2. Resolved, That there ought to be appointed a Lieutenant-Governor of this Commonwealth.

Resolved, That the Executive Council, as at present organized, ought to be abolished, and that it is inexpedient to provide any other Executive Council.

4 Resolved, That in case of the removal of the Governor from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the duties and powers of his office, the said powers and duties shall devolve on the Lieutenant-Governor; and the Legislature may provide for the case of removal, death, or similar inability of the Lieutenant-Governor. 5. Resolved, That the sheriffs in the different counties in the Commonwealth, shall, hereafter, be elected by tlie voters qualified to vote for the most numerous branch of the Legislature.

6. Resolved, That the commissioned officers of militia companies be nominated to the Executive by a majority of their respective companies.

7. Resolved, That the field officers of regiments be nominated to the Executive by a majority of the commissioned officers of their respective regiments.

8. Resolved, That no pardon shall be granted in any case, until after conviction or judgment.

Both reports were subsequently ordered to be printed.

Mr. Giles farther stated, that he was instructed by the Committee, to ask that they be discharged from the farther consideration of the subjects referred to them, and he made that motion accordingly, which was agreed to, and the Committee was thereupon discharged.

Mr. Powell of Frederick, said, that having belonged to the Committee which had last reported, and having in that Committee been in a large minority of its members, who were in favour of a very different organization of the Executive Department of Government, from that which the Committee had adopted, and just reported to the House, he asked permission to read, and to lay upon the table, certain resolutions which he held in his hand. Leave having been granted, Mr. Powell then offered the following, which were read, laid upon the table, and ordered to be printed, viz: Resolved, That the Executive Department of the existing form of Government ought to be amended as follows:

fice for

SEC. 1. The Executive power shall be vested in a Governor. He shall hold his ofyears, and be ineligible for the term of years thereafter. And a Lieutenant-Governor shall be chosen at the same time, for the same term, and under the same restrictions.

SEC. 2. The Lieutenant-Governor shall act as President of the Senate, but he shall have no right to vote except the Senate be equally divided upon any question; in which case he shall have the casting vote.

SEC. 3. No person shall be eligible to the office of Governor or Lieutenant-Governor, except a citizen of the Cominonwealth, nor any who shall not have attained the age of years, and who shall not have resided years next preceding his election, in the State.

SEC. 4. The Governor and Lieutenant-Governor shall be elected at the times and places of choosing members of the most numerous branch of the Legislature, by the voters qualified to vote for members of the General Assembly; provided that the election shall take place throughout the Commonwealth on the same day. The persons respectively having the highest number of votes for Governor and LieutenantGovernor, shall be elected. In case two or more persons shall have an equal number of votes for Governor or for Lieutenant-Governor, the Legislature shall immediately by joint ballot of both Houses, choose of the persons having an equal number of votes for Governor or Lieutenant-Governor, the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor, as the case may be.

SEC. 5. The Governor shall be commander-in-chief of the militia. He shall have power to convene the Legislature on extraordinary occasions. He shall, from time to time, give information to the Legislature of the condition of the Cominonwealth, and recommend to their consideration, such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. He shall expedite all such measures as may be resolved upon by the Legislature, and shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed.

SEC. 6. The Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, shall, at stated times, receive for their services, a compensation which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the term for which they shall have been elected.

SEC. 7. The Governor shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons after conviction, for all offences, except treasons and in cases of impeachment. Upon conviction for treason, he shall have power to suspend the execution of the sentence, until the case shall be reported to the Legislature at its next session, when the Legislature may pardon, or direct the execution of the criminal, or grant a farther reprieve.

SEC. 8. In case of the removal of the Governor from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the duties of his office, his powers and duties shall devolve on the Lieutenant-Governor; and in case of the removal, death, or resigna

tion, or like inability of the Lieutenant-Governor, the Legislature may provide by law upon whom the duties of Governor shall devolve, until such disabilities «hall be removed, or a Governor shall be elected.

SEC. 9. The Governor shall have power to nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint Judges of the Supreme Court, or Court of Final Jurisdiction, and Judges of such Inferior Courts as may from time to time be established by law; all militia officers from the rank of Colonel inclusive; the Treasurer, Auditor of Public Accounts, Register of the Land-Office, and Attorney-General. The Legislature may by law vest the appointment of all other officers of the _Cominonwealth, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, in the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate, or in the Courts of Law.

SEC. 10. The Governor shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions, which shull expire at the end of the next session of that body.

SEC. 11. The Governor shall have power to require in writing, the opinions of the Lieutenant-Governor, and of the Attorney-General, upon all matters appertaining to the duties of his office.

