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445] The Convention. 67
became evident that the known objections to certain pro-
visions in the constitution would prevent its acceptance by
the majority of the convention. Finding that the consti-
tution would not be adopted as a whole, an order was
passed that when each separate part of the document
had been passed, the whole should be signed by the presi-
dent and secretary. To further these purposes a day was
set on which all must be finished; whether ready or not
the convention must close. The committee on revision
sat in the senate chamber, and as fast as a defect or omis-
sion was discovered, sent in one of their members to have
it corrected by the convention. The last scene would
have been amusing, had the occasion not been a grave
one. At two in the morning the committee on revision,
headed by its chairman, with an assembly partly excited
and partly asleep, was presenting as the constitution a
bunch of paper only fit to be offered at the counter of a
rag merchant. Some asked for a needle and thread to
stitch the constitution.
Our author concludes as follows: " If the law-loving
and dignified men, who framed the constitution of 1776,
were permitted to revisit the scenes of their former glory,
they would have bowed their heads with shame at the de-
generacy of their posterity."90
Frequently the convention was unable to transact busi-
ness for want of a quorum. The Baltimore Sun in an edi-
torial May 7, 1851, said that, "It is clear to every dis-
passionate observer that the people were either remiss in
their selections of men as reformers; were governed in the
matter by party rather than by political considerations, or
were unprepared to appreciate the quality and character
of a bold and searching reform. Instead of a convention
of men acting under an exalted sense of great responsi-
bility, we have seen on the part of many of them a constant
display of factious opposition, originating in sectional in-
terests, and party prejudice."
90 Baltimore American, May 19, 1851.
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