WEDNESDAY, May 10, 1837.

The PRESIDENT announced, that in conformity with a resolution of the Convention, adopted yesterday, he had appointed the following committees on the several articles of the Constitution, namely:

ON ARTICLE I.

Messrs. DENNY, BANKS, BARNITZ, MACLAY, M. HENDERSON, STERIGERE, KENNEDY, PURVIANCE, White.

ON ARTICLE II.

Messrs. STEVENS, INGERSOLL, MEREDITH, Bell, J. Porter, DickerSON, DARLINGTON, AYRES, OVERFIELD.

ON ARTICLE III.

Messrs. CUNNINGHAM, JOHN CLARKE, ROGERS, EARLE, CLAPP, FOULKROD, JENKS, LYONS, SAEGER.

ON ARTICLE IV.

Messrs. JAMES CLARKE, BIDDLE, SMYTH, CLEAVINGER, M'DOWELL, Bayne, Kerr, Farrelly, FrY.

ON ARTICLE V.

Messrs. HOPKINSON, CHAMBERS, WOODWARD, MERRILL, Hamlin, FLEMING, WEIDMAN, BARCLAY, JOHN CHANDler.

ON ARTICLE VI.

Messrs. READ, CHAUNCFY, DUNLOP, TAGGART, HIESTER, Fuller, CUMMIN, ROYER, Donnel.

ON ARTICLE VII.

Messrs. FORWARD, J. R. CHANDLER, G. W. RITER, SILL, KEIM. ReiGART, Pollock, Martin, Sellers.

ON ARTICLE VIII.

Messrs. DICKEY, W. CLARK, LONG, MANN, SERRILL, SNIVELY, GAMBLE, TODD, COCHRAN.

ON ARTICLE IX.

Messrs. J. M. PORTER, M'SHERRY, SCOTT, Cox, L. COATES, CRAIN, CLINE, AGNEW, SCHEETZ

Mr. INGERSOLL Submitted the following resolution, which was read a second time, considered and adopted:

Resolved, That the subjects of the currency, corporations, the public highways and eminent domain of the State, be referred to a special committee to report thereon to this Convention, and that the subjects of the public improvements, loans and debts of the State be referred to another special commttee to report thereon to this Convention.

Whereupon it was

Ordered, That Messrs. INGE SOLL, RUSSEL, MYERS, BALDWIN, CRAIG, DARRAH, HARRIS, W. BROWN, and CRUM, be the committee for the purposes expressed in the first branch of the resolution; and that Messrs. STEVENS, DONAGAN, PENNYPACKER, GILMORE, W. HENDERSON, YOUNG, MILLER, J. BROWN, and BUTLER, be the committee for the purposes expressed in the second branch of the resolution.

Mr. BROWN, of Philadelphia, submitted the following resolutions, which were laid on the table, and ordered to be printed.

ARTICLE I.

Resolved, That the legislative department of the Constitution of the Commonwealth, ought to be amended.

FIRST. By taking from it the veto power of the Governor; or, if retained, substituting three fifths of both houses, as necessary to pass a law, instead of two thirds as at present. SECOND. By limiting the term of service of Senators to two years, instead of four. THIRD. By prohibiting the Legislature from passing in the same "act," laws relating to subjects unconnected with each other.

FOURTH. By restricting the Legislature in granting special acts of incorporation, to associations for internal improvements for transportation, or for municipal government; and requiring all other acts of incorporation to be by general laws, equally free and open to all citizens.

FIFTH. By requiring the Legislature to meet on the second Tuesday in January, instead of the first Tuesday in December, as at present.

SIXTH. By requiring all laws to be originated in the House of Representatives.

SEVENTH. By prohibiting any city, borough, or district incorporated for municipal government, from holding any real estate other than what is used for public purposes, or connected with its public establishments.

ARTICLE II.

Resolved, That the executive departments of this Commonwealth ought to be amended.

FIRST. By reducing the term of service of the Governor to two years, and his eligibi lity to only four years out of six

SECOND. By taking from the Governor the appointment of all officers, other than those connected with the state executive departments, as Secretary of State, Auditor General, Surveyor General, Secretary of the Land office, and their assistants, and requiring the concurrence of the Senate to the appointment of the heads of those departments.

ARTICLE III.

Resolved, That article third, section first, of the Constitution of this Commonwealth, ought to be amended;

FIRST. By giving the rights of an elector to every citizen of the United States, native or naturalized, of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have resided in this state six months preceding the election.

SECOND. By taking from it the tax qualification.

ARTICLE V.

Resolved, That the Judiciary department of the Constitution of this Commonwealth, ought to be amended.

