The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1868-06-12
THE PROPOSED vHONGREL
CONSTITUTION.



Convention already foot up the SUM
OF TWO HUNDRED AND ONE
THOUSAND DOLLARS, and
that there are other large allowances
yet to be made for services rendered
under its law
This heavy expense, it will be re-
membered, is hourly swelling, at an
enormous rate The Convention, after
sitting nearly four months, at charge
on the tax payers of TEN DOLLARS
A DAY FOR EACH MEMBER, and
heavy contingent expenditures beside,
simply to propose such a change in
the Constitution, as could have been
effected in three days without authori-
ty of Congress continued its existence,
in the persons of Committee of Five,
with pay at ten dollars a day, each.
This illegal committee has appoint
ed three Commissioners in each coun-
ty, at SIX DOLLARS A DAY, to su-
perintend the elections, notwithstand-
ing that dnty is devolved upon the
Registrars appointed by the Command
| ing General, under the law of Con-
gress. There are sixty-one counties
in the State. The consequence is that
one hundred and eighty three of these
sotcalled Commissioners have been, or
will be, appointed, at an aggregate
cost to our tax ridden people of ONE
THOUSAND q NINEMY-EIGH
DOLLARS A DAY, to perform
no duties whatever beyond those
which are ordered to be discharged by
the Registrars under appointment Of
| the Commanding General.
These immense sums are to be
wrung from all classes of our impov-
erished people, without any considera-
ton valuable to any of them, in order
to enrich a class of penniless adven-
turers, who have swarmed into the
State, to prey upon the fruits Of their
toll.
But these burthens will have just
commenced when the proposed Con-
stitution goes into effect, if indeed,
our people are to be inflicted with that
curse.
By section s of article IS, it is pro-
vided that the Legislature, elected
under the Constitution, shall meet on
the second Monday after it's ratifica-
ton. This Legislature will be COM
posed of one hundred and forty mem =
bers If the Radicals should have a
majority, it is to be inferred that they
will vote themselves the per diem
fixed by the Convention-$10 for
each member, which will foot up, in
the aggregate, daily expenditure of
ONE THOUSAND, FOUR HUN
DRIED DOLLAR RS! How many
months it would remain in session, in
order to realise fortunes, at the ex-
pense of the people, we can only con-
lecture by the length Of the Conven-
ton session. 1t may be four months,
or it may be from years end to years
end. Once fastened upon the State
treasury, like a leech, we know of no
agency, short of revolution, which can
shake it off.
But the expen es of the Legislature
itself, enormous as they would be, will
be mere trille compared with tie
sums which would be appropriated to
carry into operation the gigantic
schemes proposed in the constitution
under the head of Public Works, Militia
Common Schools, DC, to pamper and
enrich the swarm of hungry vultures
who would be privileged to feed upon
the substance of the people. 1t re
quires no stretch of the imagination to
see that an annual tax of MILLIONS
OF DOLLARS would be levied to
meet these demands They would
necessarily absorb all the revenues o.
the people. They would bring prop
erty of all kinds to the block to be
sacrificed under the sheriffs' hammer
They would bring those who are il
comparatively comfortable circum
stances, to penury, and will take The
last morsel of bread from the mouths
of starving women and children. Al
classes, and both races, will groan IN
der this affecting burden.
The destruction of property, the dim
mutton Of values, the arrangement o
labor, the failure of crops joined to tn
taxes levied by the federal and State
governments for the past three years
have brought famine to the doors o
many OF our people. But they hav
experienced nothing in the way o
suffering comparable to the burthel
: which will fall upon them, should thi