Country. Business. The reply of the Yuan to the National Assembly on December 23, the second year of the Republic of China is as follows:

“…… In accordance with the provisions of Article 19 of the Constitution of the National Assembly and Article 14 of the Organic Law of the National Assembly, the power of interrogation is one of the functions and powers of the House of Representatives, and is not one of the functions and powers of the Parliament. The General Practice of the Organic Law of the National Assembly and the Law of the House of Representatives is in fact the present practice of the two houses, and there is no such thing as a person who can be questioned indiscriminately without going through this formality.

"It is hereby stated that there is not enough quorum for the two Houses to meet, and that all the right of question of the former House cannot be raised because of the inability to meet. ……

"On November 13, the Speakers of the two houses announced that the agenda of the two houses had been suspended since November 14 on the grounds that there were not enough members of the two houses to meet and could not hold a meeting. How can a letter of interpellation be submitted after the Speaker of the House of Representatives has announced that the agenda has been suspended? In addition, the fact that the interpellation was made on the same day occurred at a meeting of the existing members of the two houses, and that the interrogatory, which was within the functions and powers of the House of Lords of the Law, was not permitted by the provisions of the Constitution, the Organic Law of the National Assembly, and the Act of the House of Representatives.

"Politics. For the sake of respect for the National Assembly, the Government shall not be obliged to answer questions illegally raised by members who do not have a quorum. However, there is no doubt that the letters of interrogation should be examined, and the certificates and badges of the Kuomintang members should be recovered, and the chief of the interior should be ordered to check the lawful alternate candidates for the current term and fill the sections in the same amount, so as to avoid misunderstanding.

"In the order of the President of November 4, it was stated that this move was for the purpose of saving the country from peril and alleviating the suffering of the people, and the people were informed of the details of the situation; The act of constituting civil strife with a majority of parliamentarians is an extraordinary conjure, and the special chamber law does not provide for the explicit handling of the matter, that is, there is no such precedent in other countries. Therefore, on the day of the order, according to the telegram from the governors and civil affairs chiefs of the southeastern provinces, the citizens cheered and celebrated with their hands.

"The claims made by Congressman Zhang Qimi and others that the whole country is terrified and the people's hearts are in turmoil are alarmist and true. And now the Minister of Internal Affairs has approved the uniform method for the investigation of the alternate electees, and ordered the provinces to handle it in accordance with the law; Congressman Zheng Yuyi and others have claimed that there is a need for a National Assembly for the Republic of China, which is particularly suspicious of mistakes. In short, by order of the President, I have solemnly declared that our holy Congress will no longer be held hostage by those who encourage civil strife, with a view to consolidating a true republic and proclaiming the true will of the people.

The members of the council were able to understand this meaning deeply, and of course they were relieved to be skeptical. In addition to writing to the President of the Senate, the President of the House of Representatives shall be requested to convey the letter to the current members of the House of Council. ”

avoided answering the questions raised by the parliamentarians, vigorously denied the parliamentarians the right to question, and did his best to praise Yuan Shikai's ability to sing the praises of virtue, so that this "first-rate talent cabinet" was even more discredited.

Of course, Yuan Shikai didn't want to restore the Congress, and he didn't want to bear the notoriety of dissolving the Congress alone, so he thought of convening a **** to solve the problem.

Originally, Yuan Shikai accommodated many politicians who had no status and no official position and were not members of Congress, and his nature was a bit non-donkey and non-horse, but after Yuan Shikai was determined to strangle the Congress, **** came in handy.

The composition is sent by the president of ten people, the state. Business. The Yuan sent four people, one person from each ministry and two people from each province.

Yuan Shikai sent Li Jingxi, Liang Dunyan, Fan Zengxiang, Cai Yi, Baoxi, Yang Du, Zhao Weixi, Rao Hanxiang, Yang Shiqi, and Ma Liang.

Initially, Yuan Shikai planned to designate Yang Du as the **** speaker and Gu Ao as the secretary general, but when he was about to publish, an old friend of Yuan, Li Jingxi, went to Beijing.

Li Jingxi was the leading provincial governor in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, and he played a leading role in the joint petition for the early constitution and the convening of the National Assembly. Yuan Shikai himself was born as a superintendent, and he valued those who had been superintendents of the Qing Dynasty the most. Therefore, as soon as Li Jingxi arrived in Beijing, Yuan withdrew the order that had been issued to send Yang Du as the **** speaker, and reappointed Li Jingxi as the speaker.

