The Convention
The Constitutional Convention met at 12 noon on Wednesday, May 4, 1853, at the State House in Boston. There were around 420 delegates, though often substantially fewer were actually present for votes. For instance, on a vote taken in the session of July 28, regarding Proposition Number Five, only 165 members–less than half the full body–were present and voting.
There is no record of any oath having been used to swear in the members. Every delegate was male.
On the first day of the convention, a president was elected. Of 394 votes cast, the winner, Nathaniel Prentice Banks, received 250. George N. Briggs got 137 votes, with four others winning one vote each.
Also on the convention's opening day, one man from each county was selected in order to sit on a committee to establish how best to proceed. They reported back two days later with a recommendation of standing committees. These were as follows:
| # | Name | Members |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Standing Committee on so much of the Constitution as is contained in the Preamble and Declaration of Rights. | 13 |
| 2 | Standing Committee on so much of the Constitution as relates to the Frame of Government, Elections by the Legislature, &c. | 13 |
| 3 | Standing Committee on so much of the Constitution as relates to the Senate. | 21 |
| 4 | Standing Committee on so much of the Constitution as relates to the House of Representatives. | 21 |
| 5 | Standing Committee on so much of the Constitution as relates to the Governor, &c. | 13 |
| 6 | Standing Committee on so much of the Constitution as relates to the Militia, &c. | 13 |
| 7 | Standing Committee on so much of the Constitution as relates to the Lieutenant-Governor, &c. | 13 |
| 8 | Standing Committee on so much of the Constitution as relates to the Council, &c. | 13 |
| 9 | Standing Committee on so much of the Constitution as relates to the Secretary and Treasurer, and the Attorney-General, Solicitor-General, Sheriffs, Coroners, Registers of Probate, and Notaries Public, &c. | 13 |
| 10 | Standing Committee on so much of the Constitution as relates to the Judiciary, &c. | 13 |
| 11 | Standing Committee on so much of the Constitution as relates to the University at Cambridge, &c. | 13 |
| 12 | Standing Committee on so much of the Constitution as relates to the Encouragement of Literature. | 13 |
| 13 | Standing Committee on so much of the Constitution as relates to Oaths and Subscriptions, Incompatibility and Exclusion from Office, Pecuniary Qualifications, &c. | 13 |
| 14 | Standing Committee on so much of the Constitution as relates to the Qualification of Voters, &c. | 13 |
| 15 | Standing Committee on so much of the Constitution as relates to Amendments and Enrolment. | 13 |
Additionally, during the course of its business, the convention found it expedient to organize Committees on Vacancies; the Adoption of the Principle of Plurality in Elections; the Loan and Credit of the State; Banking Corporations; General Corporations; and on the Order of Business. Finally, although the legislature had abandoned this device some years previous, the convention met several times as a committee of the whole; this allowed it to circumvent some of the cumbersome rules of procedure normally used and to quickly gauge the support of a particular measure. As for petitions, they "could be presented to the Convention only on introduction by a delegate."
Fifteen ministers were in attendance; on the second day of the convention, Rev. Warren Burton was elected chaplain from among these. Of 385 votes cast, he received 224, with Lyman Beecher garnering 129, James D. Farnsworth, 17, and the rest one or two votes apiece.
Other prominent attendees included Charles Sumner, Henry Wilson, Robert Rantoul, Jr., and George N. Briggs.
The convention came up with eight proposals. After 72 days of work, it adjourned sine die on Tuesday, August 2, 1853, at 1:54 am. Before doing so, the Committee on the Pay Roll reported an expense figure of $114,092 for the convention.
Read more about this topic: Massachusetts Constitutional Convention Of 1853
Famous quotes containing the word convention:
“Every one knows about the young man who falls in love with the chorus-girl because she can kick his hat off, and his sister’s friends can’t or won’t. But the youth who marries her, expecting that all her departures from convention will be as agile or as delightful to him as that, is still the classic example of folly.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)
“No convention gets to be a convention at all except by grace of a lot of clever and powerful people first inventing it, and then imposing it on others. You can be pretty sure, if you are strictly conventional, that you are following genius—a long way off. And unless you are a genius yourself, that is a good thing to do.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)