Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1869-08-12
The Council of CensOrs.
SECOND SESSION.
MINORITY REPORT OF SPECIAL
COMMITTEE ON CHANGING
THE MODE OF AMENDING THE
CONSTITUTION

Tie minordyo Of the Comntttee on changing
tie mooie IF pr0posi1ag amendments 10
the Constitution beg leace 70 report
In the opinion of the minority Of this
committee there were good reasons for
adopting the present system of amending
the Constitution, in 1893, seventy-si1
years ago, that do not now exist. Then
but very few newspapers, if any, existed
in the State, but few books our free
schools were extremely limited in their
means to impart education to the rising
generation, and it is not to become a
wonder the leaders of that day consider
ed it unsafe, or at least not best, to trust
the amending of the Constitution in the
hands of the people directly.
They looked about them, and at last
borrowed and adopted system from
Pennsylvania, never adopted by another
State except Vermont, and long ago dis
carded in the former State and better
mode substituted therefor. 1t is evident
that the people at the present time take
but little interest in amending thoir Con-
stitution, nor have they since 1850 They
have become so different that it Is "A mat
ter of doubt whether one in ten really
knows and understands what our Consti-
tuition is, or how it is amended and the
question arises. Is 1t best or expedient to
perpetuate and continue system 80 lit
tie Understood, and in which so little in
terest is manifested. 1t should be brought
home nearer to the people they should
have direct influence instead OF AL indi-
rect and remote one. This If al age of
improvement, and Republican govern
ment is never wiser nor better. IN our
State, at least, and at the present time,
than the people who elect it and such Il
government fails TO answer it- deLign
when the people become Indifferent 70 its
workings.
The people OF Vermont are at the pre-
sent time vastly more intelligent, better
informed, better educated than formerly,
and no good reason exists in the opinion
Of the'ninority for not trusting them di-
rectly in the final amendments to their
constitution. They are capable OF self
government, and it ia eminently proper
and in accordance with Republican prin-
ciples and Democratic ideas to suffer the
people TO manage and control their own
/ political affairs in their own way. They
need no Council of thirteen, nor any con-
vention of two hundred and forty in num-
Der, the smaller number to prescribe to
them what il for their interest. and the
larger to say to them whether they shall
have it or not. We propose to let them
| judge for themselves once in ten years,
whether theil fundamental laws need re-
vising, and the privilege to do it by their
own Legislature. and by their own votes
at the ballot box.
At the formation of our governments,
| teX ,yil "a
into two political parties-Federal and
Republican The former took the ground
that the people were not to be trusted
with the powers of self-government the
latter contended that they were safe de-
positaries of this power. In the first
twelve years of our national government,
the former, the old Federal party, ran its
race, and was suspended by the latter, the
Republican party, which has ever eince
retained its ascendency, though some
more radical ideas, under the name of
Democracy, have from time to time been
migrated on to the old Republican stock
of principles. The Federal party in Yer
mont soon shared the fate of the national
party, to be however, temporarily reviv-
ed for two or three years in the last war
with Great Britain, when it sank out OF
existence and became among the things
that were, but not again to be. And how
it has happened that one of the old relics
of the old Federal times has been retained
until this day, SO anti-republican in its
provisions, can be accounted for only by
the indifference and apathy of the people
and by suffering it, as it were, to pass out
of memory; for it is self-evident, by the
meagre vote given for this Council, and
by other incidents that might be men.
toned, that the people know and care but
little about the changes of their Consti
tuition.
It may be said that the Council has
other duties besides amending the Cousti
tuition; they are to review the legislation
for the last septennial period. But i.
this sufficient reason for retaining the
present system How much has this
amounted to True, in the war of 1912
when party spirit ran to fever heat, the
Council censured some acts of our Leeis
lature but the acts had been passed and
the effects gone by. 1t undid nothing, il
righted nothing, SO far as the action O
the Council went, but the obnoxious act,
themselves helped the party making
them out of power, as always will be thu
, esse; and this is sufficient remedy
against wrong legislation. The peopl,
viii change their rulers II they are found
nnfaithful, and the ballot-box is consid
cred sufficient remedy in other States
together with the powers OF the Suprem,