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Resolved, That the 20th section of the 1st article be so amended, that the Legislature shall not allow the following officers of Government greater annual salaries than as follows: the Governor not more than ; the Judges of the Superior Courts, not more than ; the Secretary not more than ; the Treasurer or Treasurers not more than p. ct. for receiving and paying out moneys; the Attorney or Attorneys for the State, shall receive a compensation not exceeding

for each court which he or they may attend. That no member of the General Assembly shall receive more than three dollars per day, nor more than three dollars for every thirty miles travelling.

Mr PURDY called up the resolution heretofore introduced by him, proposing, that the different counties in this State be laid off into districts or townships, and also an amendment to the 12th section of the 5th article of the present Constitution.

Mr CAHAL moved to amend said resolutions, which amendment was accepted by Mr Purdy; and the resolution when amended, read as follows; to wit:

1st. Resolved, That a select committee be appointed to take into consideration the expediency of so amending the present Constitution, that the different counties of this State be laid off into districts or townships, so that there shall not be more than twelve districts in each county, which shall be laid off according to law.

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2nd. Resolved, That said committee also inquire into the expediency of so amending the 12th section of the 5th article of the existing Constitution, as to require that there shall be two Justices of the Peace for each township, to be elected by the qualified voters thereof; who shall be commissioned by the Governor, and hold their offices for the term of five years; and whose jurisdiction and duties shall be regulated by law.

Mr PURDY moved to refer said resolutions to a select committee of five members; and thereupon,

Mr SMITH moved its reference to a Committee, consisting of one from each Senatorial District; which motion he afterwards withdrew:

The question was then taken on referring said resolution to a committee of five, which was decided in the affirmative :

Whereupon the President appointed Messrs Purdy, Cahal, Cross, Robert J. M'Kinney and Douglass said committee.

Mr KENDALL submitted the following:

Resolved, That the judicial power of this State shall be vested in a circuit court, to be holden in each county, which shall have exclusive jurisdiction of all jury causes; and a supreme court of appeals, which shall have only appellate jurisdiction; and such inferior courts as the Legislature shall from time to time establish, giving such inferior courts jurisdiction of all cases of debt, due by note or liquidated accounts, without pleading.

Mr DOUGLASS moved the reference of a resolution, submitted by him on yesterday, on the subject of taxation, to the Committee of the Whole, which was accordingly done.

On motion of Mr STEPHENSON, the Convention again resolved itself into Committee of the Whole, Mr Cannon in the Chair, upon the existing Constitution and the various resolutions to them referred proposing amendments thereto; and after some time spent in the consideration thereof, the committee rose, reported progress, asked and obtained leave to sit again.

And thereupon the Convention adjourned.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1834.

The Convention met according to adjournment, and was opened with prayer, by the Rev Mr Greene of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr ARMSTRONG presented sundry memorials from the citizens of Overton county, on the subject of emancipation, which were severally read and referred to the committee on that subject.

Mr KIMBROUGH submitted the following:

Resolved, That this Convention make some provisions, authorizing the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, from time to time, to propose to the citizens of this State a system of emancipation, (without prejudice to the owners of slaves or embarrassment to the State,) and if one half or two thirds of the citizens (as may be agreed upon by this Convention) voting for members of the General Assembly, shall vote in favor of any system of emancipation proposed and submitted to them by the Legislature, it shall be adopted by the next succeeding General Assembly of the State, and become the law of the land forever thereafter.

And the following:

1st. Resolved, That the supreme court of the State of Tennessee shall be composed of three Judges; that they shall be elected by the General Assembly, for the term of years, and shall go out of office in such order, that after their first election, not more than one of them shall be elected at the same time.

2nd. Resolved, That the circuit court Judges shall be elected by the General Assembly for the term of years.

Mr BLOUNT, the following:

1st. Resolved, That on the subject of slavery, the General Assembly shall have no power or authority to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves, without the consent of their owners or without paying their owners, previous to such emancipation, a full equivalent in money for the slaves so emancipated, even in any special case; and that on the general subject of emancipation they have no power. That the General Assembly shall have no power to prevent emigrants to this State, from bringing with them such persons as are deemed slaves by the laws of any one of the United States, so long as any person of the same age or description shall be continued in slavery by the laws of this State. They shall pass laws to permit the owners of slaves to emancipate them, saving the rights of creditors and preventing them from becoming a charge to any county in this State. That they shall have full power

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to prevent slaves being brought into this State as property or merchandise: that they shall have full power to prevent any slaves being brought into this State, who have been since the 1st day of January 1789, or may be hereafter, imported into the United States from a foreign country. And they shall have full power to pass such laws as may be necessary to oblige the owners of slaves to treat them with humanity, to provide for them necessary clothing and provisions, to abstain from all injuries to them affecting or extending to life or limb; and in case of any owner's neglect or refusal to comply with the directions of such laws, such slave or slaves shall be sold for the benefit of such owner or owners, that justice to the oppressed may thereby be afforded.

2nd. Resolved, That in a prosecution of slave or slaves for felony, no inquest by a grand jury shall be necessary; but the proceedings in such prosecutions shall be regulated by law, excepting and providing, that the General Assembly shall have no power to deprive such slave or slaves from an impartial trial by a petit jury.

3rd. Resolved, That this Convention make no other or further provision on the subject of slavery, or emancipation, than as above expressed, nor shall the Legislature have or exercise any other power over either of said subjects.

Mr SMITH moved to dispense in future with stating on the Journal of the Convention, the denomination to which the officiating minister belongs:

And the sense of the Convention being had,it was determined in the negative.

