Partial Vindication
Although its ambitious proposals were all rejected, the convention's work was not for nothing. A series of constitutional amendments passed over the next few years incorporated many of the same changes into the Constitution.
Amendments XIV through XIX have a clear "post-convention" character to them, having been adopted by the 1854 and 1855 Legislatures and approved by the people on May 23, 1855.
- Amendment XIV provided for plurality voting for all civil officers of the state. This ensured that the situation occurring in 1850, where the legislature decided the gubernatorial election, would not be repeated.
- Amendment XV provided that state elections be held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, harmonizing with Federal elections.
- Amendment XVI enacted reform of the Governor's Council, now to be popularly elected in eight single-member districts.
- Amendment XVII provided for popular election of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Treasurer, Auditor, and Attorney General.
- Amendment XVIII prohibited state funding of sectarian schools. Voted on as Proposition Number Six in 1853, this was the proposal of the Convention that came closest to passing that year, which is unsurprising given the strength of the Know Nothing movement in Massachusetts at the time.
- Amendment XIX provided for the popular election of sheriffs, registers of probate, clerks of the courts, and District Attorneys, but not judges as had been specified in the proposed constitution.
Amendments XXI and XXII also bear the stamp of the convention's influence; they were adopted by the 1856 and 1857 legislatures and approved by the people on May 1, 1857.
- Amendment XXI finally fixed the size of the House of Representatives at 240 and abolished the per-town apportionment that had been so problematic. While this was not part of the convention's package of proposals, it was the convention that "gave the people a well-defined program of construction for matters which required change"; it was from this new spirit of reform harnessed by the Convention that Amendment XXI emerged.
- Amendment XXII reformed the Senate, transforming it from a house whose representation was based on wealth and land to one whose members were drawn from 40 districts of equal population and who did not have property qualifications.
Finally, Amendment XXXIV, adopted by the 1891 and 1892 legislatures and approved by the people on November 8, 1892, abolished the property requirement for Governors and Lieutenant Governors.
Read more about this topic: Massachusetts Constitutional Convention Of 1853
Famous quotes containing the words partial and/or vindication:
“And meanwhile we have gone on living,
Living and partly living,
Picking together the pieces,
Gathering faggots at nightfall,
Building a partial shelter,
For sleeping and eating and drinking and laughter.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“Both gossip and joking are intrinsically valuable activities. Both are essentially social activities that strengthen interpersonal bonds—we do not tell jokes and gossip to ourselves. As popular activities that evade social restrictions, they often refer to topics that are inaccessible to serious public discussion. Gossip and joking often appear together: when we gossip we usually tell jokes and when we are joking we often gossip as well.”
—Aaron Ben-Ze’Ev, Israeli philosopher. “The Vindication of Gossip,” Good Gossip, University Press of Kansas (1994)