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transact the business before them. There had been two
plans proposed, but it seemed to him that a middle course
might be pursued which would be satisfactory to all. The
Convention as a whole must settle the subject, but it could
not as a whole consider in detail all the branches to be
dealt with. If all the business was entrusted to com-
mittees, there would, for time at least, be nothing for the
Convention to do, and there would be danger of members
losing interest in the proceedings and separating, which
contingency was to be deplored. He would, therefore,
propose that the constitution be referred to committees
and that the bill of rights be taken up by the Convention
and acted upon article by article. It would take but a
short time to adopt such a bill of rights as would be ac-
ceptable to the people. At the proper time he would pro-
pose the following:
Resolved, That this Convention will proceed, in com-
mittee of the whole, on —— next, to adopt a bill of
rights; and that to facilitate proceedings, copies of the
bills of rights and constitutions of 1851 and 1864 be
printed in the form of bills for the use of the members.
Mr. Jones said if the plans proposed by his friends from
Baltimore were adopted, it would be like going back to
the times before railways and telegraphs were in opera-
tion. All his legislative experience tended to the convic-
tion that the work of all deliberative bodies could only be
perfected properly in committees. Mr. Jones argued at
some length in favor of appointing committees to prepare
the work.
Mr. J. quoted from Cushing's Law and Practice of Leg-
islative Assemblies, part 7, of committees and their func-
tions: "Committees form a most important, and in modern
times, an indispensable part of the machinery of parlia-
mentary procedure. " Sec. 1, 851. * * * "The func-
tions of select committees, as of the House itself, are to
inquire, to think and to act. Committees are sometimes
said to be the eyes and ears of the House for certain pur-
poses; also, they are its head and hands. By means of
committees of this description a legislative body consist-
ing of many members is enabled to do many things which,
from its numbers, it would otherwise be unable to do—-to
accomplish a much greater quantity of business by dis-
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