$ 220.

Called to ratify a State
Constitution. § 220.
Council of Censors. Sub.
$ 220.

Called to ratify a State
Constitution. § 220.
Council of Censors. Sub.
§ 220.

Called to ratify a State
Constitution. § 220.
Council of Censors. Sub.
$ 220.

Called to ratify a State
Constitution. § 220.
Council of Censors. Sub.
$ 220.

Called to ratify a State
Constitution. § 220.
Council of Censors. Sub.
§ 220.

Called to ratify a State
Constitution. § 220.
Council of Censors.
Abortive. § 220.
Sub. and rejected. § 156.
Sub. §§ 157, 158.
Called to ratify the Fed-
eral Const. § 167.
Sub. § 219.

Sub. and rejected. § 219.

LIST OF CONVENTIONS, (Continued.)

B.

AT the extra session of the New York legislature, in November, 1820, a bill passed both houses, by the provisions of which a Convention was to be called, without referring the question to the people in the first instance. Delegates were to be chosen in February, 1821, and the Convention was to assemble in June following. This bill was sent to the Council of Revision, who returned it with the following objections, drawn up by Chancellor Kent, and concurred in by his Excellency Governor Clinton, and Chief Justice Spencer, and dissented from by Justices Yates and Woodworth, Justices Van Ness and Platt being absent.

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IN ASSEMBLY, November 20, 1820.

Objections of the Council to the bill calling a Convention. In Council of Revision, November 20, 1820,

Resolved, That it appears improper to the Council that the bill, entitled "An Act recommending a Convention of the people of this State,” should become a law of this State.

1. Because the bill recommends to the citizens of this State to choose by ballot, on the second Tuesday of February next, delegates to meet in Convention, for the purpose of making such alterations in the Constitution of this State as they may deem proper, without having first taken the sense of the people whether such a Convention, for such a general and unlimited revisal and alteration of the Constitution, be, in their judgment, necessary and expedient.

There can be no doubt of the great and fundamental truth, that all free governments are founded on the authority of the people; and that they have at all times an indefeasible right to alter or reform the same, as to their wisdom shall seem meet. The Constitution is the will of the people, expressed in their origi nal character and intended for the permanent protection and happiness of them and their posterity; and it is perfectly consonant to the republican theory and to the declared sense and practice of this country that it cannot be altered or changed, in any degree, without the expression of the same original will. It is worthy, therefore, of great consideration, and may well be doubted, whether it belongs to the ordinary legislature, chosen only to make laws in pursuance of the provisions of the existing Constitution, to call a Convention in the first instance, to revise, alter, and perhaps remodel the whole fabric of the government, and before they have received a legitimate and full expression of the will of the people that such changes should be made.

The difficulty of acceding to such a measure of reform, without the previous approbation of the constituents of the government, presses with peculiar force and with painful anxiety upon the Council of Revision, which was instituted for the express purpose of guarding the Constitution against the passage of laws "inconsistent with its spirit."

The Constitution of this State has been in operation upwards of forty years, and we have but one precedent on this subject, and that is the case of the Convention of 1801. But it is to be observed that the Convention in that year was called for two specific objects only, and with no other power or authority whatsoever. One of these objects was merely to determine the true construc