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furnish towards effecting the favorable fundamental principies of gove reception of the proposed Constitu- any and all of which required

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THE labors of this august body were brought to a close on Friday evening, the ninth day of October last, at seven o'clock, after a session of 131 days.The result of its labors will be submitted to the people for their approval or rejection on the 3d instant, when it will probably receive their sanction by an overwhelming majority. The opportunity is offered us to express our views of the proposed Constitution to our readers before the final vote is taken; and we feel that we shall in no respect be chargeable with departing from the legitimate province of a national magazine, in devoting a portion of our columns to the deliberations of the Convention, although its immediate labors were designed for the State of NewYork alone. Many of the principles which this Convention have proposed to incorporate into the fundamental law of the State of New-York have been, or must in due time become, the subjects of political controversy and agitation in every state in this confederacy; and the disposition which has been made of some of them by this body, may be merely an anticipation of the action of sister states, whose political experience is less mature, or whose efforts at constitutional reform have been less successful.

These considerations, together with our desire to lend whatever aid we can furnish towards effecting the favorable reception of the proposed Constitu

tion, by those whose votes may control its destiny, will be our excuse for inviting our readers' attention to a brief analysis of such of its contents as specially deserve consideration.

Before proceeding, however, with this analysis, it is proper to refer to two unfortunate circumstances connected with the process of the Convention which can hardly be too much regretted. By the law under which this body was called together, the members were directed to submit their labors to the people at the general election in November. They felt that three or four weeks at least were necessary for the people to have the subject under consideration before voting upon it; and hence their deliberations were confined to the working days between the 1st of June and 9th of October, within which period they were to submit a report, whatever might be their state of preparation. The absurdity of such a restriction had not probably been realized until it became apparent, as the time for the termination of their labors drew nigh, that the Convention must inevitably leave a large portion of its work entirely untouched, and a much larger portion imperfectly executed.

It was not considered, doubtless, when the original law was passed, that a Constitutional Convention has to deal almost exclusively with abstract and fundamental principles of governmentany and all of which required, for their

prompt and wise application to the existing condition of political society in this State, the most commanding intellectual abilities, enlightened by a profound political philosophy and a large political experience Nor was it realized, perhaps, that no State in the Union could furnish forth one hundred and twenty-eight such men who would be competent to enter into council, and without farther maturing their opinions by debate and reflection, sit down and indite such a Constitution as would wisely embody the political experience of the people they should represent. It therefore happened, as it must have happened in any other state, and as it was to have been expected to happen in New-York, that the delegates chosen to remodel the Constitution were quite unstudied, and immature upon a large proportion of the topics submitted to them. Many were obliged to commence their examination of the most important questions after they had been submitted in Convention, and every one who has ever experienced the birth and developement of a new principle in his own mind, and the slowness with which one yields entire confidence to it and all its consequences, will readily understand how improper and perilous a step it was to force such a deliberative body as this to conclusions by process of law-that its inevitable effect would be constringere verba

non res.

It requires a long time for any large deliberative assembly to become familiar with the views of its members; to discuss them in public and in private, and by discussion to bring out controlling considerations; to realize their importance; to disabuse each other's minds of existing prejudices; to learn when and what prejudices are to be conciliated; to receive or propagate the philosophy by which the body should be moved in common, and to which all will agree in looking, as to a controlling centre. For all these results, the period allowed to the New-York Convention was entirely too short. They required at least a year; and if they had been at liberty to occupy thus much time, we have no hesitation in saying, without meaning in the least to disparage the present result of their labors, that the Constitution they would have furnished, would have been speedi

ly accepted by nearly every State in the Union, as well as by the people for whom it was prepared, as the most perfect code of fundamental law ever offered for the government of civilized society.

This error to which we have alluded, however, is to be charged upon the Legislature which prepared the law calling the Convention; and the Convention are, therefore, in a great measure, if not entirely, innocent of its consequences.