SEC. 12. No person, whose tenure of office depends on the pleasure of the Governor, shall be removed from office without the advice and consent of the Senate to such removal. But the Governor shall have power, at any time, to suspend such officer, and appoint another to discharge the duties of his office, until the next session of the Senate, and until their advice and consent to such removal shall be ascertained and expressed.

Mr. Gordon of Albemarle, presented a petition from citizens of that county, on the subject of freedom of religion.

The petition was received, and without reading, referred to the Committee on the Legislative Departinent.

Mr. Morgan said he was a member of the Committee which had been so unfortunate as not to agree upon all the propositions, properly referred to them, under the Executive Department of the Government, and like the gentleman from Frederick (Mr. Powell) he would ask leave to submit for the consideration of the Convention, several resolutions on the subject of that Department, which he wished read and laid on the table.

Permission having been granted, Mr. Morgan thereupon offered the following, which were read, laid upon the table, and ordered to be printed:

The Executive power shall be vested in a Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, to assist in the administration of the affairs of Government, when required by the Governor; and who shall act as Governor in case of the death, resignation, or removal of the Governor from office, until another be appointed; and in case of impeachment, temporary incapacity of any kind, or absence of the Goverhor from the seat of Government, until his restoration or return. And if at any time there should be no acting Governor, and the Lieutenant-Governor shall be impeached, or from any other cause not acting, the Executive authority shall devolve on, and be exercised by, some person appointed by law for that purpose.

The Governor and Lieutenant-Governor shall be annually appointed by joint ballot of the Senate and House of Delegates, and their terms of office shall end on the last day of December of every year; but no person shall be eligible to the office of Governor for more than three years at any one time, nor again, until after he shall have been out of that office four years; and in like manner after the end of every three years of service.

The Governor shall exercise the Executive power of the Government, according to the laws of the Commonwealth, and see that they shall be faithfully executed. He may, at his own discretion, and shall, on application of a majority of the Senate or House of Delegates, convene the General Assembly: And he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons, except where the prosecution shall have been carried on by the House of Delegates, or the law shall otherwise particularly direct; in which cases, the House of Delegates shall alone have and exercise the power of granting them; but no pardon shall be granted in any case, until after judgment or conviction.

And then the Convention adjourned, till to-morrow, two o'clock.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1829.

The Convention met at two o'clock, and its sitting was opened with prayer by the Rev. Mr. Armstrong.

Mr. Marshall, from the Committee on the Judicial Department of Government, then rose and said, that although it was not probable the Convention would take up any one of the reports of the Select Committees which had been appointed, until the reports of all those Committees should have been received, yet, with a view to put the reports which had been rendered in a way to be acted upon by the Convention, if such should be its pleasure, he moved that the report made by the Committee on the Judicial Department, be referred to a Committee of the Whole Convention, and be made the Order of the Day for to-morrow.

Mr. Upshur of Ac omack. said, that he had understood a wish to be entertained by some members of the House, that a smaller Committee than a Committee of the Whole, should be raised for the purpose of receiving and digesting the reports of the Select Committees, and laying the whole before the Convention to receive its action thereon. Should such a course be adopted after the report of the Judicial Committee had gone to a Committee of the Whole, it would have again to be withdrawn from their hands and put with the rest under the care of the Sub-Committee. He would, therefore, very respectfully suggest to the member from Richmond, whether it would not be expedient to withdraw for the present the motion which he had made. Mr. U. said that he was the rather induced to this course, by observing that the Chairman of the Committee on the Executive (Mr. Giles) was not in his place, and he knew that it was not the wish of that Committee, that their resolution should take the course now proposed.

Mr. Marshall said, that he was by no means solicitous that the motion he had made should be adopted his only object had been to put business in such a train, that it might be taken up and acted upon whenever the House should wish to consider it. The reference of the report to a Committee of the Whole, implied no sort of necessity that the report should be immediately ac'ed upon. As to the suggestion of the gentleman from Accomack, (Mr. Upshur) if the House should agree to refer all the reports to a Select Committee before the Committee of the Whole should have perfected its action on the particular report which was the subject of his motion; all that would have to be done, would be to discharge the Committee of the Whole from the further consideration of it: the motion he had made, would not be at all in the way of such a course. It seemed to him very possible, and extremely probable, that the House would not refer the respective reports to a Select Committee, until they should have received some report from the Committee of the Whole: nevertheless, he was entirely willing to withdraw his motion, if the gentle man insisted upon it.

