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1. Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to take into consideration the Bill or Declaration of Rights, and to report to this Convention whether, in their opinion, any, and if any, what amendments are necessary therein.

2. Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to take into consideration the Legislative Department of Government as established by the present Constitution, and to report to this Convention, either a substitute for the same, or such amendments thereto, as, in their opinion, are necessary.

3. Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to take into consideration the Executive Department of Government as established by the present Constitution, and to report to this Convention either a substitute for the same, or such amendments thereto, as, in their opinion, are necessary.

4. Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to take into consideration, the Judicial Department of Government established by the present Constitution, and to report to this Convention either a substitute for the same, or such amendments thereto, as, in their opinion, are necessary.

5. Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to take into consideration so much of the Constitution as relates to the Right of Suffrage and qualifications of persons to be elected, and to enquire whether any, and if any, what alterations or amendments are necessary therein, and report the same with their opinions thereon, to this Convention. 6. Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to take into consideration the proper basis of representation, and the proper mode of apportioning representation among the people, and to make report thereon to this Convention.

7. Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to take into consideration all such parts of the Constitution as are not referred by the foregoing resolutions, and to report to this Convention either substitutes for such parts or such amendments thereto, as, in their opinion, are necessary.

8. Resolved, That each Committee appointed under the foregoing resolutions, shall

consist of

members.

On motion of Mr. Doddridge, these resolutions were accordingly laid upon the table.
Mr. Mercer moved that they be printed; but

Mr. M'Coy objected to this order being passed as premature, until a printer should be appointed; and, in order that the House might have such officer, he moved to lay the motion of Mr. Mercer, for the present upon the table, and that the Convention do now proceed to the election of a printer. The motion prevailed: whereupon

Mr. M'Coy nominated Mr. Thomas Ritchie as a suitable person, and accompanied the nomination by a few brief remarks in its support.

Mr. Clopton then nominated Mr. John H. Pleasants, in whose favour he said a few words.

Mr. Garnett added to these nominations the name of Mr. Thomas W. White, to whose competence he briefly bore witness.

The House then proceeded to ballot; when Mr. M'Coy from the Committee appointed to examine the ballots, reported that 89 votes had been given, and consequently 45 were necessary to a choice: that

Thomas Ritchie had received,

John H. Pleasants,

Thomas W. White,

54 votes.

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Whereupon, Thomas Ritchie was declared to have been duly elected printer to the Convention.

Mr. Wilson now asked permission to withdraw the resolution he had yesterday of fered on the subject of appointing a Chaplain; and having obtained it, he offered the following as a substitute, viz.

Resolved, That the Secretary be directed to wait on the Clergy of this city, and request them by an arrangement between themselves, to open the session of the Convention each morning by prayer; and the question having been put on its adoption, Mr. Powell demanded that it be taken by yeas and nays; but having failed to make this demand in time, the question was taken in the usual mode, and the resolution adopted; 50 members rising in the affirmative.

Mr. M'Coy now moved that the series of resolutions previously offered by Mr. Doddridge and now lying on the table, be printed.

Mr. Johnson said he had not the least objection to the printing of the resolutions; but he had a proposition which he wished previously to offer to the House, and which, if adopted, might perhaps render that order unnecessary: He would state it for the consideration of gentlemen, and the mover of the order to print might determine whether it would not be best to withdraw that motion for the present. ed to ask, was, that a Committee might be appointed to report upon the best course to be pursued in relation to the subjects embraced in the resolutions which it was proWhat he wishposed to print. If such a Committee should be raised, the resolutions would, as of course, be referred to it for consideration, and this would supersede the necessity of printing for the consideration of the House.

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Mr. J. said he should not at this time present the reasons which had induced him to suggest this course of proceeding, but would try the sense of the Convention upon his resolution, if the pending resolution to print should be withdrawn.

Mr. Doddridge expressed his hope that this would be done, as he approved of the object which seemed to be the aim of the gentleman's proposition.

Mr. M'Coy said, he would very cheerfully withdraw his motion, having made it under a sense of obligation, in courtesy to do so, as he had caused its postponement when made by another.

The motion to print was thereupon withdrawn, and

Mr. Johnson offered his resolution in the following form:

Resolved, That a Committee of seven be appointed to enquire and report what method will be most expedient in bringing before the House amendments to the Constitution which may be preferred.

