The Nevada journal., 1857-08-07
FRIDAY MORNING, AUG. It'll, 1857.
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION No. s.

changed, but a portion OF the people are
haunted with distempered visions of
something awful to be engrafte1 upon
it, should Convention be called. Old
fogies see Niger in the fence in con-
templating the subject. The ghost of
that old and almost forgotten project of
dividing the State comes up and fright
ems them out of their wits. A slave
State to be formed out of the southern
counties deters this stripe of men from
advocating change in the Constitution.
It is a foolish phantom of the magma
ton these men Sec The chief plea for
a division of the State is the high taxes
the southern counties pay to support the
government. That portion of the State
which was to form the new State of
Colorado, has paid into the Treasury a
sum averaging less than thirty thousand
dollars per annum since the present
Constitution was formed "a paltry sum
to support separate State government.
This amount has been wholly restored
to that part of the State in the per diem
and mileage of its members of the Le-
gislature and the salaries of the District
Judges and other officers, so that really
it has done nothing towards sustaining
the government, and could do nothing to
support separate State organization
without an enormous addition to taxes
which are now the principal subject of
complaint.
The cry that has been in vogue from
the remotest period in the past, of the
corruption of the times, is raised by OPP
ponents to new Constitution, and we
are told there is imminent danger that
Z convention of any but honest men will
be selected by the people to frame a
new Constitution, and that King Stork
will have been substituted for King Log
that bad will be exchanged for worse
after all our pains taking for reform.
Such fears were INDUCED by the to-
ries in our revolution, and have their
origin in impractical or coward minds
now as then. Men Of small knowledge
of the world may tremble at the march
of mind and the struggle for progress,
but it is no part of the American charac-
ter to be deferred by idle fears. What
ought to be done is worth an effort to
do. We can only do what becomes us
as men and trust the result to Provi-
dence.
But the great bugbear which lies in
the way of convention is the alleged
expense attending it. We have already
shown the great saving to the State
that would accrue from reform in the
present Constitution. The expense of
producing this reform is easily ealcula-
ted. The Constitution provides that
the number of delegates to convention
is not to be less than the aggregate
number of Senators and Assemblymen
in the Legislature. The convention
then will consist of one hundred and
fifteen delegates. Allowing them to be
in session 43 days, the time occupied by
the convention which formed the pres
ent Constitution, and ten dollars per di-
EN- each, and we have S49,4!0. The
sum of $4,000 will cover the mileage
Of members, and $4,000 all other ex-
penses, such as pay of officers and
clerks, stationery, and printing. To
this add $4,000 for the cost of an cleo
ton throughout the State, and the
whole expense of reforming the organic
law of the State will in round numbers
reach $4,000. This is liberal esti-
mate but allowing the sum to be much
larger. the State will be in nothing the
loser during the first year of the work
ing of the new Constitution, and vastly
the gamer in pecuniary point of view
ever after.
If the inducements which are held up
to make an attempt at reform at the
root of the evils with which we are af-
fieted, are not sufficient to move the
people in the coming election, then may
we endure the present extravagant gov
eminent till wiser counsels. prevail
sometime in the far future, with becom-
ing fortitude and resignation. The bur-
thens. of taxation are to be felt heavier
and heavier rs the drainage of specie
grows closer and closer as it does day
by day, until the entire vacuity of pur
SEES and pockets shall rouse the people
to sense of the necessity OF curtailins
expenses. and the need of reform in the
Constitution of the State. The time II
coming sooner or later when the init