Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1856-04-04

Bile was omitted from the statute book ioih
oui any competent authority therefor. Tn
above fact we have ascortained by oxamino
ton Of papers ia the State Department -
We have also consulted one of the oldest
mos intelligent and most highly esteemc,
Of vermonts public servants, who says tina
he can give no information respecting thi
journal Of the Constitutional Convention o
81 1913, and much doubts whether at that day
e 1t was usual to print the journal Of sucI
Be- bodies but be has kindly given as a clue
to find the manuscript papers of that con
vcntion, It still in existence, which clue WI
shall follow. On the question Of The poiccr
Of the Council Of Censors, this venerable
gentleman gives very valuable and very ex.
picit testimony. We commend 1t To the
younger gentlemen Of the Mddlcbury Reg
lister and Brattlcboro' Republican, in the
hope that they will at least respect one of
the Fathers Of the State, even though he
happens to sustain the opinion advanced IN
the Watchman;
into onv c,n,royc,s,cs oc ,his Lrrl I'm,
have no doubt that when the clause in the
original constitution. which empowered HE
CIunG' 10 cu, ~ a ,v"pe"l'on' was es.ao,
nnsltcred il ,hcn moan, n,d has oycr s'nc,
meant. convention composed Of delegates
from The respective io'o"s and must so mean
until II is altered by some constitutional proc
/ Censors themselves; and such Think would
be the construction whelhorlhe preamble
III iorco or not bol 10 these days. when
o,,'e',u,'o,'s n' o,v s' a"1 49, -, ",
par,izans 10 mean anythlnr or no,h,np. How
different from the straight forward common
sense OF our ioreiaiher'!
/ ~ very good NOW II 'he Register
Will STICK to the simple nun, II VIII wl'hdfa"
of "an incredibly mean attempt to deceive
the people by quoting an old constitution
that was distinctly repudated - and IL viii
also either proye or withdraw ns Insertion
That The Preamble has been " fbsiiucily yept-
doiedn The Repister Inns no, vet produced
pattiele of evidence TO either po,nt.
/ az And ere b,ve not ct discussed the
amendments sopo of ,,hicb ,v, cer,oirly oro
friendly IN when tbcv can no constitutional,
acted npon Tho Re,is,er ourb, fl, ,o,oo,,,
her that wo b,vo s,moly ,,,sed oo,.,,,,
,,,ii,,i,o,,, IN n, om,,ju,n,, n c,i, o,.y
mos, ,,, a,J ,,,o ,,t.,..,, l........ g..
man, onJ disoossiooo,o ov.-.,..,, ~.
,birt i,is question IN nh;.h a.. .l..l.
,c,io, If tho neo,,e and III, C,n,o,,...
will ultimately ,,rn o,J j., asc,, ,h., ,oo-
son that we nut !, nrv,rd FIR considoro,ioo
,long with rho omord,uo,,s ,honsol.os
Amin ve saw ir,be Roc,.,er has onr arm
mon, 70 mako nm ,h., o,os,ior Ia, !, naLo
tho hoo. :, - cao.hio 81
On the first FORMULATION, by the Middle .
bury Register, of the proposed alterations Of [
the Constitution the Braitieboro' Republican 1
Instantly commended the whole, without re-
seryaton, and-it is safe TO infer-wilhout
mature examination OF course, when the
Waterman ventured to suggest a doubt as to
he po,oer Of the Council to reuoiutioni,e, al
most entirely, the old and very good system !
Of government OF the good State of Yer /
mont, at single blow, aud IN a way not con-
templated by our venerable fathers, the
Republican was already committed on the
other side, and was bound to defend lhe
Council as best it could This task il has
attempted, md on the whole /, has performed
it quite as creditably as the circumstances OF
the cause would admit.
In the outset it finds singular agreement
on this subject between the Waterman and
the Patriot OF March 7th, and asserts first,
| that the articles in both papers were cIl.
IDENTITY written by the same hand, or by pre-
concert;' and, secondly, thar this auack from.
the Montpelier papers "wus to be expected,
because in the reforms proposed, all the large
amounts ofexpenscs saved to the State would
be lost to Montpelier"
To the first charge we reply, that IT Is en-
tirely unionnded The articles in the Patriot
and Waterman were written by different
persons aud without collision or "precon-
cert" The fact. of n remarkable agreement
in the line Of argument, goes therefore only
to create probability that the argument IT,
self is correct aud we will add, that the tes-
timony Of the old aud highly distinguished
iurst who wrote Tor the Waterman IN 1912,
trepublished. March 2lst. lasta and of anoth-
er, and sill older aud also highly dis,in-
quished lawyer, whose opinion we have quo
ted above, rolses this probability very nearly
to the dignity of mathematical certainty. -
We can assure the Republican that the oplu-
iou of no Court IN Vermont, of this day or any
other Is entitled, aside from It's official au-
lhorty. to any higher weight than the opin-
+ 49,. ....... 49,.