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Mr. OLIVER, of Lawrence. I wish to make an inquiry with regard to that amendment. I understand that the terms of all officers who are to be elected under this Constitution are to commence on the first Wednesday in January. Suppose I should be elected a military hero about the first of September, I want to know if I am to go without my commission until the next January? That would spoil all the beauties of our militia system.

Mr. HOOPER, of Fall River. I would suggest that in order to accommodate the gentleman from Lawrence, the word "civil" be inserted, so as to leave out all uncivil officers. [Laughter.]

Mr. OLIVER. That would be " doing the civil thing," I grant; but I hope it will not be considered that the military are uncivil.

Mr. HOOPER. Not at all.

Mr. MORTON. Mr. President: We have labored so long here in trying to improve our Constitution and to make it perfectly correct in every respect, that we have grown amazingly critical, and I shall expect that everything that passes the ordeal here will bear the test of criticism as well as of legal and constitutional propriety. Endeavoring to profit by the suggestions which have been made to me from various quarters, I have made a little modification of my amendment, which I will state now, and I hope that gentlemen will be so kind as to suggest any improvements that it may require before I offer it formally, and after they have exercised their critical acumen upon it, I will substitute it for my other proposition, and hope that no objection can then be made to it. I propose to strike out the words, "except members of the legislature," and insert, "not otherwise" before the words "provided for," so that it will read :

Resolved, That the terms of all elective officers not otherwise provided for in this Constitution, shall commence on the first Wednesday in January next after their election.

If that does not cover the whole ground, I should be very happy to learn what the exceptions are.

Mr. HALE, of Bridgewater. I hope the gentleman from Taunton will not suppose that I objected to his amendment for the purpose of criticism; it was only because I thought there was a defect in it that ought to be remedied. I have no desire to criticise the reports which are presented here by any member of this body.

The amendment, as modified, was agreed to, and the resolves, as amended, were finally passed.

Distributing the New Constitution-Reports of Debates, &c.

[July 30th.

order was passed this morning that one hundred thousand copies of the present Constitution of this State, together with the new Constitution to be submitted to the people, should be published in the same manner with the general laws and resolves, and distributed to every family in the Commonwealth. I find that the present Constitution has already been published and is now in process of being distributed. I hope, therefore, that the vote by which this order was passed will be reconsidered, for it will be entirely unnecessary and involve a waste of the public money to have the present Constitution printed again, as is proposed. I move a reconsideration of that

vote.

The motion was agreed to, and the question recurred on the adoption of the order.

Mr. WALKER. I move to strike out the words, "the present Constitution of the State, together with."

Mr. HALE, of Bridgewater, thought that it would be well to have both Constitutions sent out together, so that the people could have a better opportunity to compare them.

Mr. TRAIN. I wish to inquire of my friend from North Brookfield if he proposes that one hundred thousand copies shall be given to each family in the Commonwealth.

Mr. WALKER. That is not the language of the order.

Mr. TRAIN. I should like to hear it read, as he proposes to amend it.

The order was read, as follows :—

Resolved, That one hundred thousand copies of the new Constitution to be submitted to the people, be published in the same manner as the general laws and resolves, and distributed to every family in the Commonwealth.

Mr. BIRD. I should like to know whether the gentleman has ascertained that there are exactly a hundred thousand families in the Commonwealth, among whom these are to be distributed.

Mr. WALKER. Year before last, we published ninety thousand copies of the laws, and last year we published one hundred and sixty thousand copies, because there was a larger demand than usual, as they filed them away in all the lawyer's offices, where there was a great call for them. I supposed one hundred thousand copies would be sufficient.

Mr. BIRD, of Walpole. I beg to inform the gentleman from North Brookfield, that there are two more families in my neighborhood this year, than there were last. [A laugh.]

Mr. WALKER. I will accept the amendment of the gentleman from North Bridgewater, though I insist that it is not necessary, to make good grammar. How you can make the order mean that one hundred thousand copies are to be supplied to each family in the Commonwealth, I do not know, but I accept the amendment.

The order, as amended, was agreed to. Mr. WALKER. I will venture to offer another order. It is as follows:

Ordered, That the Committee on Reporting and Printing be instructed to employ some suitable person to receive and distribute all the documents ordered by the Convention, in the manner and form heretofore directed.

It is evident that this must be done by somebody, and it is equally evident that it cannot be done by the Secretary of State. It will be a great labor to forward all these documents, and somebody must be employed to do it, or authorized to employ somebody else.

Mr. BIRD, of Walpole. I do not see any necessity for this order. If I understand it, it directs the Secretary of State, or somebody else, no matter who, to attend to the distributing of documents from the the office of the Secretary of State. I suppose that it provides also for the copies of the Reports of our Debates here in the hands of the printers. I suppose that the printers are paid to do that. You might as well employ somebody to forward all our newspapers. The gentleman says that somebody must do it. Let the members do it themselves.