Mr. J. said that he offered this resolution in conformity to a precedent set in the Convention held in the State of New York, where such a proposition had been presented and received with favour. He was well satisfied that the opinions of the members of this body as to many of the subjects embraced in the series of resolutions on the table, were very variant, and that there must be much difficulty in deciding on the proper course to be adopted. The resolution he had offered presented itself to him as being the best expedient which could be resorted to.

Mr. Powell suggested a modification of the resolution by changing the number of the Committee from seven (as originally proposed) to thirteen; to which modification the mover readily assented.

Mr. Mercer thereupon suggested that the resolution be farther modified by enlarg ing the number of the Committee, so as to embrace one member from each Senatorial District. This he thought would be a ready and the best mode of gathering the sense of the whole body. The trust committed to the Convention was an important one; the enlargement of the Committee would not be great, and each delegation would then be heard on the arrangement of the course of proceeding.

Mr. Johnson said he had no particular partiality to either of the numbers which had been proposed; his main anxiety had been that such a Committee should be raised; and if the enlargement last proposed met the sense of the House, he was content. He therefore adopted the modification suggested by Mr. Mercer, and the resolution was then agreed to, without opposition.

The President then rose and addressing the Convention, said that he had to express a wish that the appointment of this and of all subsequent Committees might be made, not by the presiding officer, but by the House itself. Such a course would be much more agreeable to him. He had now been long absent from deliberative assemblies: he had never presided in any. Many of the gentlemen present were, or had been members of the State Legislature, and were much better acquainted with the proper course of doing the business of such a body than he could be expected to be; his health, besides, was delicate, and it would be very gratifying to him if the Convention would consent to relieve him from the charge of making appointments of its Com

mittees.

Mr. Johnson, though very desirous of lessening as far as practicable the burden imposed on the presiding officer, did not see how the wish just expressed would be complied with, unless by a resolution altering, so far, the rules by which the Convention had resolved to be governed. He would cheerfully offer such a resolution, did he not feel persuaded that the duty of appointing would be performed with more facility as well as greater propriety and more to the satisfaction of the Convention, in the mode at present prescribed. They were disused to such a course as was now suggested in any of the public assemblies in the State, and he could not but desire that the established mode should be adhered to.

Mr. Doddridge, taking it for granted that until the resolution now before the House should be disposed of, no farther business would be done, moved an adjournment to the afternoon, in order to give time for the selection of suitable persons to constitute the Committee proposed, but subsequently withdrew the motion.

Whereupon Mr. Macrae offered the following resolution :

Resolved, That a Committee of inembers be appointed to consider and report what rules of proceedings of the House of Delegates are applicable as rules of proceedings of this Convention, and what amendments thereof, if any, ought to be made. In introducing the resolution, Mr. Macrae observed that from a defect of Parliamentary experience, he was unacquainted with the rules of the House of Delegates, which had in part been adopted for the government of the Convention; and unless. those rules were to undergo some amendments, he should be obliged to move for their being printed in their present form. But he thought it best to afford the opportunity of their being modified, if necessary.

The resolution was adopted, and the blank, on motion of Mr. Scott, was filled with the word seven.

The following gentlemen were thereupon nominated by the President to constitute this Committee, viz:

Messrs. Macrae, Scott, Johnson, Mercer, Leigh of Chesterfield, Barbour of Orange, and Gordon.

On motion of Mr. Scott, a Committee of Privileges and Elections was appointed, and the following gentlemen were named by the President as its members, viz: Messrs. Scott, Doddridge, Nicholas, Taylor of Norfolk, Taliaferro, Pleasants and Baldwin.

On motion of Mr. M'Coy, the House then adjourned till to-morrow, 12 o'clock.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1829.

The Convention met pursuant to adjournment, and its sitting was opened with prayer by the Right Rev. R. C. Moore, of the Episcopal Church.

The following Committee of twenty-four members, one from each Senatorial District, was announced as having been appointed by the President, viz:

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Thomas R. Joynes

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On motion of Mr. Johnson, the resolutions introduced on the first day of the sitting of the Convention, by Mr. Doddridge, were referred to the above Committee; when the House adjourned to 12 o'clock to-morrow.

