To force a bill out of committee a/an blank petition must be signed by majority of the representatives

That is, in the years when there were Congressmen to be elected he must go twice to be registered-once for the ... Our committee struck out from it everything that did not bear directly on elections; mitigated the severity of the ... This was the famous force bill, and the whole of it-a provision that, if a sufficient petition were made to the court for ... So a conference of Republicans was held at which an agreement was made, which I drew up, and signed by a majority of the entire Senate