Mr. WALKER. Direct their own copies of Reports, and newspapers, themselves, from the office of the printers to themselves at home!

Mr. BIRD. We were each allowed twentyone newspapers per week-a pretty liberal allowance, as it seemed to me. Afterwards an order was passed that whoever chose, might substitute for their newspapers so many copies of the Reports of Debates. These newspapers we were entitled to during the session-but I take it that we shall take these Reports till the whole are printed.

Now, the State pays White & Potter to furnish these documents to us; and it is no more trouble to them to put them in the mail or hold them in their office, subject to our order, or till we call for them, than it has been heretofore; and I see no propriety therefore, in taxing the State to

do not know that it would be more trouble to go to White & Potter and acquaint them with the manner in which we wished these Reports sent to us, than it would be to go to a Committee. The point is this: It is the duty of White & Potter to furnish us these documents. They are paid for it, and I hope that there will be no additional expense on that account.

Mr. HOOPER, of Fall River. So far as I know there are two classes of these Reports to be distributed-those which are to be bound in octavo size, and those which are unbound. The Convention ought to provide some mode for the distribution of these as well as the journal. Those which have been taken in lieu of newspapers, the members will take care of, themselves. I do not agree with the remark of the gentleman from Walpole that the order would only entitle us to receive these Reports during the continuance of the session, for the reason that a Prospectus was sent out offering the whole Reports for a certain price-the price about which a daily newspaper would cost-and a resolution was offered allowing each member to take a copy of these Reports in preference to a copy of a newspaper. There is, therefore, no additional expense to the State in the number of copies of these Reports that have been taken. I think that each member should arrange with White & Potter in the manner they have contracted for; and it seems to me to be proper that those copies of the Reports which are to be bound should be distributed among the members acording to an order of the Convention. I therefore think, that the order of the gentleman from North Brookfield is a proper one, and should be adopted.

Mr. UNDERWOOD, of Milford, thought that some method should be provided by which every town should have its full proportion of these Debates, in order that the inhabitants of the State might see what the Convention had been doing.

Mr. MARVIN, of Boston, said he understood that the contract with White & Potter was for three thousand copies of these Debates, of which, fifteen hundred copies thus far had been delivered to the Convention, and fifteen hundred would remain to be distributed. The contract did not involve the distribution of the remaining fifteen hundred copies.

Mr. WALKER, of North Brookfield, was clearly of opinion that somebody should have charge of this business. In the first place, there was the ordinary Journal of Debates which was to be sent to each member; then there was the octavo edition of the Reports to be distributed.

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EARLE ScHOULER

Then there were a hundred thousand copies of the Constitution to be sent out, and it would certainly be necessary to employ somebody to do all this. He considered that the resolution was indispensably necessary.

Mr. EARLE, of Worcester, was of opinion that before the Convention provided for the distribution of these documents, some measure should be taken by which a degree of justice should be done to members in relation to the copies of the Reports of Debates. He understood, that according to a certain order passed by the Convention, every member was entitled to subscribe for certain copies of these Reports-instead of so many newspapers to which he would otherwise be entitled. That privilege had been taken advantage of to such an extent-some members not taking any newspapers, and consequently taking twenty-one copies of the Reports-that there were not now copies sufficient to supply the members. After the first edition was exhausted, there were about one hundred members who were left without any copies whatever. So that, as the matter now stood, certain members who had taken advantage of this order, were entitled to twenty-one entire copies of this work, while one hundred other members who were entitled to the same number of copies, would not be allowed a single copy, because the edition was exhausted.

He had, however, prepared an order which would, to some extent, obviate that difficulty, and would entitle such members as had not been supplied with the quarto edition, to receive three copies of the octavo edition. Until that matter was placed right, he did not think that the Convention ought to take any order in regard to the farther distribution of these Reports. At any rate, he did not think that the State ought to be put to the expense of distributing these Reports, when a part of them belonged to other members. He understood that the messenger had taken the names of those gentlemen who had ordered each twenty-one copies, so that he might distribute them according to their several orders. But it seemed to him, (Mr. Earle,) that if the Convention had not already given the messenger authority to do this work, the Convention should take the matter in hand, so that justice might be done, and that each member might receive at least, two or three copies of the octavo edition.

Mr. SCHOULER, of Boston, said he did not know how this difficulty was to be overcome. He had subscribed for ten copies, and intended to have them, having promised them all to friends, except one copy for himself.

Mr. BIRD, of Walpole, said he had subscribed for five copies, and could not get them.

[July 30th.

Mr. MORTON, of Taunton, had subscribed for three copies, and could not get one.

Mr. SCHOULER. Perhaps that may be my case. I supposed that I was going to get ten copies. I confess I do not see how we can arrange it, very well.

