SEVENTH DAY. I beg leave, sir, to offer a few remarks touching the proposition embraced in that resolution. It will be remembered that, last week, the gentleman from Gasconade introduced an ordinance providing for an election by the people of a Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and other State officers, which ordinance was laid on the table by a small majority, before there was any opportunity for any interchange of opinion in regard to the matter involved in it. I desire now that the sense of this body should be tested again upon this most important proposition. It is agreed on all hands, I believe, that when this Convention adjourns, it adjourns sine die, and ends its existence. I am of opinion that when Governor Gamble resigns and the Con | vention is brought to a close, the tenure of office by all appointees should be brought to a close as soon thereafter as the people can elect officers to fill their places. I am of opinion that it is unwise, injudicious, tending to an unpleasant state of public feeling in the State, for the Convention to adjourn leaving in office high executive officers, with no possibility of the people reaching them until the regular election in 1864. It may very well has imposed upon the people for a time when give rise to the allegation that the Convention neither the people nor itself can have any power over them; and in making these remarks I desire it to be distinctly understood that I have not the least reference personally to the honorable gentleman, who, at the close of our session, is to take the position of Governor. I have no desire whatever to allow the im pression to remain upon the mind of a single member that, in making these remarks, I wish to assail him; I simply stand upon the broad ground that it is not wise or expedient for this Convention to make a will and bequeath officers to the State who received appointments at their hands, and whom they cannot subsequently control when they themselves go out of existence as a body. Moreover, we have elected a Legislature by the authority of this Convention, and there is no reason, in my judgment, why the people should not receive back from this Convention the privilege of electing their own executive officers. I wish to get rid of any question in the State in connection with these officers. If there should be a wrong administration of the executive department, let it be by an officer whom the people themselves have chosen, that the onus may rest upon the people, and not upon this Convention, of having placed the gentleman in office. But, independently of all questions of that kind, the people feel uncomfortable, and many of them are restive at the idea of a Governor being placed over this State for the remainder of the term in whose choice they would have no voice. For these reasons, and believing that whatever may be the choice of the people in such an election, they will be better satisfied with that choice than with any gentleman we could leave as Governor of the State, whether it be the present incumbent, or the one who would be his successor, I desire that these resolutions should prevail, and that an election be ordered. And now a word of explanation as to the dates I have selected. I do not think that there should be during the coming session of the Legislature a Governor of the State appointed by this Convention. I think that the Governor who co-operates with the Legis lature, should be a Governor elected as is the Legislature, by the people. I have put the time of election at as late a day in the fall as it ean well be put, to get in all returns before the Legislature meets on the 10th of November, the time they adjourned to. The 6th of October being the Tuesday after the first Monday of October, seems to me a fitting time, for it gives a month and four days to get in the returns before the Legislature meets. Then, when the Legislature meets, it can proceed, as in the case of the regular election, to count votes, and declare who is elected; and the officer so elected can be installed one week after the day the Legislature meets. This plan, therefore, gives three and a half months, if adopted now, for the people to make choice of their candidates, and to vote with full information upon every point; and, moreover, it fulfils the constitutional requirement of three months' notice of the special election of Governor; so that there seems to me to be a fitness in the dates fixed upon in the resolution, which could not be if a longer or a shorter period were selected. Resolved, That a Committee of three be appointed to take into consideration, and report to this body without unnecessary delay, the propriety of holding an election in this State, on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, 1863, for a Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Registrar of Lands, and Attorney General. I only desire to say this, sir: that I am not disposed, if we are going to hold an election, that it shall be for a portion of the State officers. If we hold an election for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Secretary of State, I desire that we elect Registrar of Lands and Attorney General also. It is a fact known to all the members of this body, that the Auditor of Public Accounts is an officer elected by the people; it is known that he complied with every requirement, such as taking the oath required by this body; it is also known that the Treasurer did the same, but a vacancy occurred in that office by reason of resignation, and it was filled by an appointee of the Governor of the State. This I hold to be in accordance with the Constitution and law. But the Governor and Attorney General