How a Bill May be Passed by Apoplexy

A Daily Missouri Republican article, titled “How a Bill May be Passed by Apoplexy,” reports on the March 7, 1849, passage of an appropriation to the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad in the Senate of Virginia. The senate voted to pass the bill “Authorising a subscription for the Commonwealth to the stock of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad Company” on March 6, 1849, but the next day opponents of the bill moved to reconsider it. The motion ended up being outvoted, but one senator told reporters that if it had looked as though the bill were going to be reconsidered, he would have thrown “himself back as if seized with apoplexy,” which would hopefully cause enough confusion for the senate to be adjourned for the day.