The declared sense of the American people throughout the United States on this very point, cannot but be received with great respect and reverence, and it appears to be the almost universal will expressed in their constitutional charters, that Conventions to alter the constitution, shall not be called at the instance of the legislature without the previous sanction of the people by whom those constitutions were ordained. The constitution of Massachusetts, was established in 1780, and contains the earliest provision on this subject. It provided, that in the year 1795, the sense of the people should be taken on the necessity or expediency of revising the constitution, and that if two thirds of the votes of the people were in favour of such revision and amendment, the legislature should provide for calling a convention. The convention now sitting in that state, was called in consequence of a previous submission of such a question to the people. The constitution of South Carolina was ordained in 1790, and in that it is declared, that no convention should be call. ed, unless by the concurrence of two thirds of both branches of the legislature. And the constitution of Georgia, established in 1798, contains the same provision; thus shewing, that though the people be not previously consulted on the question, yet a more than ordinary caution and check upon such a measure was indispens able. The constitution of Delaware, of 1792, declares very emphatically, that no convention shall be called but by the authority of the people, and that their sense shall be taken by a vote for, or against a convention, and that if a majority of all the citizens shall have voted for a convention, the legislature shall make provision for calling one. The same constitutional provision that no convention shall be called to alter, or amend the constitution, until the sense of the people by vote shall have been previously taken, whether, in their opinion, there was a necessity or expediency for a revision of the constitution, has been successfully adopted, by the constitution of New-Hampshire, in 1792; by the constitution of Tennessee, in 1796; by the constitution of Kentucky, in 1799; by the constitution of Louisiana, in 1812; by the constitution of Indiana, in 1816; by the constitution of Mississip pi, in 1817; and by the constitution of Illinois, in 1818. It would, as the council apprehended, be impossible to produce higher and more respectable authority in favour of such a provision, and of its value and safety. 2. Because the bill contemplates an amended constitution to be submitted to the people to be adopted or rejected, in toto, without prescribing any mode by which a discrimination may be made between such provisions as shall be deemed salutary, and such as shall be disapproved by the judgment of the people. If the people are competent to pass upon the entire amendments, of which there can be no doubt, they are equally competent to adopt such of them as they approve, and to reject such as they disapprove; and this undoubted right of the people, is the more important if the convention is to be called in the first instance, without a previous consultation of the pure and original source of all legitimate authority. And it is worthy of consideration, and gives additional force to the expediency, and fitness of a previous reference to the people, that time will be thereby given for more mature deliberation upon questions arising upon the constitution, which are always momentous in their nature, and calculated to affect, not the present gene ration alone, but their distant posterity, and when the legislature may probably have it in their power to avail themselves of a more just and accurate apportionment of the representation in the convention, among the several counties in this slate. Ordered, That the secretary deliver the bill, together with a copy of the objec tions aforesaid, to the honourable the assembly. J. V. N. YATES, Secretary. |