The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-05-14
NEW YORK PRECEDENTs.

NEW YORK PRECEDENTs.
There are some historical facts
connected with the framing of the
first New York Constitution which
will be read with interest in Hawaii
at this time. To begin with, the
instrument was the work of one
man who reported it to a conven- |
ton, which in turn legalized it, |
with few alterations; whereupon
the new charter was promulgated
and became the organic law of the
infant State without passing the
ordeal of a popular vote.
Briefly summed up, the details of
the proceeding were as follows:
The convention, which was a self
chosen assembly Of leading men,
met at White Plains, July 9, 1875. |
There were thirty-eight members,
or one more than will sit in the
Hawaiian Convention of May goth.
A committee, headed by John Jay,
was appointed to report frame
of Government on the Goth of
August following. This committee
left the matter in the hands Of Mr..
Jay, who retired to some place in
the country and began work. Said
Judge William Jay of this event i'll
his fathers career:
Upon rejecting on the charac-
ter and feelings of the convention,
he thought it prudent to omit in
the draft several provisions that
appeared to him improvements and
afterward to propose them sepa-
rately as amendments. 4
1t is probable that the convention
was ultra democratic, for I've heard
him observe that another turn of
the winch would have cracked the
cord.
1t has been inferred that Mr.. Jay
used the old colonial charters as
his models, which in turn had been
based upon the approved results of
the corporation laws Of ancient
Rome, the English Trade Guild of
the middle ages, the East India
Company of Elizabeth; but to these
models he added from the treasury
of his own knowledge of colonial
conditions and needs, remembering
the ludicrous issue of Locke's
Fundamental Constitution for the
Carolinas An essay in theoretical
government which had failed from
having taken no account, as our
woman suffragists would take no
account here, Of the peculiar local
status to which the proposed laws
would apply.
The convention, owing to the
vicissitudes of the war, did not
meet until March II, I777, when
James Duane read to that body the
carefully prepared draft of Mr.
Jays work. The constitution was
thereupon gone over by sections
and adopted in almost its original
form on April 20, I777. Two days
after Robert Benson, secretary of
the convention, stood upon a barrel
outside of the court house in
Kingston and read the constitution
to the people who had been sum
moned, at II o'clock in the morn
ing, by the bell on the Dutch
church. Three thousand copies
were Immediately printed at Fish
kill, and distributed.
1t is interesting to note further
that the original source of the
conventions authority was the
meeting in New York City in T774
ofleading patriots, assembled under
a general call and in defiance of the
authority of the Royal Governor
This meeting ended in the appoint
met of Committee Of Fifty one"
after which the treeholders of the
city formed Committee Of Sixty
in its place, somewhat as the Ad-
visory and Executive Councils Of
Hawaii were organized in lieu of
the Committee of Thirteen.
These parallels are quite remark
able in the way they show that
Hawaii, in its initial efforts to gain
the status of republic, is proceed
ing by, and has all along been
guided by, the principles which
the founders of the greatest State
in the American Union exemplihed.
1t is to be hoped that the vicious at
tacks of the STAR on the Oceanic Steam
ship Company's service are not inspired
by the Government.-Bull
THEY are not, we assure you.