The other unfortunate circumstance connected with the process of the Convention, the Convention itself was solely responsible for, and it is the only incident in their labors which is unworthy of them in every point of view, in which it can be estimated. We refer to the prohibition of written reports by the several committees, setting forth reasons which led them to the conclusions they should recommend. It has always been our impression that the primary purpose of raising committees in legislative bodies is to subdivide the labors of their constituent body, so that the facts connected with any topic requiring legislative action, should be digested, arranged in a convenient shape, and where practicable, estimated by the committee, in order that the burden of this preliminary labor should be spared the rest of the assembly. When the report of the committee is thus made up and presented, it enables the aggregate assembly to glance through and appreciate the points with comparatively little labor, and become qualified for final action much more speedily, than would be possible without this wise division of labor. Quite otherwise appears to have thought the New-York Convention. They deliberately pronounced it an act of disrespect to the house, for a committee to present, in writing, a single reason in favor of the legislation they advised the Convention to sauction. We have carefully examined the debates to which this absurd restriction gave rise, and have failed to realize the force of any single argument in its favor, while the circumstances under which the proposition was initiated and adopted, have satisfied us that the motives which instigated it were discreditable in the highest degree to those through whose immediate in

1846.]

The New-York Constitutional Convention.

strumentality it was effected. We are only susprised that others, whose motives were above suspicion, should have been found to support it, without perceiving its folly and the inconveniences it would involve. Instead of studying up the various questions submitted by the committees quietly from their reports, every man was, in consequence of this restriction, obliged either to investigate each case at length himself, or to listen to a lengthy, awkward, and necessarily imperfect exposition of it in the debates, or vote without understanding the question at all. A sad waste of the time of the Convention, was the inevitable consequence, as should have been anticipated from a procedure so entirely at war with all usage, with common sense, and with the common and sacred purpose of every faithful reformer in the Convention.

We have pleasure in turning from these, the most painful incidents in the history of this Convention, to consider the fruits of its labors. Of them we entertain the most exalted estimate, and most cordially unite with Mr. Hoffman, a delegate from Herkimer, in his declaration, made as the labors of himself and associates were drawing to a close, on the last day but one of the session, "that this Constitution contains more excellent matter got together by this Convention than any Constitution on the whole earth."

To justify this estimate, we propose
some of the
briefly to enumerate
effects it is designed, and, we think,
destined to accomplish.

I. It will secure a more free and fair
representation of the people in the mak-
ing, and in the administration of the

1. By reducing and decentralizing political patronage. It withdraws from the Executive and Senate the appointment of all judicial and nearly all ad

ministrative officers, and provides for
their election by the people. All the
judges, save justices of the peace, are
made elective, as are also, the Secre-
tary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer,
Attorney General, State Engineer and
The
Surveyor, Canal Commissioners and
Inspectors of State Prisons.
horde of leeching inspectorships of
commodities, is annihilated by the
following clause which should immor-
talize this Convention, if all its other
labors had been fruitless :

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"§ 8. All offices for the weighing, any merchandize, produce, manufacture gauging, measuring, culling or inspecting or commodity whatever, are hereby abolished, and no such office shall hereafter be created by law; but nothing in this section contained, shall abrogate any office created for the purpose of protecting the public health, or the interests of the State in its property, revenue, tolls, or purcorrect standards of weights and measures, chases, or of supplying the people with or shall prevent the creation of any office for such purposes hereafter."

Indirectly, also, a multitude of subordinate offices, civil and military, are annihilated, or their choice made unavailable for purposes of party organization.*

We are of the opinion that the elective principle has been unwisely extended to some of those officers whose duties are purely administrative, and too unimportant to deserve or require the whole voting community to lay aside their private affairs to investigate the fitness of candidates to discharge those duties. The inconvenience to accrue from this source, however, will be comparatively trifling cured are numerous and oppressive. and easily remedied. The evils to be

2. By dividing the State in single Senate and Assembly Districts, the delegate is brought nearer, and is made more directly responsible to his con

The extent of the reforms in this direction effected by the late Convention was strikingly presented in the course of a few remarks made by Mr. Cambreleng, one of the delegates from Suffolk county, on the last day of the session, when he announced his intention to support the New Constitution. The passage to which we particularly refer is as follows:-"Should we, because there are defects and errors in some parts of the structure-can we feel at liberty, for that reason, to reject the whole fabric? Would gentlemen vote against a Constitution which rests, as this does, upon a popular foundation-a Constitu tion which, for the first time in this country, had been placed upon such a foundation? Yes, (said Mr. C) I declare that this is the first in the whole world which rests purely upon the popular sentiment. It was the first in which the Executive, Legislative, and Administrative departments of government came directly from the people themselves. Every other fundamental law in the whole Union made some portions of administrative government the offspring of executive or judicial authority;-this was the first which makes all emanate directly from the people themselves. Every article was founded upon popular sentiment, and he should go heartily for it, with all its defects; for those defects were merely those of extent and language-in principle, it was sound from beginning to end, and in every respect."

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