On December 15, the second year of the Republic of China, 69 **** parliamentarians gathered at Xinhua Gate, and were introduced by Premier Xiong Xiling and Minister of Internal Affairs Zhu Qichao into Zhongnanhai Huairen Hall to congratulate President Yuan.

In the afternoon of the same day, **** held an opening ceremony in the Chengguang Hall of Beihai Tuancheng. In his opening speech, Speaker Li Jingxi described the nature of ****.

He said: "What we are paying attention to now is the rule of man, not the rule of law...... There is no rule for the formation of this association, so it is only an advisory body in nature, with the right to consent, and the power to implement it is in the government. Prefecture. …… The president only takes the salvation of the country as the premise, and does not have the slightest political opinion, although we cannot represent the people, we also have our due duty. ”

At this time, there was no possibility of a meeting of the Congress, so the governor of Guangdong, Longji Optoelectronics, asked Yuan Shikai to replace the Congress with ****. Then, Yuan Shikai instructed the military and civilian governors of the 19 provinces to jointly issue a telegram advocating the dissolution of the National Assembly.

The reason for the telegram calling for the dissolution of the National Assembly was that the National Assembly had been in session for seven months and had achieved nothing, so the remaining members of the National Assembly should be dismissed.

According to the above two electricity, Yuan consulted **** to determine whether it was possible to implement it. At the same time, the so-called National Salvation Plan was proposed, which included two matters: the repatriation of members of the National Assembly and the bill to amend the treaty.

His reason was that the Congress was unable to exercise its powers due to the lack of numbers, and the bill had been submitted to the Congress before the amendment bill, but the Congress had shelved it again and again, so it was now submitted to the Congress for discussion.

On December 29, **** held its first meeting to discuss the "National Salvation Plan", and the parliamentarians did not dare to pretend to be the legislature, so the discussion could not be fruitful.

In the end, it was decided to set up a 15-member review committee, with Cai Ye as the chief examiner and Sun Yuyun as the examiner, and handed it over to the review committee for discussion.

On January 2, the third year of the Republic of China, the 15-member review meeting was held, and everyone still thought that these were two difficult problems and it was not easy to make an article. But it can't be handed in, so it is recommended that the government. The government has set up a separate "law-making organ" to discuss the issue of adding and amending the law. As for the dissolution of the National Assembly, the resolution recommends a policy. The government and the members of Congress shall be suspended immediately and given funds or not by the government. The government is self-determined, and the decision to return home is self-determined by the parliamentarians.

On January 10, **** petitioned President Yuan for implementation according to the opinions of the review committee.

On the same day, Yuan ordered the dissolution of the National Assembly according to the second bill of ****. In this way, Yuan Shikai's wish to bring down the parliament was finally achieved.

The first congress of the Republic of China, from its establishment to its dissolution by Yuan Shikai, although the time was not very long, but it left a strong mark in history. In particular, the efforts and struggles to maintain the republic can be said to have written a chapter that can be sung and cried.

Although, this first session of the National Assembly, from the selection of deputies to the deliberations and operation of the two sessions, has been full of controversy and accusations.

There is an article about the election of the first National Assembly;

"In December 1912, the first formal elections to the National Assembly began in all provinces and autonomous regions of the country. According to the previously promulgated "Organic Law of the National Assembly" and the "Law on the Election of Members," the formal National Assembly is composed of two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives, of which 274 senators are elected by members of the provincial assemblies, and 596 deputies are directly elected by the people of various localities.

However, not everyone is eligible to vote, and the "eligible voter" must first be a male with the nationality of the Republic of China, and then must meet at least one of the three conditions of direct tax payment of more than 2 yuan per year, real estate of more than 500 yuan, and primary school or equivalent education. After this screening, only one-tenth of the country's total population of 400 million "eligible voters" was selected, and the final actual voter turnout was only one-tenth of that, or 4 million. But such a large-scale election was undoubtedly still new to China at that time. In the words of historian Tang Degang, "Although China had a population of 40,000 at this time, 80 percent of them were illiterate, and the other 20 percent could read and write, but they did not know what democracy and election were." It's no wonder that strange phenomena abound in the elections that year.

Zhang Xiruo, a professor at Tsinghua University who joined the League in his early years, left his hometown to study at the age of 18, and was elected as a primary member of the primary election in Chaoyi County, Shaanxi Province, when he was elected in Shanghai. When I went back to inquire, I found out that the court had actually "run" the election like an errand boy, and a local election office was set up to invite the help of the village gentlemen, and the actual tasks of these gentlemen were twofold: first, to decide on the list of people who should be elected in each township; Second, the ballot papers of those who "ought to be" elected should be copied according to the required number of votes. Zhang Xiruo was "elected" as a primary member of parliament without knowing it.