THURSDAY, October 8, 1829.

The Convention met at 12 o'clock, which it is understood will be the stated hour of meeting. After prayers by Bishop Moore,

Mr. Madison from the Select Committee, consisting of one member from each of the 24 Senatorial Districts, to whom the duty had been referred of devising the best mode of arranging the business of the Convention, made the following Report:

The Committee of one from each Senatorial District, appointed to enquire into the most convenient mode of proceeding in bringing to the consideration of the Convention, such amendments as may be proposed to the present Constitution, have had the same under consideration, and are of opinion that the most convenient method is to adopt the following resolutions, viz:

1. Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to take into consideration the Bill or Declaration of Rights, and to report to this Convention whether in their opinion any, and if any, what amendments are necessary therein.

2. Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to take into consideration the Legislative Department of Government, as established by the present Constitution, and to report to this Convention, either a substitute for the same, or such amendments

thereto, as in their opinion are necessary, or that no substitute or amendment is necessary.

3. Resolved, That the Executive Department of Government as established by the present Constitution, be referred to a Committee, to enquire and report whether any, and if any, what amendments are necessary.

4. Resolved, That the Judicial Department of Government as established by the present Constitution, be referred to a Committee, to enquire and report whether any, and if any, what amendments are necessary therein.

5. Resolved, That all such parts of the present Constitution as are not referred by the foregoing resolutions, be referred to a Committee, to enquire and report whether any, and if any, what amendments are necessary therein.

6. Resolved, That no original resolution offered to the Convention proposing any amendment to the Constitution or Declaration of Rights, be discussed on its merits in the House, till it shall have been referred.

On motion of Mr. Doddridge, the report was laid on the table, and ordered to be printed.

Mr. Tazewell then said, that as he took it for granted that the object in laying the foregoing report on the table and printing it, was that the other members of the Convention who had not been members of the Committee, might have an opportunity of informing themselves of the contents of the report, he presumed it would be agreeable to them also, to be made acquainted with some other propositions which had been moved in the Committee, but rejected; under this persuasion, he would move that the following resolution, which he had himself proposed to the Committee, but which had not received its approbation, should be printed and laid on the table together with the report, viz :

Resolved, That the most expedient method of bringing before the Convention any amendments to the Constitution which may be proposed, will be, to take up the existing Constitution or form of Government of Virginia, with the Declaration of Rights, and regarding them for the purposes of examination and discussion, merely, as a plan proposed and reported by a Select Committee, to refer the same to a Committee of the whole House, there to be examined section after section, and to be dealt with in all other respects as a bill so referred by the House to that Committee usually is.

The motion was agreed to.

Mr. Mercer said, that under impressions similar to those which had just been expressed by the gentleman from Norfolk, (Mr. Tazewell) he would move the printing of the two following resolutions, which he had had the honour to propose in the Committee, and which it was his purpose to make the subject hereafter of a motion in the Convention.

Resolved, That so much of the Constitution as relates to the right of suffrage, be referred to a Committee to consider and report whether any, and if any, what amendments are necessary therein.

Resolved, That so much of the Constitution as relates to the basis of representation, be referred to a Committee to consider and report whether any, and if any, what amendments are necessary therein.

Mr. Brodnax of Dinwiddie, observed that as in any conceivable disposition of the matter to be submitted to the Convention, the existing Constitution of the State, together with the Declaration of Rights, must be the substratum of the whole, it appeared proper that these also should be printed and should be in the hands of every member. The substance of them, it was true, was, he had no doubt, familiar to the minds of all the gentlemen, and the documents themselves might be consulted in the library, but as they would be a perpetual subject of reference in the approaching discussions, it was certainly convenient and proper that they should be printed, together with the report of the Select Committee. He therefore made a motion to that effect, which was agreed to.

Mr. Macrae, from the Committee appointed to revise the rules of the House of Delegates, made a report upon the subject.

After some conversation between Messrs. Green of Culpeper, Powell of Frederick, and Leigh of Chesterfield, it was agreed to take up this report and proceed to act upon it.