Mr. Doddridge of Brooke, observed that if the suggestion of the gentleman from Accomack. (Mr. Upshur) had been occasioned by any thing that had fallen from him, (Mr. D.) the gentleman had certainly misunderstood him. The course he had desired to see pursued, was that each report should be referred to a separate Committee of this House, and after all the reports should then have been considered and fully discussed in Committee of the Whole, they be finally referred to one general Committee, which might properly be called a Copying Committee, who should transcribe and report the whole to the Convention.

Mr. Upshur. after a few words of explanation, withdrew the suggestion he had made, and the question having been taken on the motion of Mr. Marshall, it was decided in the affirmative, and the report of the Judicial Committee was accordingly referred to a Committee of the Whole Convention, and made the Order of the Day for to-mor

row.

Mr. Leigh of Chesterfield, now moved the following resolution:

Reso'red, That it be a standing order of the Convention, that the Convention shall every day resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole Convention, to consider the existing Constitution of the Commonwealth, and such propositions for amendment or alteration thereof, as shall be referred to or made in the said Committee.

Mr. Doddridge moved to lay the resolution upon the table, suggesting, as a reason, that its adoption would involve the Convention in difficulty. One of the rules they had adopted for their proceeding, required that the Order of the Day should be called at twelve o'clock. If the resolution of the gentleman from Chesterfield should take effect, the Convention would have to meet to-morrow at twelve o'clock, and take up the report of the Judiciary Committee at once: but he did not suppose it to be the wish of any gentleman to take up that, or any other of the reports, until the Legislative Committee should have reported. The course proposed would cut short the sittings of that Committee, which he was happy to say had now drawn so far toward a close, that some glimpses of the morning light could be perceived, and a hope was

entertained that if they were allowed, as at present, to sit till two o'clock, they might, perhaps, finish their discussions to-morrow.

A debate on a question of order now arose, in which Messrs. Stanard, Doddridge, P.P. Barbour, Mercer, Leigh, M'Coy and Johnson took part.

It was affirmed on the one hand, that nothing would be gained by laying the reso lution of Mr. Leigh on the table, because the report of the Judicial Committee, having been referred to a particular Committee of the Whole, and made the Order of the Day for to-morrow, the Convention would still have to meet, go into Committee of the Whole, and take up the report, unless the order were postponed; and a general order, if necessary, might as well be postponed as a specified one, though indeed, the general standing order would not involve any necessity of postponement. If the resolution should be adopted, the Committee of the Whole would be at liberty to take up, at its own election, either one of the reports referred to it; comparing each with the corresponding portion of the existing Constitution. It might pass, at will, from one of these reports to the other, without the ceremony of rising, reporting, and again sitting, for that purpose. It might sit on any day, without being confined, as must otherwise be the case, to a particular day specified and its powers in this respect were illustrated by reference to the practice, as well of the House of Delegates, as of the House of Representatives of the United States.

It was insisted, on the other hand, that there was no rule which now bound the Convention, to make the consideration of a subject referred to a Committee of the Whole, the Order of the Day, for any particular day. That the Committee of the Whole existed already, and a subject had been referred to it: when that Committee met, it might take up any subject whatever, which might have been referred to a Committee of the Whole: in this Convention as in the House of Delegates, there existed but one Committee of the Whole; and all subjects referred in that form, belonged to it, as of course, and might be taken up in such order as the Committee itself should choose. There was no need of referring to it the existing Constitution, because a comparison of the proposed amendments with that which they proposed to amend, was necessarily involved in the discussion of such amendments; nor was it at all desirable, that the Constitution should go to such Committee, and there be taken up, and considered by sections, as though it were a reported bill. When an amendment to a law was referred, either in the House of Delegates, or in Congress, to a Committee of the Whole, it was never the usage to refer to that Committee the original law also.

The question being at length taken on the motion of Mr. Doddridge to lay Mr. Leigh's resolution on the table, it was decided in the affirmative-Ayes 40-Noes 37. So the resolution was laid upon the table accordingly.

Mr. Nicholas, who had been in a minority of the Committee on the Executive, in relation to some of the features of the report of that Committee, particularly that part of it which related to the abolition of the Executive Council, asked and obtained leave to lay the following resolutions on the table, and to have them printed, viz: Resolved, That the ninth and tenth sections of the present Constitution be retained. and that the eleventh be substituted by the following resolution:

A Privy Council, or Council of State, consisting of four members, shall be chosen by joint ballot of both Houses of Assembly, either from their own members, or the people at large, to assist in the administration of Government. They shall annually choose out of their own members, a Lieutenant-Governor, who, in case of the death, inability, or necessary absence of the Governor from the Government, shall act as Governor. The Governor shall be the President of the Council, and shall in all cases of division, have the casting vote. Two members, with the Governor or LieutenantGovernor, as the case may be, shall be sufficient to act, and their advice and proceedings shall be entered of record, and signed by the members present (to any part whereof, any meinber may enter his dissent) to be laid before the General Assembly, when called for by them. The meinbers of the Council shall be elected by joint ballot of both Houses of the General Assembly, for four years. At the first election, the two Houses shall, by joint resolution, divide the persons elected into two classes: The seats of the Councillors of the first class, shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year; of the second class, at the expiration of the fourth year; so that one half may be chosen every second year; and if vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, they shall be filled by joint ballot of the two Houses of the General Assembly. An adequate but moderate salary, shall be settled on them, during their continuance in office, and they shall be incapable during that time, of sitting in either House of Assembly.