Mr ALLEN submitted the following:

Resolved, That when any part of the Constitution is under consideration in Committee of the Whole, it is expedient that any change proposed, be offered in the shape of an amendment designating the line or word in the printed Constitution, at which such amendment commences and ends.

Mr BURTON called up the resolution introduced on yesterday by him, proposing to amend the 1st section of the 6th article of the present Constitution; which on his motion was referred to the Committee of the Whole.

Mr MABRY moved to take up a resolution introduced by him on the 13th June, prohibiting the sale of slaves by virtue of executions; which was taken up and read: and he thereupon moved its reference to the committee on Propositions and Grievances.

Mr CAHAL moved that said resolution be referred to a select committee, consisting of three members; which motion prevailed: and The PRESIDENT appointed Messrs Mabry, Gillespy and Montgomery said committee.

Mr ROBERTSON Submitted the following:

1st. Resolved, That there shall be appointed only one justice of the peace for each captain's company, (except the company including the county town, which shall have two,) which justices shall be elected by the qualified voters in their respective captain's companies, for a term of four years, and shall be eligible to re-election.

2nd. Resolve, That there shall be appointed in each battalion only two constables, to be elected by the qualified voters in each battalion, for a term of two years, and eligible to re-election.

On motion of Mr LEDBETTER, the Convention resolved itself into Committee of the Whole, Mr Cannon in the Chair, upon the existing Constitution and the various resolutions to them referred proposing amendments thereto; and after some time spent in the consideration thereof, the committee rose, reported progress, asked and obtained leave to sit again.

And then the Convention adjourned.

THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1834.

The Convention met according to adjournment, and was opened with prayer, by the Rev. Mr Greene of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Mr SHARP Submitted the following:

Resolved, That the rate of toll at any ferry or bridge, on any river or other water course established in this State according to law, shall be fixed by the county courts, or by such other inferior courts as may be established by law; and that the Legislature shall not assess the amount of toll to be received at any ferry or bridge established according to law.

On motion of Mr WALTON, the Convention again resolved itself into Committee of the Whole, Mr Cannon in the Chair, upon the existing Constitution and the various resolutions to them referred proposing amendments thereto; and after some time spent in the consideration thereof, the committee rose, reported progress, asked and obtained leave to sit again.

Mr. JOHN A. M'KINNEY, from the committee to whom was assigned the duty of stating the reasons that governed the Convention, in declining to act upon the memorials presented to them on the subject of slavery, and to whom these memorials were referred, stated that said committee have had the subject under consideration, and respectfully submit the following

REPORT.

The committee are fully satisfied, that the reasons which induced a great majority of the members of the Convention, to refuse to enter upon a lengthy discussion of the perplexing question, propounded by the memorialists, were the utter impracticability of the plan proposed in the memorials, the inexpediency of the measure if it could have been accomplished, both as it respected the dearest interests of the whole community, and particularly of the slave population of this State, and the absolute certainty that the discussion of that subject in the Convention, would produce no result except the waste of time, the expenditure of money, and the destruction of that harmony among

the members, the preservation of which, was so necessary for the accomplishment of the great work the people of Tennessee sent the Convention here to perform. The committee do not understand the Convention as denying the truth of the proposition which asserts that slavery is an evil. To prove it to be a great evil is an easy task, but to tell how that evil can be removed, is a question that the wisest heads and the most benevolent hearts have not been able to answer in a satisfactory manner. If slaves in the United States were of the same color and cast of the other members of the community, there would be but little difficulty in the matter. Slavery once existed in the land of our ancestors, but there it has long ago been extinguished, because there the slave and his master were of the same race and wore the same complexion, and when the shackles of slavery fell from the hands of the slave, he mingled with the mass of the community, and there was no trace left to tell his descendants that their ancestors ever had been in a state of servitude. But the African slave stands in a different attitude-he bears upon his forehead a mark of separation which distinguishes him from the white man-as much after he is a free man as while he was a slave. And although it may be true that "fleecy locks and black complexion do not forfeit nature's claims," still it is true that those locks and that complexion mark every one of the African race so long as he remains among white men, as a person doomed to dwell in the suburbs of society, after he is free as much as when he was a slave; the gates of society are just as effectually barred against him, and he is as truly denied the privileges of membership with the rest of the community after he becomes a nominal free man as while he is a real slave. But this is not all, the condition of a free man of colour surrounded by persons of a different cast and complexion is the most forlorn and wretched that can be imagined. He is a stranger in the land of his nativity, he is an outcast in the place of his residence he has scarcely a motive to prompt him to virtuous actions or to stimulate him to honorable exertions. At every turn and corner of the walks of life he is beset with temptations, strong, nay, almost irresistable, to the force of which in most cases he may be expected to yield, the consequence of which must be that he will be degraded, despised and trampled upon by the rest of the community. When the free man of colour is oppressed by the proud, or circumvented by the cunning, or betrayed by those in whom he has reposed confidence, do the laws of the land afford him more than a nominal protection? Denied his oath in a court of justice, unable to call any of his own colour to be witnesses if the injury he complains of has been committed by a white man, how many of his wrongs must remain unredressed-how many of his rights be violated with impunity -how poor a boon does he receive when receiving freedom, if what he receives can be called by that name. Unenviable as is the condition of the slave, unlovely as slavery is in all its aspects, bitter as the draught may be that the slave is doomed to drink, nevertheless, his condition is better than the condition of the free man of colour in the

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