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ved by the court.) Recorders of deeds and Registers of wills, shall, at the times and pla ces of election of Representatives, be elected by the citizens of each county, or the districts over which the jurisdiction of said courts extend, and shall be commissioned by the Governor. They shall hold their offices for three years, if they shall so long behave themselves well, and until their successors shall be duly qualified. The Legis'ature shall designate by law the number of persons in each county, who shall hold said offices, and how many and which of said offices shall be held by held by one person. Vacancies in any of the said offices shall be filled by an appointment to be m de by the Governor, to continue until the next general election, and until a successor shall be elected and qualified as aforesaid.

Ade a new section, to be called section seven as follows:

SECT. 7. Justices of the Peace and Allermen shall be elected by the citizens of the several districts at the times and places of electing Constables, and hold their office for five years, if they so long behave themselves well: the number in each district to be fixed by the Legislature.

Add a new article to be called article ten, as follows:

ART. X. SECT. 1. The public debt of this Commonwealth shall never exceed the sum of thirty mili ns of dollars.

ART. XI. SECT. 1. Any amendment or amendments to this Constitution may be proposed in the Senate or Assembly, and if the same shall be agreed to by a majority of the members elected to each of the two Houses, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be entered on their journ is, with the yes an I nays taken thereon; and the "Secretary of the Commonwea'th hall cause the same to be published, as soon as prac icable, in at least one newspaper in every county in which a newspaper shall be published; and if in the Legislature next afterwards chosen, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by two-thirds of all the members elected to each House, the Secretary of the Commonwealth shall caus the same again to be published in minner aforesaid, and such proposed amendment or amendments shall be submited to the people at such time, at least three months di tant, and in sich minner as the Legislature shall prescribe; and if the people shall approve and ratify such amendment or amendments, by a majority of the qualified voters of this State who shall vote thereon, such amen Iment or amendments shall become a part of the Constitution.

Mr. BELL moved to amend the amendment of the gentleman from Bea. ver, (Mr. DICKEY) by striking out all after the word "That", and inserting the following: The Convention do now resolve itself into committee of the whole, for the purpose of further considering the sixth article of the Constitution".

Mr. DICKEY opposed the motion. If it was the wish of the friends of reform, to avoid a direct vote on the questions before the Convention, they would support the motion of the gentleman from Chester, which went to cut off all hope of a decision upon them. But, if they wished to do what the people desired, they would vote down this proposition. The sincerity of the friends of reform, whether conservative or radical, was now to be tested.

Mr. BELL said, the proposition of the gentleman from Beaver was that of the gentleman from Adams, with the addition of the motion of the gentleman from Butler, in relation to the Judiciary. It put a new nose on an old face. It struck him to be, in its tendency, a direct and positive insult to the Convention. The people deputed us to propose amendments.We had consumed many weeks in determining a mode for doing this. One proposed to refer the subjects to standing committees, another to spe cial committees, and another proposed to consider them in committee of the whole. But, it was never proposed that we should refer it to any par ticular man, to go to his chamber and prepare a Constitution, and bring it to us now to swallow as a whole. We had taken up the reports of the

committees separately and distinctly, and had thus far progressed in their discussion and disposition, when, just as the Convention have arrived at a point when their minds are distracted, when they are making preparations for a recess, when speeches fail to command any attention, then gentlemen, who had shed tears over the Constitution, and talked of wearing crape in token of their grief at its destruction, throw themselves in the way of the reformers with this proposition. There were many things in it to which he gave his assent, and would vote for at a proper time; but, he would not take the subject out of the hands of the Convention.If it was improper, at any time, to proceed in this manner, much more improper would it be now. What does the gentleman from Beaver pro pose ? That we should take his Constitution. Some parts of it, he says, have been agreed to in committee-other parts have been postponed.He is solicitous that we should let it pass, and, he says, we may amend the objectionable points on the second reading. The gentleman takes up all these unpledged propositions, and shapes them into a resolution, and asks-he. who this morning said he was a reformer-he asks us to take it up and pass it, and submit it to the people of Pennsylvania. How ought such a proposition to be received? In what spirit! My feelings scarcely allow me to speak my sentiments in regard to it, and consider it nearly an insult. He hoped this procedure had nothing to do with the politics of the country. It was not, he hoped, predicated on any idea of favoring any political party or object. But, he could see no reason why these gentlemen should be so anxious to finish the labors of the Convention at a single blow. The people did not elect one man to frame a Constitution, but a hundred and thirty-three. So far we have carried out their wishes. We had deliberated gravely and acted cautiously thus far, and were going on. What would the people say to this new course? If we' submited the amendments, they would say to us, in a tone that will not admit of reply-you have shown you selves unfaithful servants--you have taken the proposition of one who has proclaimed himself a conservative and swallowed it whole, without discrimination or deliber tion. I, (said Mr. B.) protest against this course-first, because it is indecorous, and second, because it destroys what we should be most solicitous to preserve- deliberation and discussion. The resolution contains no new Judicial system. The gentleman from Adams offers this moment us proposition. After the impressive and eloquent remarks made this morning, by the venerable Chairman of the Judiciary committee, (Mr. HOPKINSON) on this subj ct, he prepares and brings forward this momentous proposi tion. The gentleman from Beaver has made up his mind, and is ready to vote upon it. He tells us that he is ready, and that they are ready to vote upon the question of the Judiciary. He (Mr. B.) must be allowed to say, that any who was ready to pronounce his final judgment on this great question, had not considered it in all its aspects, or viewed it in all its vast magnitude. The education and habits of the gentleman unfited him for taking such a subject into a full and correct view. What gentlemen could come here and tell us, that a hundred and thirty-three men sent here for deliberation, had not been able to say, that they are ready to decide this question. Such gentlemen must be possessed of singular comprehen siveness of mind. I am not ready. I have given laborious study to it, and I am not ready. Why, I ask gentlemen, are we to be forced-driven,

