Report of the Majority of the Select Committee on the Constitution

Book excerpt: Excerpt from Report of the Majority of the Select Committee on the Constitution: January 14th, 1850 But assuming for the present, that the majority of the voters in the State are in favor of the convention, provided for in the bill, the undersigned would respectfully ask, with what reason the legislature can oppose itself to this desire. It is quite true that as at present constituted, it represents a minority of the voters in the State and that the distribution of delegates follows an arbitrary rule, which is dependent neither upon territory or population. This circumstance would incline the undersigned to believe, were they in ignorance of the early history of the State, that there was some principle existing in its constitution at variance with the general rule, that government is designed for the greatest good of the grea test number, or some compact by force of which no change could be effected in the constitution itself, except in the manner provided for in that instrument, without the violation of private, or of local rights, of a character too sacred to be rudely disturbed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.