are properly creations of this body; and, sir, if we raise a Committee for the purpose of inquiring into and reporting on the propriety of holding an election for the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Secretary of State only, I am disposed to go clear through, and inquire into the propriety of holding an election for all the creations of the Convention. I desire the committee to take into consid this body are receiving communications from various parts of the State which speak of its growing worse daily; and if we are to judge of the future by the past, it will continue to grow worse as long as the foliage grows upon the trees of the forest; but in November I think everybody will go to the polls. These are the reasons, Mr. President, first, why I desire that election should be ordered; and secondly, why I have framed the resolu-eration the propriety of holding an election in tion with the dates mentioned in it; and I hope, November, for this reason; that it is a growsir, that this resolution will receive the con- ing evil throughout our country that bushsideration of the House. If there are objec-whacking is inaugurated again. Members of tions to this proceeding, I hope they will be stated. We are not hurried for time, as I understand that the Committee on Emancipation will not report until after the return of Gov. Gamble from St. Louis, which is expected this afternoon. We have nothing before us pressing upon us; therefore, I hope that the gentlemen who may be opposed to this resolution will take some other course with it than to move to lay it upon the table. If this motion is made, I hope it will be voted down. I hope, if any gentlemen entertain objections to the resolution, they will make them known; and that those who are in favor of it will so express themselves. Mr. DRAKE. With regard to the officers to be elected, we may embrace the appointees of the Governor as well as the appointees of this Convention. I will beg leave to explain why I did not embrace them likewise in the resolution I presented. Those gentlemen were appointed by the Governor to fill vacancies created by the failure of the previous incumbents to take Mr. FOSTER. I desire to offer a substitute: the oath prescribed by this Convention; they Louis; but I contend, sir, that if it is considered necessary that the acts and doings of this Con their consent, it seems to me inconsistent to discriminate, to ask them to elect part and not all. It is quite true, sir, that the Governor appoints the Registrar of Lands, and Attorney General. But, I ask, how was the Governor himself elected? It was by this Convention, or, as has been asserted, by the people of the State of Missouri speaking through this Convention. I say, therefore, that these two officers are indirectly creatures of this Convention, and for the reason that unless this Convention had elected the Governor, those two vacancies could not have been filled. If the people of Missouri demand the right at the ballot-box to elect a Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Secretary of State, I insist that they equally demand the right to elect a Registrar of Lands, and Attorney General also. This Convention elected the Governor, and the power given him by this Convention enabled him to appoint these latter officers. All this power was derived from the people, and I desire that it should all be now returned to them. stand, therefore, in a different position altogether to those gentlemen appointed by this Convention. A Governor, Lieutenant Gover-vention be thrown back upon the people for nor, and Secretary of State, were appointed in the first instance provisionally; afterwards an ordinance was passed continuing them in office up to the next election. The Attorney General, the State Treasurer, and the Registrar of Lands, were appointed by the Governor in pursuance of the Constitution, which authorized him to fill vacancies. I will read section 9 of article 4 of the Constitution: "When any office shall become vacant, the Governor shall appoint a person to fill such vacancy, who shall continue in office until a successor be duly appointed and qualified according to law." This is the law as is well known to every gentleman who has had the matter brought under his consideration. Throughout the whole history of our State, whenever a vacancy has taken place in any office for which no other provision was made, the Governor appointed the incumbent to fill the office to the end of the term. In the case of the Judge of the Su preme and Circuit Courts, there is an express constitutional provision. If a vacancy takes place within a certain period prior to the next election, the Governor shall not appoint; but there is no provision with respect to the ministerial officer at the head of the State Government. If a vacancy takes place in the office of Attorney General the day atter his appointment, the appointment is held over to the next election; and so with regard to the State Treasurer and Registrar of Lands. Therefore it was I made the discrimination between those officers who have been elected or appointed under the Constitution, and those who have been appointed by this Convention. The Constitution continues in existence; the Convention dies with this session; therefore it is that I wish to remit back to the people the power and the authority which under the Constitution they are entitled to, and which this Constitution would not have taken from them but for the exigencies of the time in which it held its sessions. Now that these exigencies are passed away, now that the people cun elect their officers, I do not feel disposed to withhold from them the right one hour beyond the time