prematurely, to this decision? The only shadow of a reason given for it is. that the people expect it. I deny it emphatically. They expert nothing unreasonable. The people are too intelligent to require any thing so monstrous in its chracter. They required us to prepare and mature amendments, and when they were properly matured, to submit them. Is there any reason, then, why this proposition should succeed? Every attempt to divert us from the plan which we are pursuing in committee has failed. More than once the Convention had refused, by yeas and nays, to go out of its regular path; and, more than once, a proposition to ring the business befne the committee, on the Ju diciary question, his failed. And why, because, it was said, the people were more imediately interested on the question of Executive patronage, than in any other. It was said that, but for this inordinate power of the Executive, the convention would never have been called; and yet, before we have finishel the article, we are now called upon by the resolution of the gentleman from Fayette, (Mr. FULLER) to pass it over and take up the Judi i ry. The same gentleman who had voted to give it the go-by, now pressed it upon us. The gentleman from Beaver asks us to drop every thing in the middle of our action in the committee, for the purpose of » what?—of expressing our opinions! And what effect would this expres. sion of opinion have upon the public, and upon this Convention? But one effect could be expected from it, and that was to humble the members of this body, and to pla e them in a ridien'ous light before the people.— He should vote against all these propositions, and he trusted that his mo tion would prevail.

Mr. REIGART said, he scarcely knew in what terms to express his hosti'ity to the motion of the gentleinan from Beaver. It was said this morning that the consideration of these subjects would occupy some months, and yet we are urged by the gentleman over the way to adopt his project at once, and for what? The gentleman tells us we should adopt this amendment for the purpose of giving our constituents the opportunity of procuring the services of certain gentlemen in certain offices. Are we to a lopt this amendment for the purpose of favoring two or three men in this body? Are we to adopt it, to help the election of certain gentlemen to t'e Legislature, or to Congress? We have been told by gentlemen of high character and respectability that the Judiciary question will occupy the attenti in of the House for a mon h; yet we are now called upon to take the vote upon it in an hour, an litis to be the work of one man, instead of that of one hundred and thirty-three. He protested against any such course, and said he came here for no such purpose. The Reformers of this onvention have been called upon by the gentleman from Beaver, to come up to the support of this proposition; gentlemen were called upon to rally in support of this measure of Refor. Mr. R. called himself a Reformer to some extent he was no radical. in the sense in which the term was understood here. He had been called a conservative, but he was no conservative. He knew his constituents required certain alterations to be made in the Constitution, and he came here to carry them out. They have been partially carried out, but not entirely. But according to the proposition of the gentleman from Beaver, the article on the subject of the Judiiary is to be altered here forthwith, and all discord int opinions on this subject are to be made to harmonize in a moment, and we are to cast this work of a mo

