Analysis of The Defeat
Had the convention submitted its proposed changes as individual amendments, "undoubtedly it would have proved a success," as evidenced by the adoption of most of its proposals as amendments in the coming years. The trouble was that it "did not know where to begin and where to end." On the one hand, it left the House of Representatives elected by the same method as before, and representation, since 1780 a contentious issue, "had been the real cause for the convocation of the convention." On the other hand, it took the radical step of reducing judges' terms from life to ten years for the SJC and Court of Common Pleas and three years for probate judges. This change "was too much; it brought down a veritable storm of excoriation upon the convention and its work, and resulted in the flat rejection of the whole."
Read more about this topic: Massachusetts Constitutional Convention Of 1853
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