Mr. BIRD, of Walpole. It seems to me that we are getting along pretty fast in voting money in this way, and I want to suggest that the better way to settle all these questions would be to refer them to a Special Committee. I move that the order now pending be referred to a Special Committee. I think it not improbable that such a Committee, could, in twenty minutes, report some plan which would satisfy the whole Convention. The motion to refer the matter to a Special Committee was agreed to.

Mr. EARLE, of Worcester. I will now offer the order which I had prepared, and move that it be referred to the same Committee. This is the order :

Ordered, That such members of the Convention as elected to take one or more copies of the official Reports of Debates, &c., instead of newspapers, to which they were entitled under the orders of this body, but who are unable to procure the same in consequence of the deficiency of the number provided, be entitled to receive the same number of copies of the octavo edition, not to exceed three copies in the whole, to any one member; and the Messenger is hereby directed to furnish said copies in addition to those already ordered to be furnished to the Convention.

Mr. EARLE. I would say that the Convention have already ordered fifteen hundred copies of the octavo edition to be printed. The expense of printing that, is no more than that of the quarto edition. It will not, in any contingency, add anything to the expenses of this Convention, because they are already ordered, and are to be paid for at any rate. But there will be more copies than will be required under the order for that edition, and those copies which are not taken by members under that order, will be left to be distributed years hereafter by the members of the Council, to themselves, their friends and others. By this resolve, we shall do some measure of justice, though not a full measure of justice, to those who were not the first to enter their names for copies, and at the same time we do no injustice to the State or to any one else. I move that the order be referred to the Special Committee already ordered.

Mr. LELAND, of Holliston. I wish to inquire of the gentleman, if the intention of his resolve is that those who have not received three copics heretofore, shall hereafter have them?

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Mr. EARLE. It is simply to supply those members with copies who cannot obtain them under the order for the octavo edition. The whole of that edition, in consequence of some members taking so large a number-from ten to twentyone copies has been exhausted, and there are one hundred members of this Convention left without any. The question is, whether we will supply the twenty-one copies to the three hundred members, and leave the others without any?

Mr. LELAND. The difficulty is, that this order for copies of the Reports was passed after the order was passed respecting papers. I signed for all newspapers. Am I to have my papers continued, and have the Reports too? I think the members should all be allowed three copies of the Reports, alike. I should like the three copies, if possible.

[July 30th.

a vote to retain fifteen hundred copies for distribution. But how is it to be made? In the first place, the members of this Convention will take four hundred and twenty copies; the town clerks will take three hundred and thirty, making in all seven hundred and fifty, and there are less than one hundred copies more, to be distributed under ordinary distribution. So there will be left some six or seven hundred copies, for which no provision is made.

Now, Sir, this Convention passed an order, giving to members of the Convention liberty to hand their orders for papers, and also giving them the liberty to take one copy of the Debates, instead of a paper. Well, Sir, I should like to have some copies of the Debates. At the proper time, I made out the order, and handed it to the Secretary, and I was informed by him that my order could not be filled, that the Committee on Print

those members who subscribed for the twentyone papers, and have got them, shall be entitled also to just as many copies as those who did not subscribe for any papers at all. My order only goes to the extent of supplying three copies of the Debates to those entitled to twenty-one papers, but who have not got them.

Mr. BATES, of Plymouth. The simple fact that the Convention have provided for the disposition of the whole fifteen hundred copies of the octavo edition, sets the matter at rest; and no order like that proposed by the gentleman from Worcester can be of any effect, unless you rescind the action of the Convention. In the first place, fifteen hundred copies were ordered to be printed and bound. Each member was to be supplied with one, and each town with one copy, and the remaining number of that fifteen hundred were to be distributed by the Secretary of State, in the same manner as the publications of the State are gratuitously distributed. Then, the Convention have voted that another fifteen hundred shall be printed and put up for sale, the proceeds of which shall be applied to defray the expenses, in part, of the reporting and printing. That disposes of that three thousand. Now, let me say, that the octavo edition is to cost some five or six dollars, and the order contemplates that each member may have three copies of those Debates, in lieu of so many weekly newspapers. I hope the proposition will be sent to the Special Committee, and it can be there discussed.

Mr. UPTON, of Boston. I have no objection to sending the matter to the Special Committee, but it seems to me that a statement ought to be made to the Convention of the facts connected with these Reports. The Convention have passed

see fit to bring the matter before the Convention, but I saw no reason or right why I should not have a copy or two of the Proceedings of this Convention. Here are members of the Convention who receive twenty-one copies, while I, pursuing the same course, under the same order, have not one copy. These are the facts. I say the members of the Convention who have not received their copies, ought to be entitled to one or more. I shall be perfectly satisfied to have the resolution provide for only one copy. There are a sufficient number of copies of the octavo edition to comply with such a resolution, and I think it would be better to distribute them now, to those members who have not secured a copy, than to leave them in the Secretary's office.