ment before the people for their ratification. This may be called a Legislative manœuvre. He could give it no better name, because he was too indig nant at having such a measure thrust upon us at this time; but if it was a manœuvre, he would tell the gentlemen that there are men here who understand no such manœuvres. We have come here for the purpose of carrying out the trust delegated to us; and it would be a perversion of that trust and a dereliction of duty for us to adopt any such proposition as this without consideration. He owed to his constituents, and to the people of Pennsylvania, higher duties than this. Can the gentleman expect that his Constitution will be adopted in three days. without examination. He had heard that gentleman, or some other gentleman in that direction, some time ago, say that the Judiciary article would occupy the attention of the Convention for a month. How, then, can he, or any reasonable man expect that we can adopt this proposition in two days. Is it not fresh within the recollection of every gentleman in this Convention, that we have been engaged here in amending the Constitution section by section, carefully and judiciously, discussing and del berating upon every amendment brought forward. Then are we to pass upon the most important article in the whole Constitution in the space of two days, and submit it to the people at the October election, and all for the purpose of pleasing some two or three members, and giving them the opportunity of returning to their constituents, and receiving office from them. He was willing that these gentlemen should receive any office within the gift of their constitu ents, but he was unwilling to sacrifice the Constitution of Pennsylvania to their purposes-not to say selfish purposes. While he had a voice on this floor, he should protest against any such course. We have been two months and a half in session, and have passed but few articles through Committee of the Whole. We have had petition upon petition presented here upon various subjects, and he did not suppose that this Constitution could be altered so as to be made acceptable to the people in two months to come; yet the gentleman from Beaver asks us to overlook this all, and adopt his Constitution in the short space of two days. He must be permited to raise his voice and protest against any such course as this. He should vote against the amendment. and hoped that few gentlemen would be found to support a proposition of this kind.

Mr. STEVENS regarded the remarks of the gentleman from Lancaster, as entirely gratuitous. The gentleman had fallen into the track of a certain class of gentlemen here, who, on almost every occasion, instead of rising to answer the arguments, or speak to the propositions which other gentlemen brought forward in the discharge of their duty, turn into that unkind, if n t rude and ungentlemanly habit, of assailing the mover, and imputing some personal or unworthy motives to him. He has followed the lead of those gentlemen who travel over the whole history of a man's life, to hunt up some private personal matter, which may have the effect of injuring him among his constituents. That was the last quarter which he should have expected such a course of remarks as this to come from, but it had become so common of late, that you could scarcely tell where to look for it. Was there any thing in the course of the gentleman from Beaver. (Mr. DICKEY) which deserved this freedom of censure. either at the hands of the gentleman from Chester, (Mr. BELL) or from his copyist, the gen tleman from Lancaster, (Mr. REIGART), Sir, when this proposition was

brought before us by the gentleman from Fayette, (Mr. FULLER) for limiting the tenure of the Judiciary, we were asked to give a solemn vote upon it; and no one knew better the object of this vote than he (Mr. S.) did, It was to have no effect in shortening cur labors, and was not to supersede the necessity of our re-assembling again in this place. We were to come back here, at an immense expense to the Commonwealth, to settle and put into shape this opinion, which we were called upon to express. We were to come back here, when we recruited our healths and our stock of materials for further debate, and saddle upon the people the expenses of a session of six months; and then separate, after having done just what we propose to do now. The gentleman from Beaver has brought forward the very proposition in a definite and practicable form, w ich the gentleman from Fayette brought forward in a vague and indefinite form; and when he proposes to give it to the people before we adjourn, to save the iminense expense of re-assembling here, he is denounced by gentlemen. and by no one more severely than by the gentlenian from Lancaster. On more occasions than one has this gentleman's character been attacked in this Convention; but, fortunately, he has earned for himself a reputation which will last, when those who malign him will be forgotten. Is there any thing in this proposition which those who are now so declamatory against it. have not a hundred times declared themselves prepared to act upon? Is it the object of the gentleman from Lancaster, that we should spend our time here until other gentlemen can be accommodated? Are we to remain in session until the time arrives for submiting our amendments, which will suit the particular views of some gentlemen here? Was this the magnanimity of gentlemen on this floor? Let gentlenen consider this question, and then they could determine whether it was the gentleman from Beaver, or the gentleman from Lancaster, who best understood the duty he owed to his constitutents, or to the people of the State. What is there in the resolution submited by the gentleman from Beaver, that is not in the propositions of amendment which we have labored here for nine weeks to mature? And are they yet regarded, after all this waste of time and money, so crude and undigested, as to be unfit to be laid before the people? In addition to what we have already agreed to in committee of the whole, the limitation in the tenure of the Judiciary has been here introduced, and have we not been told, over and over again, by the radical reformers, the very men who had their minds made up when they came here, that the people had decided that this change should be made? We have been charged, too, with attempts from the beginning, to defeat all reform; yet now, when we bring forward the very propositions which gentlemen desire, and ask them to adopt them, in order to save expense to the Commonwealth, we are denounced by these very consistent gentlemen. We have been told from the beginning, that the people desire these reforms, and that this Convention was only called as a means of making them and submiting them to the people; but, all at once, these gentlemen discover that this is not the proper time to make this reform. We have been told, all along, that the people had desired that the tenure of the Judiciary was to be limited, but when this question comes to be submited to gentlemen, they declare that they are not prepared to vote upon it; and he supposed that the gentleman from Lancaster, who had lately become a reformer, had not made up his mind between a term of

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