should communicate his
message to the presiding officer. This in turn was rejected by the
form-admiring Senate. Finally the Senate sent notice to the House that
if their members should bring up a bill or message as originally
provided, they would be received as first promised; but if they chose
to send it by another agent he must hand the paper to the secretary
of the Senate, who would deliver it to the President of the Senate.
The House chose a messenger as their agent; the Senate soon followed
the plain example; and thus a simple custom was inaugurated which has
held to the present day.
The wisdom of providing some arrangement for a conference in case of
disagreement between the two Houses was manifest several times in the
first session. Conferences were held on no less than nine of the
ninety-five measures passed. It is impossible, in the absence of
reported debates, to ascertain the attitude of the Senate toward the
other branch. Maclay, the garrulous Senator from Pennsylvania, whose
diary is invaluable during these closed-door sessions, mentions several
instances in which the Senate coerced the House by threatening to hold
up appropriation bills.
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