In Nantong, Jiangsu, the reporter of "Minli Daily" met a villager with pigtails who came to vote, and asked a simple question, and couldn't help laughing. It turned out that a few days ago, someone sent a voting card to his home, and he thought it was called voting, but in fact he asked for money, and he was immediately panicked, for fear that if he didn't go, he would cause trouble, so he hurriedly rushed to the voting site with his voting card and cash.

Jiangsu was a relatively open province in China at the time, and the same was true for "qualified voters". It is conceivable that among the 40 million "qualified voters" nationwide, there are probably not a few such confused voters.

However, the villagers are confused, and the people of the various parties who are enthusiastic about the election are not ambiguous at all. At that time, there were many political parties in China, the two largest of which were the Kuomintang (KMT), which was founded by the League and the multi-party alliance, and the relatively pro-Yuan Progressive Party, which was formed by the merger of the Republican Party, the United Party, and the Democratic Party from the late Qing constitutionalists. ……

"Whether it is the Kuomintang or the Progressive Party, the most basic election method is, of course, campaign speeches. Wang Shaohua, a Republican congressman from Jiangsu, recalled that campaign speeches were mostly held in teahouses or other public places, "The candidates brought some people, banged gongs and shouted loudly, and ×× party ××× to deliver campaign speeches. Once the audience gathered, they began to speak...... Most of the people who attended the lecture were gentry and other upper-middle-class people. "For those who are not very literate, the open method of campaigning is to open private schools to teach voters to write the names of candidates, and to pre-print candidates' business cards so that voters can bring them into the election field to copy them.

"Whether it's giving speeches, opening private schools, or printing business cards, there is still a bit of a fair competition atmosphere, but some activities carried out in the secret are really chaotic.

"There are people who steal votes, in the primary election of the deputies of Qinghe County, Huai'an, Jiangsu, in order to ensure his election, a candidate actually stole 400 ballots from Matou Town and filled in his name;

"There are voters who use wine and rice, pastries, train tickets, money and even opium, to name a few;

"There are those who are annoyed that the selling price of ballots in Suzhou is too low, and the prices of ballot papers in Suzhou are quite volatile, especially in the last few days, and the candidates who are only a few votes short of them do not hesitate to buy them, which makes the ticket prices soar, and the Republican Party's bid reaches 300 yuan or even higher, so that many people who have already sold their ballots cheaply regret it;

There are also those who made a fortune because of the election, and the business was depressed in the early Republic of China, but driven by the congressional election, the hotels where the elections voted were full, the hotels were full all day long, and the brothels were all booked early, and each made a "election fortune".

In Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, 10 polling stations were divided into 10 polling stations, and because of the political parties fighting and the mob rioters, seven polling stations were destroyed, managers were beaten, and ballot boxes were smashed......

"The process of electing members of parliament is a mess, with all legal and illegal means exhausted, some people understand, some people are confused, and some people pretend to be confused...... By March 1913, the election results had finally been recognized by all political parties. ”

In connection with the national quality and people's level of democratic consciousness at the beginning of the founding of the Republic of China, the above description should be credible.

However, it is not a miracle that the first Congress gathered many outstanding elements under its banner, regardless of the problems in the electoral process.

The first session of the National Assembly also had many problems in performing its duties. For example, the first resolution made by the first Congress was to set a sky-high salary for the members of the Diet. Some people ridicule them for not representing the people, but representing their personal interests.

Public power comes from the people and should be used by the people. If a person who holds public power first thinks about using public power to handle his own affairs well, it is undoubtedly an abuse of public power and corruption of public power. There are nearly 800 members of Congress, known as the 800 Arhats. The high salary of these 800 Arhats is very financially strapped for Yuan Shikai. The government is undoubtedly a very heavy burden. Yuan Shikai took all the orders very happily, obviously not making long-term plans.

And no matter how many problems and shortcomings there were in this first Congress, this did not affect his hard work and courage to perform his duties.

Of course, the fact that the National Assembly and its members dared to limit and supervise the executive power shows that there was still a certain democratic atmosphere in the social environment at that time, at least without risking being killed. This should also be affirmed.

Bringing down the Congress, although Yuan Shikai got his wish, this is also his sadness. Because, the collapse of the Congress, just as he brought down the Kuomintang, only accelerated his pace of disrepute.