FIRST. By limiting the term of office of the Judges of the Supreme court to five years, and by giving their appointments to the joint vote of both Houses of the Legislature; one Judge to be appointed annually.

SECOND. By limiting the term of office of the President Judge of the District and County courts to three years, and giving their appointment to the joint vote of both Houses of the Legislature, and by limiting the term of office of the Associate Judges to two years; one to be elected annually by the citizens of each county.

THIRD. That Justices of the Peace shall be elected by the citizens of each ward, district, or township, and shall hold their offices for three years.

ARTICLE VI.

Resolved, That article sixth of the Constitution of this Commonwealth, ought to be amended:

FIRST. That the citizens of each county in the state shall elect their Sheriff, Coroner, Prothonotary, Register, and Recorder, County Commissioners, and such other county officers as conveniently can by them be so elected, to hold their offices for three years. SECOND. That the citizens of each of the wards, districts, or townships, now established in this Commonwealth, or that may hereafter be established by law, shall, beside the powers that may be given them by law, elect on the third Friday of March, annually,

M

Judges and Inspectors of elections, Constables, Assessors, two Collectors of taxes, School Directors, and Overseers of the Poor, who shall all hold their offices for one year, but may be re-elected at the expiration of that time.

ARTICLE VII.

Resolved, That provision be made for the immediate establishment of schools throughout the whole Commonwealth, on a permanent basis and on the most enlarged and liberal plan.

Mr. PORTER, of Northampton, submitted the following resolution, which was laid on the table, and ordered to be printed.

Resolved, That the committee on the first article of the Constitution be instructed to enquire into the expediency of so modifying that article, as that,

FIRST. The Senatorial term be reduced to three years,

SECOND. The Legislature shall meet on the first Tuesday in January, in each year, unless sooner convened by the Governor.

THIRD. The Lieutenant Governor shall be President of the Senate, and each House shall have the right to select a presiding officer, pro tempore, in the absence or other inability of the presiding officer to perform the duties of the chair.

FOURTH. The Legislature shall have no power to combine or unite in any one bill or act two distinct subjects or objects of legislation, or any two distinct appropriations, or appropriations to distinct or different objects, except appropriations to works exclusively belonging to, and carried on, by the state, and that the objects or subject matter of each bill or act shall be distinctly stated in the title.

FIFTH. The Legislature shall have no power to grant a perpetual charter of incorporation for any purpose whatever, except for religious, eleemosynary, or literary purposes, nor any bank charter of a longer duration than ten years, nor, when the capital shall exceed $2,500,000, without the concurrence of two successive legislatures.

Mr. STERIGERE, of Montgomery, submitted the following resolution, which was read a second time, considered and adopted:

Resolved, That all resolutions proposing amendments to the Constitution, offered and laid on the table, shall be printed for the use of the members.

Mr. READ, of Susquehanna, submitted the following resolution which was laid upon the table:

Resolved, That this Convention without waiting for reports from standing committees, will proceed (in committee of the whole) to consider the following principles in order:

1. The Legislature shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. 2. The Senate shall consist of thirty members, one third to be elected annually. 3. The House of Representatives shall consist of ninety members and shall be elected annually.

4. The Legislature shall elect annually by joint ballot, a State Treasurer, a Superintendant of Common Schools, a Secretary of Public Works, a Secretary of the Land Office, and an Auditor General; the office of the Surveyor General to merge in the Land Office.

5. The Legislature shall meet on the first Tuesday in January in each year unless sooner convened by the Governor.

6. The Legislature shall have power to grant pardons.

7. All bills vetoed by the Governor shall be considered by each branch of the Legislature, and if then passed by a majority of all the members of each House, the same shall be a law.

8. The Executive power of the Commonwealth shall be vested in a Governor to be elected for a term of three years, and having served a term, shall ever after be ineligible.

9. The Governor shall have power to suspend the punishment of convicts under sentence, until the meeting of the Legislature.

10. The Governor shall have power to appoint, during pleasure, a Secretary of State and an Attorney General.

11. The Governor shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint Judges of the Supreme Court, for a term of ten years.

12. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint Judges of all other Courts of Record for a term of seven years.

13. All other officers, except subordinate officers in the departments, and all that may hereafter be created by law, shall be elective.

14.

Provision shall be made for future amendments of the Constitution.

15. A limited number of Justices of the Peace shall be elected in each borough and township for a term of three years.

Mr. DORAN, of Philadelphia, submitted the following resolution, which was laid on the table:

Resolved, That the following provision or article ought to be introduced into the Constitution :

66

Every citizen may freely speak, write, and publish his opinion on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right, and no law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press. In all prosecutions or indictments for libels, the truth may be given in evidence to the jury; and if it shall appear to the jury that the matter charged as libellous, is true, and was published with good motives, and for justifiable ends, the party shall be acquitted; and the jury shall have the right to determine the law and fact.

