612

they dissent from the report submitted by the majority of the
Committee.

First. Because they believe the authority given to soldiers
in camp to vote at all elections, will utterly fail to have the
effect proposed by those who advocate the measure; on the
contrary, as the undersigned believe, it will enable the offi-
cers who command the soldiers, to control the votes of those
who feel and know the power of their officers, to make them
suffer in various ways the penalty of disobedience to their
wishes. To a soldier on duty, the first great lesson taught,
is obedience to his commanding officer. Military necessity re-
quires a rigid exaction of this duty, it allows of no discussion
or discretion. To fail in the smallest respect insures harsh
treatment, even in cases where martial law prescribes no specific
penalty. It will not be doubted that the only safe approach
to the favor of an officer is to gratify his wishes by voting his
ticket.

Second. But whatever may be the propriety of taking the
votes of soldiers or their officers, the undersigned cannot permit
themselves to doubt of the concurrence of the Convention in
their determined opposition to so much of the report of the
majority as provides for the immediate operation of portions
of the Constitution before its adoption by the people. Surely
if any one proposition, in regard to our proceedings was uni-
versally accepted by all who voted, whether for or against a
Convention, it was this, that its work was to be submitted to
and accepted by the people of the State before it should have
any effect. Yet the majority propose that now at the very
moment when the question of adoption is being taken, in the
very act of taking that question, the people shall be bound and
governed by it, so far as it relates to some of its most important.
and vital changes of the existing system of government. What
a strange spectacle would be exhibited if the provisions now
proposed should be enforced as part of the new Constitution,
in direct opposition to the existing Constitution, and yet the
result show that the people will not accept the new Constitu-
tion ? The present Constitution exists until the new one is
adopted. How then can the provisions of the present Con-
stitution be violated, or interfered with, until the new one
has an existence by the adoption of the people ? The great
purpose of the majority seems to be, to deprive those who
form the constituency of this Convention of the privilege se-
cured to them by the present Constitution of passing upon
the work of this body, and to this end, by newly contrived
oaths and by the aid of the military, to confirm their proceed-
ings. For these amongst other reasons, the undersigned