standing committees and two subordinate committees and that no resolution or other matter be referred to any standing committee until it had first been submitted to the Convention. With a few changes, this plan was adopted by the Convention.15 After the committees had been appointed, the delegates began introducing resolutions embodying proposals which they desired to have incorporated in the Constitution. These resolutions were considered by the Convention and rejected, or accepted and referred to the appropriate committee. The old Constitution was also referred by the Convention to the proper committees for consideration. In the meantime the Convention busied itself with attempting to obtain a better hall for holding the sessions of the Convention, wrangling over the question of the employment of a stenographer and various other routine matters. There was only one, but that a very curious, election contest. Mr. James Osborn and Mr. Benj. F. Brookbank were the contestants for the seat of representative delegate from Union county. The committee on elections, to whom this contest was referred, found on investigation that Mr. Brookbank had 605 votes and Mr. Osborn had 603 votes, but that one of Mr. Brookbank's votes was for senatorial delegate and one vote had been cast by a person who had been a resident of Ohio for eleven and one-half months. The committee concluded that these two votes should be deducted and that if that deduction were made the vote would be a tie. In that event they recommended the adoption of a resolution declaring that "no person has been legally elected to the office of representative delegate to this Convention from the county of Union, and that the seat of such representative delegate in this Convention is vacant." The report was concurred in by a vote of 103-23.16 The Convention then adopted a resolution instructing the president to certify the mileage and per diem of Mr. Brookbank and Mr. Osborn up to October 21, inclusive, allowing them the legal rates of a member of the Convention and that the President inform the Governor that a vacancy existed in the convention of representative delegate from Union county.17 Later, on November 15, Mr. Brookbank reappeared, presented his credentials and took his seat as a delegate." The first report by a standing committee was submitted on October 25, and from that date to the end of the Convention the delegates were diligently engaged in formulating sections to be incorporated in the Constitution. The first portion of the Constitution as referred to the Committee on Revision and Phraseology was reported back on February 1, and the last portion of the Constitution was reported back the last day of the Convention. As finally adopted, it was provided that the proposed new Constitution should be submitted to the electors as a whole, except the provision relating to the colonization of negroes and mulattoes, which should be submitted as a separate proposition. The clection was held on August 4, 1851, and 109,319 votes were cast in favor of the adoption of the Constitution and 26,755 votes against its adoption; 109,976 votes were polled in favor of the article relative to the exclusion and colonization of negroes and 21,066 votes were polled in opposition. Accordingly, on September 3, 1851, Governor Joseph D. Wright issued his proclamation declaring the Constitution in force and effect from and after November 1, 1851. The Elective Franchise. By virtue of the provisions of the Ordinance of 1787, the pays legal-the body of citizens who possessed full political rights-consisted of the free white male inhabitants 21 years of age or upward who owned 50 acres of land in the district and who had been citizens of one of the States and were at the time residents of the district, or who had resided for two years in the district. However, as the Governor was authorized to appoint all minor territorial and local officers, both civil and military, prior to the organization of a representative government, the right of suffrage did not exist until 1798. From that time until 1816 there was a continual struggle for the extension of the franchise to include those classes which were excluded from voting and to increase the number of elective officers. By an act approved February 26, 1808, the period of residence in the Territory was reduced to one year and persons otherwise qualified who owned a town lot of the value of $100 were given the right of suffrage.19 By an act approved February 27, 1809, legislative councillors and the congressional delegate were made elective.20 By an act approved March 3, 1811, the right of suffrage was extended to all free white male persons 21 years of age or upward who had paid a county or territorial tax and had been residents of 19. the territory for one year.21 The formal memorial to Congress, asking admission to the Union, requested that the election of delegates should be conducted agreeably to the existing laws of this territory.''22 Accordingly, the Enabling Act authorized all male citizens 21 years of age and upward who had resided in the Territory for a period of at least one year and who had paid a county or territorial tax23 to vote for constitutional delegates. When the Enabling Act was under consideration in the Senate, an attempt was made to extend the franchise still further by eliminating that provision which required that an elector shall have paid a county or territorial tax; but the proposed amendment was rejected by a vote of 13-9.24 The Constitution of 1816 established full manhood suffrage; the qualifications depending on race, sex, age, residence and