when they can properly and legally elect their officers. The PRESIDENT. The question is on agree- again to the people. The appointment of a ing to the substitute. Mr. FOSTER. I do not pretend to controvert the position taken by the gentleman of St. Mr. STEWART. I suppose every member of this Convention and everybody else knows what brought it together: that it was for the purpose of deciding whether Missouri should remain in the Union or go out, and they decided that Missouri should stay in the Union. There was but one question to settle, and that was a big one. Now I am of opinion that, having done the business for which they were called together, they should have adjourned sine die. I think the people of Missouri are able to manage their own affairs. I do not think they want this Convention to take their legitimate business off their hands, or will thank this Convention if it insists on doing so. I think the people of this State wish to appoint their own Governor and other State officers; and I think they mean to do it. I have the highest respect for members of this Convention; I respect them as honest and able, but I am not going to consent to their doing that which rightfully belongs to the people to do. The Governor was elected for a temporary purpose, as a provisional Governor. The necessity for his appointment by the Convention having passed away, the power should revert Governor by this Convention would be an assumption of power for which it would be held responsible by the people, and for which it ciples which revolutionists did two years ago when we undertook to stop their revolutionary action. This Provisional Government is as rightful would be called to account, not by guns but by brains. Gentlemen do not seem to notice that a revolution in sentiment is going on in this State. Twelve months ago there were only nineteen votes in favor of emancipation-only a government as that we deposed. It is now nineteen votes against laying the motion on the table. Where are we now? The people demand emancipation by an overwhelming voice. So in the settlement of the question as to the election of a Governor. I do not care whether you refer it to a special committee, or to any other committee. I refer it to the peo ple, and, though gentlemen may squirm, that is where it will have to be referred anyhow. Mr. WELCH, on leave, presented a communication from R. A. Brown, late Delegate from the Fourteenth District, tendering his resignation as a member of the Convention, which was laid upon the table. Mr. HALL of R. When this proposition was introduced at an early period of the session, I moved that it should be laid upon the table, for the reason that I had come to this Convenvention with one and only one special object in view-and I supposed that was the general feeling of the Convention- and I desired that our time should not be consumed for any other purpose. Had I perceived that the delays which have occurred would have taken place, I should not have moved to lay the proposition upon the table. When the Convention, under the most trying circumstances, took the responsibility of deposing the Government elected by the people of this State, they were assailed throughout the country by the charge that they were interfering with and subverting the wishes of the people; that they were interposing themselves between the people and their Government, and were, in short, hostile to our republican institutions. And this sort of talk is again hinted at by gentlemen here to-day. It came then, however, from another quarter. The efforts of the loyal men of Missouri at that time were turned to convincing the people that this Provisional Government was as rightful a government as that which they had deposed. The loyal men of Missouri were united in this effort. We did not then hear from the loyal men of Missouri that we were interfering with the rights of the people, and that the people should revolutionize and not submit to the usurpations of this Convention. Now, sir, we hear this cry from another quarter, and thus it is that extremes meet, and the revolutionary spirit on one side raises the same argument and appeals to the same prin the rightful government of the people, and, as such, I have defended it, and as a Union man, have maintained it. I have never been in favor of this Convention assuming any powers that were not necessary or for whieh the necessity was not apparent. I have often in this Convention voted against measures which had great merit in themselves, because I was unwilling that this Convention should be charged with a disposition to assume unnecessary powers. When we established a Provisional Government in this State, we did not change the character or obligations of those officers. We simply substituted officers for those who had proved themselves faithless, and left them subject to all the restrictions imposed by the Constitution. I propose that we leave them subject to those restrictions and limitations; that we shall not now, by an interference with constitutional provisions, undertake to change the system established by our predecessors in wisdom, and by which we should justly subject ourselves to a charge of caprice. I have, Mr. President, respect for the will of the people; I am in favor of the republican form of government, but, sir, when I have assumed the responsibilities which I have in this Convention, I am prepared to stand up to them. When we assumed to depose the government which was then in existence, did this Convention shrink from the full responsibility of the act? And when it was proposed to submit our action to the people for their ratification, it was not with my concurrence; I was prepared to