Mr. EARLE. I will state one fact to the Convention, which I should like to have well understood before this resolution is voted upon. There are members who are taking from ten to twenty-one copies of these Reports. If they choose to say that they will give them up, or a portion of them, then there would be copies enough to supply each member with his propor tion, while the other members would not tax the State a cent for their papers. Now, if any arrangement can be made by which the proper officer can be authorized to distribute to each member not more than three copies of this Report, I shall be satisfied to leave it so; and if such an order should pass, I am willing to run my chance.

Mr. BATES. I desire, as chairman of the Committee on Printing, to say a single word in regard to the remarks of the gentleman from Boston, (Mr. Upton). I submit it to this Convention, whose fault it was, that these members were not supplied. The Committee reported, that

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in their opinion, fifteen hundred copies would be sufficient. Members had the whole matter before them, and if they wished to order more numbers, that was the time to have done it. Some have already ordered them, and others have left the matter open, intending to order them at the close of the Convention. The result is, that the numbers have been taken up. The Committee, finding that there was not a sufficient supply, and ascertaining, as well as they might, early in the session, what number would be wanted, ordered a reprint of the first edition, making it up to two thousand copies. That, apparently, would meet the demand. The matter was submitted to the Convention, and now it is said that certain members cannot get copies. Well, the Committee's attention has never been called to the subject, and nobody knows it until the end of the session. And now it is proposed to go back and reprint the whole matter, at an expense of four or five thousand dollars, or what is worse, take this octavo edition, and turn it over to the members who have neglected to supply themselves with newspapers.

Mr. WHITNEY, of Boylston. I think at the early part of the session there was a great deal of ignorance among the members as to the value of these Reports, and members did not, for a considerable time, find out the value of them. Many did not subscribe at all for them, who would have done so had they known the worth of them. I subscribed for four copies, and have obtained them. But I am willing to yield up one of the four, in order to make up the deficiency; and I hope the Committee will be commissioned to receive voluntary contributions of copies from those who have subscribed for them, and see how many they can raise in that way. I subscribe one out of my four.

The PRESIDENT. The Chair is requested to state a fact in reply to the gentleman from Boston. From information received by the officers of the Convention, he is informed that the edition is exhausted, and that they cannot be supplied unless by ordering a reprint.

Mr. UPTON, of Boston. I did not intend to make any reflection upon the Secretary of this body. Very far from that. I was satisfied with the explanation he gave me; but I do not see what the statement of the chairman of the Com-❘ mittee, as to what they have done, has to do with the rights of us individually. But as this matter is to go to the Committee, I should like to have those gentlemen who have subscribed for from ten to twenty copies, stand up and vote, that those who have the same rights as themselves, and have no copies, should not be entitled to them.

[July 30th.

Mr. HOOPER, of Fall River. It strikes me that gentlemen have nobody to complain of but themselves. Turn to the proceedings of the second day of the Convention, when the subject in relation to newspapers was first brought up. I offered the following resolve, for the purpose of notifying members that they could obtain these Reports if they chose :

Ordered, That members be authorized to select copies of the Reports of the transactions of this Convention, in lieu of an equal number of papers authorized by the order of yesterday, at the option of the members.

The next day, or a few days after, another order was introduced, making a copy of the Reports equivalent to a weekly newspaper. Here was an opportunity, and a notice to each member to choose which they pleased, and had they put down their names for the copies of the Debates, a sufficient number would have been ordered, and they would have received them. If they have neglected it, it is their own fault, and they ought not to complain. I think it is unjust to make up the deficiency by the distribution of the octavo bound volume, in lieu of the quarter volume unbound. I understand that to be the proposition. I should like to have justice done in this matter. Every member is sure of having one copy, by the standing order. I should like to know how many members have given orders, during the early part of the session, which have not been supplied. I hope the Committee will look at that subject and report how many orders have been given which have not been supplied. But I do not think it is right, that men who have neglected the matter until this time, should now come in and complain, when the whole trouble is attributable to their own negligence.

Mr. CHAPIN, of Webster. I think it will put an end to this whole discussion, if we will add, as an amendment to the resolution of the gentleman from Worcester, (Mr. Earle,) the words: "And that every member receiving copies of these Debates shall be required to read them." [Laughter.]

The question was then taken, and the resolution was referred to the Committee already ordered to be appointed.

The PRESIDENT appointed the Committee, consisting of the following gentlemen :Messrs. Walker, of Brookfield,

Williams," Taunton, Schouler," Boston, White, "Quincy, Phinney, for Chatham, Parsons, of Lawrence, Bird, 66 Walpole.