a public nature, were considered in a disinterestedness of purpose and with an unflinching determination to dispose of them on principles of liberality and fairness the individual rights of the people, and their corporate franchises were not forgotten or neglected, but, on the contrary, watched with the most anxious solicitude, and designed to be securely protected against encroachment of every character and from every quarter.

Perhaps no better exposition can be given of what the Convention did accomplish in behalf of the people, with whose interests it was intrusted, than by quoting a portion of its official address, published on submitting the Constitution to the citizens of New York. It says:

They have reorganized the Legislature; established more limited districts for the election of the members of that body, and wholly separated it from the exercise of judicial power; the most important State officers have been made. elective by the people of the State; and most of the officers of cities, towns, and counties are made elective by the voters of the locality they serve; they have abolished a host of useless offices; they have sought at once to reduce and decentralize the patronage of the executive government; they have rendered inviolate the funds devoted to education. After repeated failures in the Legislature, they have provided a judicial system, adequate to the wants of a free people, rapidly increasing in arts, culture, commerce, and population. They have made provision for the payment of the whole State debt, and the completion of the public works begun. While that debt is in the progress of payment, they have provided a large contribution from the canal revenues towards, the current expenses of the State, and sufficient for that purpose when the State debt shall have been paid; and have placed strong safeguards against the recurrence of debt and the improvident expenditure of the public money. They have agreed on important provisions in relation to the mode of creating incorporations, and the liability of their members, and have sought to render the business of banking more safe and responsible. They have incorporated many

useful provisions more effectually to secure the people in their rights of person and property against the abuses of delegated power. They have modified the power of the Legislature, with the direct consent of the people, to amend the Constitution from time to time, and have secured to the people of the State the right once in twenty years to pass directly on the question whether they will call a Convention for the revision of the Constitution."

How far the Convention succeeded in consummating the particular purposes of its creation could best be determined, under ordinary circumstances, by the influence and effects of its action upon the prosperity of the State, in the development of its internal resources, the contentment of the people, and in the protection of their individual rights and corporate franchises. This would have been a very just criterion by which to adjudge the wisdom of the Constitution of 1846, had all the provisions of that Constitution been allowed to go into effect, but unfortunately they were not.

The government was progressing tranquilly under it. The credit of the State was redeemed, the enlargement of the canals and the construction of railroads were progressing gradually and safely, the people were content and prosperous, when, taking advantage of the general political calm, partizan conspirators and insidious speculators excited such a popular clamor in favor of "a more speedy enlargement of the canals," that party organizations yielded to the demand, and the people, by a small reluctant vote, consented to open the financial provisions of the Constitution before its salutary and beneficial effects had been fully realized. The Republican party, then in control of the State government, assumed the responsibility of making the nine million loan, authorized by this amendment to the Constitution, and which was to be applied to the enlargement and completion of the canals. Not more than one half of this large draft of nine millions of dollars upon the finances of the State, made ostensibly for the use of the canals, is found to have been appropriated to that end, or to any other purpose in which the State was interested or benefited. In this manner the primary and most import

ant feature of the Constitution of 1846 was destroyed when it had only partially accomplished its purposes, and by this means the state treasury was again brought to bankruptcy. Had any benefit at all commensurate with the value of the investment, or with the sacrifice of sound principles in the management of the public finances, accrued to the internal improvements, an apology, to some extent, would exist for the policy pursued by the Republican party; but we maintain that had the Constitution been allowed to stand, the canal enlargement would have been further advanced to-day than it now is, and the increase of the State debt to the amount of nine millions of dollars avoided at the same time.

Immediately on the adoption of the amendment to the Constitution conferring upon the Legislature additional power over the State finances, the spirit of encroachment and extravagance that had characterized the dominant party of this State previously while in existence, re-appeared at Albany under the auspices of the Republicans, taking full possession of the government, and evincing a still more embittered partizan intolerance.