citizenship. The right of suffrage was extended to all white male citizens of the United States, of the age of 21 years and upwards, who had resided in the State for a period of one year, except persons, otherwise qualified, who were enlisted in the armies of the United States or their allies.25 As originally reported from committee, the right of suffrage was extended to all white male persons who had resided in the State for a period of six months prior to an election; the change was made in Committee of the Whole.26 The elective franchise was restricted, however, by the limited number of officers for which qualified electors were entitled to vote. The list of elective officers included the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor,28 Representatives, Senators, 29 Sheriffs, Coroners,30 Recorders,31 Associate Judges of the Circuit Courts32 and Clerks of the Circuit Courts.33 The appointive officers included the Secretary,34 Treasurer and Auditor of State,35 and the Presidents of the Circuit Courts, who were appointed by a joint ballot of the two houses of the General Assembly; the Judges of the Supreme Court, who were appointed by the Gov 27 ernor, with the advice and consent of the senate;36 the clerk of the Supreme Court who was appointed by the court itself;37 noncommissioned military officers, who were appointed by the captains;38 adjutant-generals and quartermaster-generals and their aides de camp, who were appointed by the Governor;39 aides de camp and other division staff officers, who were appointed by the major-generals; brigade majors and other brigade staff officers, who were appointed by the brigadier-generals; and regimental staff officers who were appointed by the colonels.40 Brigadier Generals and Major Generals were elected by their commissioned officers.41 Captains and subalterns in the militia, majors, colonels and officers of troops and squadrons of cavalry, artillery, riflemen, grenadiers, and light infantry were elected by those persons residing within a district and subject to perform military duty, or by the troop itself.42 The Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, appointed all other officers whose appointment was not otherwise provided for.43 As the Convention of 1850 approached, the question of suffrage was widely discussed. On one point, practically all citizens regardless of politics were agreed. It was the general wish that all public officers, both State and local, should be elected by a direct vote of the people. As early as August 30, 1848, the Free Soil Party adopted a resolution at their State Convention demanding a change in the Constitution providing for the direct election of all State and county officers. On January 16, 1850, the Whig members of the General Assembly and other prominent Whigs held a meeting in Indianapolis and adopted a series of resolutions relative to desirable changes in the Constitution. Among these was a resolution demanding the direct election of all executive, legislative and judicial officers.45 On March 1, 1850, the Democratic State Central Committee issued a circular instructing all local Democratic Conventions to name full tickets, including constitutional delegates to be voted for at the August election. Among other matters discussed in this circular, reference was made to the 47 work of Constitutional Conventions in other States, and the circular adverted to the fact that "in the acts of those Conventions the capacity of the people to elect all their officers judicial as well as legislative, has been fully vindicated. ''46 The Goshen Democrat, the South Bend Registers and the Indianapolis Journal49 all insisted on the direct election of all public officers. When the Convention assembled three resolutions were introduced by Democrats and one by a Whig demanding that all officers be elected by the people.50 Another cognate question was the residential qualifications for suffrage on which there was division of opinion. In their resolutions of January 16, 1850, the Whigs demanded that electors should include all native and naturalized citizens over the age of 21 years. The Democratic circular ignored the question, and the press generally had little or nothing to say about it. When the Convention assembled, four resolutions were introduced on this subject by Democrats. Two of these resolutions provided a 6 months' residence in the State before acquiring the right to vote.51 A third resolution provided that the right of suffrage should in no event depend on the naturalization laws of Congress and that aliens must reside in the State one year before voting.52 The fourth resolution provided that all persons must reside in the State one year before voting; that aliens must have resided in the State one year and have declared their intention of becoming citizens according to the Acts of Congress; and that negroes and mulattoes under no circumstances should be permitted to vote.53 Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution was reported to the Convention on October 31, by the Committee on Franchise and Apportionment, which consisted of 11 Democrats and 2 Whigs, and was reported in substantially the form in which it was finally adopted. The section came up for second reading on December 23. In adopting this section the Convention was influenced by the presence of a rather large and increasing alien population. The United States census does not indicate the percentage of foreign born persons residing in the State prior to 1850. The census of 46. Daily Lafayette Courier, March 1, 1850. Issue of December 27, 1848; cited in Sentinel of January 31, 1849. 47. 48. |