The rules reported were thereupon read successively at the Clerk's table, and after some verbal corrections in the 14th and 30th rules, and a modification of the 32d, which went to include members of both Houses of the State Legislature, among the persons privileged with admission to the floor of the Convention:

On motion of Mr. Leigh of Chesterfield, the 7th rule of the House of Delegates, which, as originally reported, forbids a member to vote on all questions in which he has a personal interest, was so amended as to confine this prohibition to questions "touching his own conduct in, and rights and privileges as, a member of this Con

vention.'

Mr. L. considered this altera ion as necessary, both as better expressing the true spirit of the rule, and because in the discussions of this Convention, very many questions must of necessity arise, in which every member would have a personal interest of the deepest kind.

Mr. Alexander of Mecklenburg, was desirous farther to amend this rule in that part of it, which forbids a member to vote on any question, unless he was present when the question was put. Mr. A. considered this prohibition as involving a question of grave importance, and as abridging improperly the exercise of a most important right. A difference of opinion might exist and had actually been expressed, as to the construction of the phrase "when the question was put." The understanding of its meaning in the House of Delegates was, that the question is put in the sense of this rule when it is stated from the Chair; but in the House of Representatives of the United States, a different construction prevailed: here the question was understood as being put to each member only, when that member was called upon to vote; then, the question was put to him. Mr. A. said, he would put a case to shew that the rule as it stood, might operate great injustice: he had indeed, himself, been subjected to its effects. When the yeas and nays were demanded, the roll is usually called from east to west. The question is put, and each member answers to his name. If a member residing in the west comes in while it is calling, he is precluded from voting, although his naine has not yet been called, because the question has been put. So in the House of Representatives, when the yeas and nays are demanded, the names of the members are called in alphabetical order. If a gentleman enters the Hall, whose name happens to stand near the head of the list, he finds that the Clerk has already called it, and he is, of course, precluded from voting, while another gentleman entering at the same moment, but having the good fortune to stand lower on the list, is admitted to a privilege of which his colleague, though not more negligent than himself, and equally early in his attendance, is deprived. As almost every question likely to be presented to this Convention, would be of weighty consideration, Mr. A. considered it as highly important that every member should have a right to vote upon it, provided he should be present before the final decision was announced from the Chair.

Mr. M'Coy said that he did not see the hardships which his friend saw in this rule: the practice in the House of Representatives was, that members not in the House when the Speaker puts the question, are not admitted to vote; but when the yeas and nays are taken, the question is considered as put to each man when that man's name is called. When the members were called in alphabetical order, there was some hardship in the result: members whose names begin with A and B were sometimes taken by surprise, but that could not happen under the rule as interpreted in the House of Delegates; but even if some hardship did occur, Mr. M'Coy thought it best upon the whole to let the rule stand as tending to compel members to be present at their post. The more the rule was relaxed, the greater would be the negligence of the members.

Mr. Stanard of Spottsylvania, observed that the interpretation of the phrase in the rule had been so definitively fixed by the practice of the House of Delegates, that no sort of difficulty could occur in understanding its meaning. The construction referred to by the gentleman from Mecklenburg, was one which had never prevailed here. No additional chance of voting was enjoyed by any member of the House of Delegates from the fact of his name standing low upon the alphabet. The rules and the practice of that House, as was well known, had their origin in the Parliamentary law of England. By the established usage in the House of Delegates, no question was taken as definitively stated till the alternative had been propounded. If, therefore, a member entered the House after the affirmative votes had been collected, but before the members of the opposite opinion had been called upon to vote, his vote was received. When the yeas and nays were called for, so soon as one member had answered to his name, the question before the House was considered as definitively propounded, and if a gentleman entered the Hall after that time, his vote could not be received. Very great inconvenience must unavoidably ensue, should the Convention depart from this well established rule. He, therefore, earnestly hoped that the amendment would not prevail.

Mr. Alexander having so modified his amendment as to forbid voting only when a member had not been present before the final decision of the question:

The decision was taken on his amendment, and it was rejected by a large majority. The question was then put on the whole report as amended, and carried nem. con. The rules, as adopted, were as follows:

1. No member shall absent himself from the service of the House without leave, unless he be sick and unable to attend.

2. When any member is about to speak in debate, or deliver any matter to the House, he shall rise from his seat, and without advancing from thence, shall, with

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