The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-30


 viding for "the holding of a. convention
 to revise and amend the Constitution | of this State" With it's general pro-
 visions you are all familiar. Among tie | remarkable provisions are several sec
 tions which declare 1t shall be the duty | of the Convention. to incorporate and 1 adopt "as q part of any Constitution
 1t may frame" specific declarations and l propositions which are set forth in ex- -tenso in the act itself. These relate to
 Taxation. removal of the capital, and
 changes in the exemption laws. In | this respect it differed somewhat from
 the act calling the convention of 1875, | which did not undertake to declare | specifically what the convention should do, but did declare what the Conven- tion should not do as to depriving any one in office of his right to hold it, | putting property or educational qualification upon the right to vote ] and denying power to do any act, but l frame and recommend for adoption Constitution ameadatoFy~ end revisoFy | of the constitution now in operation in this State" Both acts. required the submission of the work of the 'conven. tion- Both repudiated the doctrine of sovereignty in the convention, which prevailed here in 1S61-of which Yancey
 said in these very halls:, 'In this body
 is all power--no5 powers are rved
 from it--the people are here in the per-
 sons of their deputies; fife. liberty end
 property are in our hands; all our acts
 are supreme without ratification, be-
 cause they are the acts of the people,
 acting in their sovereign capacity."
 The legislation, regarding the two last
 State Conventions 60 different from the
 opinions entertained in 1861 of the pcrS-
 er of a convention. show a remarkable
 change in the public mind, in the last
 forty years.
 It is doubtless the true doctrine that
 representative of the people. to whom
 the constitution commits the duty of
 determining, in the first intance,
 whether a convention shau be held.
 may lawfully provide that the work of the convention shall not be opera
 tive. unless approved by the people. A convention called to revise the consti-
 tuition is not revolutionary body, but springs from the constitution itself.
 When once called into being. it is. by the terms of our present constitution, invested with exclusive power of re- vising and amending the constitution. As this power Is, by the constitution, affirmhtively committed to the coIlven- ton. the constitution thereby neces- sarily denies such power to any other body. The Legislature, therefore, can not lawfully exercise the power thus denied to it, either directly, or indirect ly, by declaring what the convention shall, or shall not, do in respect to amendments or changes in the consti- tuition. The General Assembly, how ever, under the Constitution Is the agent of the sovereign tQ determine, in A.. tion shall be called; and as auxiliary to that function has the power, under the constitution, to determine the constt- tuent clements Of the convention, when and where 1t shall assemble. the l pay of it's members, and the like. The l General Assembly also has ali power l not denied to it by the State end | Federal Constitutions, and may, as the representative of the Sovereign In tbe l matter of calling convention. prov ide 1 that the work of the convention shs II l not become operative until approved l by the people. The delegates to- the | Constitutional Convention. exercise. at | last, only a delegated power. It is a | startling doctrine that when the iep- | resentative of the Sovereign ,alls uLon | delegates to assemble to revise Con- stitution, that the Sovereign acting | through that same representative. may | not compel the delegates to suOmit l their work for the approval Of the | Sovereign. Otherwise the Sovei1iEn could never call a convention to re- wise the Constitution except on peril of putting the lives. liberties and institu- tions of the State absolutely in the un- controlled discretion of the delegates a thing utterly foreign to our institu- tions and subversive of the Sovereignty nt the people. It must be. therefore, that the provision in the act of the last General Assembly compelling the sub- mission of the Constitution to the peo- ple is Tn all respects legal and valid, though the question is now of no mo- uAnt. since the convention has resolved to submit the Constitution for the ap-