In consequence of the failure of Mr. Leigh's resolution, the order which directed the Committee of the Whole, to consider the report from the Judicial Committee tomorrow, was, on motion of Mr. P. P. Barbour, re-considered, and altered to Monday next; whereupon, on motion of Mr. Powell, the Convention adjourned to meet tomorrow, at two o'clock.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1829.

The Convention met at two o'clock, and its sitting was opened with prayer by the Rev. Mr. Armstrong, of the Presbyterian Church.

Mr. Giles moved, that the report from the Committee on the Executive, be now taken up; which motion being agreed to, he then moved that the report be referred to a Committee of the Whole.

Mr. Stanard suggested to him the propriety of forbearing his motion till the House should have come to some decision upon the resolution offered yesterday, by the gentleman from Chesterfield, (Mr. Leigh,) and now lying upon the table: the Convention had not yet determined whether it would have a Committee of the Whole, analogous in its duties and powers, to a Committee of the Whole, in the House of Delegates. If the motion should be pressed at this time, the effect would be, that the report would go to a distinct Committee of the Whole, from that to which had been referred the report from the Judicial Committee: for, as there has been separate orders, there would, of course, be distinct Committees. But if the Convention should agree to adopt the resolution upon its table, the order referring each report to a distinct Committee of the Whole, would have to be rescinded.

Mr. Giles observed, in reply, that not having been present yesterday, he was not apprised that any difficulty would arise from the motion he had made, but seeing that some embarrassment was apprehended, he would, with great pleasure, withdraw the motion; and he withdrew it accordingly.

Mr. Powell said, that although he did not regard it as at all important that the report should be referred at this time, he did not perceive the same difficulty as had presented itself to the member from Spottsylvania, (Mr. Stanard.) The report might, certainly, be referred to the same Committee of the Whole to which had been referred the report from the Judicial Committee; and in like manner, the reports from all the Select Committees, might be referred to one and the same Committee of the Whole; who would then have the whole before them at once. He saw, he said, the gentleman from Orange, before him (Mr. P. P. Barbour.) shake his head, and he was well aware that he had far less experience in Legislative proceedings than that gentleman; but unless he was greatly deceived, indeed, the course he had indicated was frequently pursued in the House of Representatives of the United States.

Mr. Barbour replied, that the gentleman from Frederick (Mr. Powell) was certainly correct, when he stated that several analogous subjects were often referred to the same Committee of the Whole; but then those subjects were not all held to be before the Committee at one and the same time; but were taken up consecutively, and each considered and discussed by itself, and as distinct from the others.

Mr. Taylor of Chesterfield, from the Committee on the Bill of Rights, made the following report in part, which, on his motion, was laid upon the table and ordered to be printed.

The Committee to whom was referred the Bill or Declaration of Rights, and all such parts of the present Constitution as are not referred to the Committees on the Legislative, Executive, and Judicia! Departments of the Government, have, according to order, had the subjects to them referred, under their consideration, and have further, in part performance of the duties devolved on them, agreed upon the following resolu tions:

1. Resolved, as the opinion of this Committee. That the Constitution of this State ought to be so amended, as to provide a mode in which future amendments shall be made therein.

2. Resolved, That the first and second sections of the present Constitution, ought to be stricken out, and that an introductory clause, adapted to the amended Constitution, be substituted in lieu thereof.

3. Resolved, That the twelfth, twenty-first, and twenty-second sections of the present Constitution, ought to be stricken out as no longer necessary.

4. Resolved, That the freedom of Speech and of the Press, ought to be held sacred and guaranteed by the Constitution.

5. Resolved, That no title of nobility shall be created or granted; and no person holding any office of profit or trust under the United States, or under any King, Prince, or foreign State, shall hold any office under this State.

6. Resolved, as the opinion of this Committee, That the Constitution ought to be so amended, as to provide," that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place or ministry, whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body, or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men, shall be free to profess, and by argu ment to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion; and that the same shall in no wise, diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities."

On motion of Mr. M'Coy, the House then adjourned.