assume all the responsibility of the act. I did not shrink from the danger then, and I do not shrink now. I was not deterred from following out the convictions of my best judgment by the threats of Secessionists then, and I certainly shall not be deterred by the threats of Radicals now. We have established this Government and maintained it through most trying circumstances; we have convinced the people of its necessity, and that our action was both necessary and right, and I propose that we shall maintain the Constitutional Government subject to all the restrictions and limitations imposed by the law for the period provided for by the Constitution. Mr. BIRCH. I may as well premise, in the few remarks I have to offer, that there is no necessary interference between the resolution offered by the gentleman from St. Louis, and my own, introduced on Saturday, and which was disposed of by the adjournment of the Convention. My resolution is now on the desk, and could be taken up should it be the desire of the House. My resolution was not intended to, nor does it reflect upon any person whatever. It assumes the simple responsibility of this body to elect the officers of State, and it in no way precludes our again electing the distinguished gentlemen who at present fill the offices of Governor and Lieut. Governor. The question in this crisis is whether we shall elect a Governor by the power with which we are invested, or whether we shall, under the peculiar circumstances of the times, submit that election to the people. mentous a course on the part of the Convention is to be submitted to the people for their ratification, that the question of the election of the Governor will likewise be submitted to them. We have now no people in the sense contemplated by the Constitution. I am inclined to think that were an election held by the people at the present time, there would not be fifty thousand votes polled in the whole State. It might be that this number would make a better choice than a greater number, but that is not the question. The question is whether, in submitting an election to the peopeople now, a full, free and fair election is possible; and anything short of that is a fraud and a mockery, and to the last imaginable degree reprehensible. Mr. DRAKE. I think, Mr. President, it would be a great mistake if this Convention should withhold from the people, longer than there is any absolute necessity for, the choice of their rulers. Were the Convention necessitated to continue its existence beyond this session, I am free to say I should feel much less anxiety for an election by the people; but the point of objection with me is that if the Convention goes out of existence, as I suppose it will by common consent at the close of this session, that it is not wise or expedient that it should leave be I concur most heartily in the spirit of the observations made by the gentleman from Randolph. I appreciate the feeling manner in which he spoke, when adverting, as he did, to the times when it took a little more to be a Union man than it does now. I stood by him then, and I will not forsake him now, whatever may be the clamor raised to drive us from our duty. I think that the man who in the present hour is disposed to shrink from his duty and the responsibility attached to it, is not a man that should be sent from any Sen-hind it a government which has not been electatorial District to this Convention; and I am willing to assume any responsibility attending the election of a Governor of the State of Missouri by this body, until such time as the whole people shall be able, unawed by force on the one hand, or intimidation on the other, to exercise that right which it is the boasted privilege of an American citizen to constitutionally claim. I should be glad if we could avoid a final vote on the question until we see how the emancipation ordinance shall be finally disposed of. If the Convention should decide | upon some such measure as is in contemplation by perhaps a majority of this body; if that ordinance be submitted to the calm judgment of the people when we shall again be at peace, as I trust will be the case by the elec tion of 1864; if this Convention shall decide to annihilate forty million dollars' worth of property, and to dissever all the feelings that connect themselves with the most important social interests of the State; if they will give the institution of slavery no chance of exist ence, (and I would here say, I hope they will bury it in a christian manner;) I trust if so mo ed by the people. I claim further, that it is the fundamental principle of our society, and our republican form of government, in which we acknowledge the people as the source of power, that even the people's representatives, holding in their bands all the power the people delegated to them, should not place in power officers over the people who are to continue in office longer than the exigency which calls for the existence of the body appointing them. The exigency which called this Convention, and which has continued it in existence thus far, has ceased; then we should surrender the power that the people have entrusted to us back into their hands. My action in this matter is based upon the great fundamental principle that whatever emergency may take power away from the people, whenever that emergency ceases their authority should be returned to them without one moment's hesitation. The agents to whom they delegated their power should not, in my judgment, under any circumstances, retain that power one moment longer than the exigencies of the time required; and it is upon that broad principle that my action is framed. I desire the Convention to |