New-York tribune., 1867-03-23
STATE CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM


whether the People are satisfied with " the
Constitution AZ it is.' or desire an opportunity
| to improve it. A vote was taken accordingly
! last November, and very decisive majority
| (352854 against 256,36D directed that Conven-
ton should be called and held for the purpose
| aforesaid.
The present Legislature (the Assembly
chosen at tho time tho above vote
was taken), convened on the 1st of Jan
uary-the Republicans having sn ample ma
| jority in either House, while it was well Known
that the Republicans had generally voted for,
the Democrats against, Convention. II was
the plain, imperative duty of that Legislature
but especially of its Republican majority. not
| only TO order the requisite election of dele
gates. but to order il forthwith. 80 as to give
the People the fullest opportunity for dcliber-
ate and careful selection.
Yet three -fourths of the session have elapsed
and the election is not yet ordered, though no
one has proposed TO hold it otherwise than
within the next month. Every art has been
exhausted in inventing pretexts for delay ana
| in getting up paltry squabbles over petty de-
| tails, with manifest intent either to preclude
| any election whatever or to throw it over to
next Fall, thereby postponing the Convention
| to the Summer of 1863, when the imminence OF
a Presidential Election will 80 infiame party
spirit and engross public interest as to render
A proper revision of our Constitution all but
hopeless. And it is plainly calculated that tho
People will be so wearied and disgusted by
these shameful delays as to be disinclined even
to hear Of the Convention.
After every pretext for delay had been ex-
a,,I N
bill, and the Senate passed another one differ
ent. The Assembly bill proposed the choice of
thirty-two delegates by General Ticket-no
electOr to vote for more than sixteen of them:
the intent being to enable each party to send
its sixteen best men without regard to local or
general ascendancy. The Senate voted down
this feature which had been 1--WE suspect be-
cause it had BEEN recommended by the
Governor in his Message. Other than
these, the two Houses agreed that there
should be one hundred and twenty eight
delegates chosen: but the Senate wished
them chosen by Senate districts Uour from
EACH; while the Assembly would have them
chosen Zone EACH from the several Assembly
districts And, beside these. the Senate pro
posed that all citizens should vote. regardless
of the existing disfranchsement of all Blacks
but such as are worth $3.50 each in unincum-
bered real estate; while the Assembly voted
that the election should be- made by those who
are legal voters by the terms OF our existing
Constitution. There were some minor differ
ences, but only these were essential.
Thus at dead lock, the two Houses at length
agreed on a conference, which was had, and
resulted in compromise. by which the Senate
| al. ..-t.,
| State delegates, half chosen by either party,
| and the Assembly to give way on most other
points. This compromise was promptly ratified
by the Senate.
In the Assembly, however-as our readers
have seen-a very different spirit was mani
tested. The subject came up as a special order
on Thursday, and Messrs. Hiscock of 0non-
daga, Parker of Cayuga, and II. Smith of AL
bany (Republicans) We'd with Mr. Weed of
Clinton (DemOcraD in argumentative hostility
to the compromise agreed on. True, the rea-
| sons (or pretexts) for this hostility were as
repugnant as oil and water; "but any stick
"will do TO beat dog :" and it was soon
manifest that the report was to be voted down.
though Mr.. Lttlejohn of Oswego, Speaker
Pitts, and others, struggled forcibly against the
tide. When a vote was at length reached, 30
much of the report as proposed that the 1923
delegates should be chosen by Senate dis
tricts was beaten by 81 Yeas to so Nays-every
Democrat, of course, voting in the negative,
with palpabe intent to defeat any Convention
whatever. And then so much of the report as
allows citizens to vote regardless of the exist
ing dsfranchisement of all but the weather
Blacks was likewise voted down: Yeas As !;
| Nays 73-every Democrat again voting Nay,
Mr.. Weed of Clinton alone excepted. So the
Assembly rejected the report of its own con-
ferees, and thus postponed indefinitely con-
! clusiOn which should have been reached at
least two months ago.
II is difficult to reconcile such action with an
honest earnest desire to obey the public will
expressed in the vote directing the call of
Convention.
We preferred the Assembly bill to that of
the Senate, and even to that reported by the
conferees. Yet it seems TO us that the time
for higgling as to details had passed, and that
every one who really meant TO have a Conven-
ton should have sustained the conferees report.
- Mr.. Charles s. Spencer, in meeting of
the Republican State Committee directly after
ward, submitted resolves reprobating the fac
tiOus course Of O majority of the Assembly,
more especially as evinced in voting down
that clause which establishes Impartial Suf-
frage in the choice of delegates to the Conven-
ton. The Committee-mainly on the ground
of lack of authority in the premises-laid
these resolves on the table by a vote of 10 to
g. 1t is but just to the Republicans who voted
in the majority to say that their every avowal
was in favor Of establishing Impartial Suffrage
by the Convention. There was no hesitation