Although only one feature of the Constitution, that relating to finances, and forming a bar to speculation, was repealed, other measures were deemed necessary for the promotion of aims, if possible, still more hurtful and destructive to the public interest than the depletion of the State treasury.

It will be seen by the quotations which we have made from their published address that one of the leading purposes of that Convention was to reduce and decentralize the patronage of the executive government, and to secure the election of officers of cities, villages, and towns, by the voters of the locality they serve. The provision of the Constitution conferring upon the people of the several localities in the State, this right, was at first regarded too clear to admit of controversy; but as time progressed, the Republicans, having failed to secure the control of the national government, determined to hazard an obvious innovation upon the Constitution by legislative enactments, controverting not only its spirit, but, as we conceive, its express provisions, for

the sole purpose of increasing party patronage and power, regardless alike of the rights of the people or the interests of the State.

The Legislature of 1857 accordingly passed a series of acts depriving New York and other cities of franchises supposed to be inalienable, and clearly guaranteed by the Constitution. of 1846, withdrawing from the citizens of the municipalities the election of their own officers, and by legislative and executive usurpation of authority, displaced other officers, elected by the people, by appointees of the central government. Thus was the second fundamental provision of the Constitution unrealized, if not entirely abrogated, as was the first, relative to the subject of finances.

It must be evident to the mind of any candid person that the evils of which the people have just cause of complaint, and which have grown to such formidable proportions since the adoption of the Constitution of 1846, are not only not traceable to any defect in that instrument, but are, in reality, the result of an abrogation of its provisions in one case, and a gross evasion of them in the other. Entertaining, as we believe a large majority of the people do, views in consonance with those here expressed, they wisely voted down the Republican proposition to further tamper with the Constitution, conceiving that no good could accrue to the State by placing its organic law at the disposal of a party whose whole history proves it as unworthy of confidence as it is unscrupulous in the exercise of power. It is a cause for congratulation that the proposition for a constitutional Convention, at this time, was repudiated by so decisive a majority. It is not pretended that the Constitution of 1846 is perfect in all its parts; but it is just, liberal, and democratic in its provisions, and has been accepted as a model by many other States, and is regarded by enlightened, conservative statesmen as equal, in every respect, to the best State Constitution ever devised.

Notwithstanding the emphatic vote against calling a Convention, at the late election, it is believed that had the Democratic party possessed a safe majority in the State, the

vote would have been given in favor of a Convention; not for the object had in view by those who passed the law directing the vote to be taken on the question of a Convention, but for decidedly the opposite purpose-for the purpose of restoring the financial provision repealed in 1854, and to make more plain and secure the right of the people to municipal self-government.

No doubt exists, in our opinion, that this would have been the result of the vote, could a guarantee have been given that the Convention would proceed at once to restore the Constitution to its original condition, and to make more clear, if that were possible, its provisions relative to municipal rights.

If these views are correct, it will be seen that the objections lately raised against the Constitution, and the desire for a Convention, did not emanate, as was asserted in the papers, from the people; as, although the people have suffered the State government to pass into the hands of the Republican party temporarily, there is no proof that they would be trusted with supreme power in the State. It will scarcely be questioned that a fair interpretation of the causes that led to the late vote against entrusting this party with power to form a new Constitution, demonstrates the justness of our conclusions.

This majority against the Republican call for a Convention proves another fact no less worthy the reflection of the politicians of New York, namely, that the State government belongs to the Democratic party, and would be in its possession by a large majority, were it possible to conduct the canvass solely on the merits of the internal policy of the party, free from all external influence and foreign issues growing out of a misconception of the attitude of the National Democracy relative to the question of territorial government and the admission of new States. It was these foreign issues that placed the State government in the hands of the Republicans, while the domestic or State policy of the Democratic party was unequivocally and emphatically endorsed by the vote respecting the call of a constitutional Convention. This rule for determining the relative strength