| Show THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION CONVEN-TION The adjournment of the Constitutional Convention again this week was not a surprise to anyone and was doubtless a great relief to many of the gentlemen composing that body while some members 01 the convention would not attend at-tend at all The meeting of this same famous and profound convention with its regular business of adjourning until next October or until next April according to the season of the year has become a regular business So regular has become the business of the convention that it is the very exemplification exem-plification of c the civil service reform theoryfitness for the office and permanency perma-nency therein during good behavior Could behavior be more princely than has been that of the convention And where was ever seen such good order as is here in meeting semiannually when so soon as the chairman has taken his seat and the clerk has called the role some founder of a State arises and with a mien and air that would lend grace and I dignity to the herald Mercury new lighted on a heavenkissing hill paces I the floor and in a deep toned majestic i voice amid silence and profound attention atten-tion begins to expound the constitution I which they are going to give to the world and says Sages and citizens founder I of the common wealth and guardians o our liberty Well we know the grave t responsibilities resting upon us and that they have been placed upon us because of our fitness to serve a free people in L this great task of promulgating a constitution consti-tution in whose broad and I liberal limits all who long for liberty and fight for freedom L may find a refuge and a home I It becomes not me to tell such as you the I importance of a proper and just consideration consider-ation of the constitution we are here forming The nations of antiquity who stand as lights to guide us had no written constitutions but merely traditions which the followed It may safely be said that many centuries will pass by ere another such an instrument as this one we are now preparing will be seen Gentlemen it is useless for me to longer I dwell on this familiar theme and that we may do honor to ourselves and justice to those who have sent us here and whose rights this constitution shall define and defend I now move you in the name of this same people whose freedom you have guaranteed I move you in the name of the rights of that humanity of which we have so much I move you in the name of all that is i I I sacred and dear to the hearts of such free and noble men as we are that we adjourn ad-journ until next conference This is the story of their labors and prompts one to say that while men may come and men may go the convention will go on forever and forever even until un-til the wicked shall cease from troubling and the weary are at rest Has anything any-thing else been done than this during the many sessions which have been held The document which was drawn up by this convention never contained a single slmtc2h e in regard to the one important im-portant question in Utahthe question ques-tion of the continuation or the discontinuation of the practice of polygamy when every member knew that on this single issue between the people peo-ple of Utah and the government of the United States depended the success or the failure of their efforts in the direction of statehood The question of submitting to the people this proposition Shall the Constitution of the State of Utah contain I a clause guaranteeing to the people the right to have the polygamic system of marriage or shall it contain a clause denying de-nying any such right and pledging the State against any such system of marriage mar-riage was made but it was almost unanimously unan-imously voted down and those who had favored submitting it to the people although al-though they did not express any opinion on the matter themselves were looked down upon as though they had plotted treason against a sovereign State Were the people who sought for statehood and a place in the Union unfit to pass upon such questions and yet were competent to assume the reins of government Were those who refused to submit to them this proposition afraid thai their brief power and seeming significance would be taken from them That was the general imperssion among many even of the Peoples Party and if ever the people of Utah put themselves on record regarding this same question of polygamy the chances are that they will declare against it If not why not submit sub-mit the proposition to them Is there a fear lest they might honestly say we wont give it up If they did say so things would remain as they are and we should be no worse no better off The instrument at very best was but mediocre and showed that the majority of those who were engaged in framing it had but small idea of its importance and what should be and what should not be in such an instrument They seemed not to recognize that it was to be the foundation founda-tion of a State but thought it was to be the platform of a party So incompetent or competent we know not which are they for their task that the convention has been in existence long after the convening con-vening of the Legislature which met next after the call was made for a convention to frame a constitution and this too without doing anything to advance the object for which they met and deliberated deliber-ated and looked wise Can it be that they do not know what or how to do and are waiting for some one to tell them But whatever their faults may be they are fully entitled to public vote of thanks for adjourning for another six months although they would have been entitled to a pension if they had adjourned sine die |