Mr. DORAN also submitted the following resolution, which was laid on the table:

Resolved, That a select committee of persons be appointed to enquire and report to the Convention, whether the people of this Commonwealth, by a legislative enactment, or by a provision in their new Constitution, can repeal, alter or modify an act of Assembly of this Commonwealth, entitled "an Act to repeal the State Tax on real and personal property, and to continue and extend the improvements of the State by railroads and canals, and to charter a State Bank to be called the United States Bank," passed the eighteenth day of February A. D. eighteen hundred and thirty-six, and, if the people have such power, whether it would be proper and expedient to repeal, alter, or modify that act, or any part thereof, and in what way, and on what terms, the same should be done.

Mr. EARLE, of Philadelphia, submitted the following resolution, which was read a second time :

Resolved, That a committee of members be appointed to consider and report whether any, and, if any, what provision ought to be inserted in the Constitution, prescribing the manner and form in which future amendments to that instrument may be made at the desire and by the act of the people.

Mr. DUNLOP, of Franklin, thought they had better allow this resolution to lie over for a day or two until they ascertained whether it was necessary to have any amendments made to the Constitution; because he did not believe the Convention was going to swallow all the propositions which had been submitted this morning. He hoped this proposition would lie over until after they went into committee of the whole on some of the propositions which had been submitted; and he feared they would not get through with those propositions in less than three months.

Mr. EARLE, of Philadelphia, said that gentlemen did not appear to understand the object of this resolution. The object of the resolution was not to consider the propositions which had been submitted, but to consider whether any future amendments might be necessary to the Constitution. The present Constitution provides that the people at all times have a right to reform their government, yet here was a naked right without any means of exercising it. If, however, gentlemen were still anxious that this resolution should lie over for a day or two, he had no objection.

He was,

Mr. WEIDMAN, of Lebanon, was opposed to the appointment of any other committees to propose amendments to the Constitution of Pennsylvania, and he was opposed to it, because, he heard the still small voice of his constituents proclaiming to him to resist all amendments to this compact. The counties of Dauphin and Lebanon, which he had the honor to represent, by a vote which they gave on the question of calling the Convention, proclaimed loudly their entire satisfaction with the present Constitution. The vote in those two counties amounted to about 5202, and of that number 3661, were against the call of a Convention, leaving a majority against the call of a Convention of upwards of 1120 votes. It was upon these grounds he rose to say to this Convention, that, so far as his constituents were concerned, they had, by a strong and a loud voice, proclaimed their entire satisfaction with the Constitution as it was. therefore, opposed to the appointment of any committees for the purpose of enquiring whether any further amendments to the Constitution were necessary, until they had a report from the standing committees appointed by the direction of the Convention. He was opposed to it, because his constituents had instructed him, by the only mode and manner in which he believed the voice of the people could be fairly heard, namely, through the ballot box; and when this question was fairly put to them they said they were satisfied with the Constitution. He had not as yet heard any sufficient reason for departing from the instructions of his constituents, and from the opinions he had ever entertained on the subject. From the time the question was first agitated, his sentiments had been known to all, and so far as they were known to his constituents, he would beg leave to represent them to the Convention. That Constitution, which it was now proposed to alter, had been framed by men who were taught the principles of democracy in a seven years' war; they were taught in a school which tried the reins of men; they were taught in a school where the principles of democracy were proclaimed for many years prior to those convulsions which agitated the whole Union, and eventually terminated in the establishment of our present form of government. They were schooled in their principles by a Washington, a Jefferson, and a Madison; by men whose characters we reverence, and whose reputations we esteem; and by men who have been the greatest reformers in any nation on the face of the earth. These men, fond of the people's rights, fond of the rights of mankind, he conceived, framed the Constitution wisely, and not inconsistently with the principles of democracy. While on the one hand, they were anxious to tolerate the power of the Legislature, on the other, they clothed the people with sufficient authority to keep it in check. While they gave the Legislative department of the government the right to exercise certain powers, they left in the hands of the people the means of controlling those powers. In giving power and authority to the Legislative department, they left the control of that power in the hands of the people, giving to them the selection of their representatives annually, so that the wants and necessities of the people might be brought to the notice of the Legislature from every county in the State yearly, and if the representatives neglected those wants, or abused their trust, the people could remedy the evil at the ensuing election, and take from their representatives that power they had abused. It was necessary that great and extensive power, should be conferred on the Legislature; it was necessary, that, like the