med, whether or not they desire to hold a Convention
for the purpose of altering the Constitution.
And in case a majority of those who vote,
shall desire that a Convention according to the
new basis of Representation, the Governor shall
take the same steps to organize the Convention,
which were followed as to the present.
All the said reports were ordered to be printed.
There was now no question before the Con-
vention.
Mr. PRESSTMAN put an inquiry to Mr. CHAMB-
ERS, of Kent, as to the rule upon which Mr. C.
had made his report—and some long explana-
tions, partly personal followed, under the leave
of the Convention. [These remarks will be given
hereafter.]
After which,
On motion of Mr. MERRICK,
The Convention proceeded to the orders of
the day.
THE LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT.
The Convention resumed the consideration of
the report of the committee on the legislative
department.
BIENNIAL SESSIONS.
The pending question was on the adoption of
the second section of the report as amended.
Mr. SPENCER said, that very few members
were in the Hall, but that there were more in
the city) and be moved a call of the Conven-
tion.
A call was ordered; and
The roll of the members was called.
The doorkeeper was then sent to request the
attendance of absent members.
Whilst the doorkeeper was absent on his ex-
ploring expedition, (the Convention not being
in a condition, ad interim, to proceed with the business
before it,) a long and desultory debate took
place on several points of Order. They did not
result in any formal decision made, or appeal
taken—but in reply to an inquiry by
Mr. DIRICKSON, as to the construction to be
given to that portion of the twenty-first rule,
which provides that a motion to reconsider, be-
ing once put and lost, "shall not be renewed,
nor shall any subject be a second time reconsid-
ered, without the consent of the Convention."
The PRESIDENT intimated his opinion to be,
that the words "without the consent of the Con-
vention," implied, without the consent of a ma-
jority of the Convention."
Mr. THOMAS also desired the opinion of the
chair upon this point, whether, if the second sec-
tion, as amended, should be rejected, any mem-
ber might move to insert the second section as it
would stand without the amendment of Mr.
SPENCER. ,
The PRESIDENT replied, that, if the section, as
amended, should be rejected, it would be compe-
tent for the Convention to entertain another
amendment, but that the chair could not. .decide
whether the amendment would be in order) until
its precise character was known.

All these proceedings had reference to the mo-
tion of which Mr. DIRICKSON had given notice,
to move a reconsideration of the vote on the
amendment of Mr. SPENCER yesterday, by which
the question of annual or biennial sessions was
to be submitted to the people.
The doorkeeper was still out on his cruise—
when
Mr. SPENCER moved, that all further proceed-
ings on the call be dispensed with.
Ordered accordingly.
The Convention then got steerage-way on,
once more;
And the PRESIDENT announced the recurring
question, to be on the adoption of the second sec-
tion, as amended.
Mr. THOMAS said:
He desired to ascertain the sense of the House,
whether it will sanction this section as it has now-
been amended. If the House should be dispos-
ed to do that, a motion to reconsider the vote by
which it had been amended would be useless.
That was his view. He had but few words to
say in opposition to the section.
He wished to call attention to the conflicting
statements of the state of the public sentiment on
this subject. If it was true that public opinion
would now sanction annual sessions, he had not
that conclusive evidence of the fact, which would
induce him to vote against their already expressed
opinion.
No man bad a higher respect for public sentiment
than he had; but he could not shape his
course here, exclusively with a view to it. If he
was made sensible that public sentiment required
him to pursue a course against the dictates of his
judgment, that might drive him from public life,
and send him into retirement for the residue of
his days, but it could never induce him to give
a vote against the dictates of his conscience. Such
would always be his course. When before the
people for election, he had always stated his
opinions with all candor and freedom, and had
then left it to the people to say whether they
would elect him or not. But when the election
was over, and he had taken his seat in the legis-
lature, he would then have information to influence
his course, which the people at the polls
have not, and which he had not, previous to his
election, and by that information he had hereto-
fore been, and would now be governed. With
these views, he desired to frame a Constitution
himself, and not to transfer that work to
others.
In this Convention, we are divided into two
parties—not whig and democratic, but into re-
formers and anti-reformers. There are men in
this body who were always opposed to the idea
of a Convention, and who in the legislature,
voted against the law by authority of which this
Convention was called. He would ask of them
whether there must not be a compromise of views
that we may stand together here, to make a Con-
stitution. And when it coroes to be Submitted
to the people, our friends must be induced to
march up to the polls in an unbroken phalanx
for the purpose of sustaining us in our action in