OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, ON THE SECOND TUESDAY OF MARCH, 1877. Ayes. Noes. Ayes. Noes. Ayes. Noes. Ayes. Noes. Ayes. Noes. Ayes. Noes. Ayes. Noes. Constitution unchanged 1877-1889. The following table shows the dates of the approval of the several acts of the Legislature between 1876 and 1889, providing for taking the sense of the qualified voters on the expediency of calling a convention to revise the constitution, and the aggregate, the affirmative, and the negative votes on the question as returned by the town clerks: Seventh Constitutional Convention, 1889. The delegates to this convention assembled in the hall of the house of representatives in Concord, on Wednesday, January 2, 1889, at 11 o'clock a. M. At the afternoon session Charles H. Bell, of Exeter, was elected president; and on the following day James R. Jackson, of Littleton, was elected secretary, and William Tutherly, of Claremont, assistant secretary of the convention. The rules of the convention of 1876 were adopted as the rules of this convention till otherwise ordered. On January 3, Mr. Hadley of Concord, from the Committee on Rules and Method of Procedure, submitted the following report which was adopted by the convention: I. The president shall take the chair at precisely the hour to which the convention shall have adjourned, shall immediately call the members to order, and at the commencement of each day's session shall cause the journal of the preceding day to be read. He shall preserve decorum and order, and may speak on points of order in preference to other members, and may substitute any member to perform the duties of the chair, such substitution not to extend beyond an adjournment. 2. All committees shall be appointed by the president, unless otherwise directed by the convention; and the first named member of any committee appointed by the president shall be chairman. 3. No person but the members and officers of the convention shall be admitted within the chamber unless by invitation of the president or some member of the convention. 4. No member shall speak more than twice to the same question without leave of the convention. 5. When any question is under debate, no motion shall be received but, Ist, to adjourn; 2d, to lay on the table; 3d, to postpone to a day certain; 4th, to commit; 5th, to amend-which several motions shall take precedence in the order in which they are arranged. Motions to adjourn and lay on the table shall be decided without debate. (J. 1889, pp. 18-20.) 6. Any member may call for a division of the question, when the sense will admit of it; but a motion to strike out and insert shall not be divided. 7. A motion for commitment until it is decided, shall precede all amendments to the main question; and all motions and reports may be committed at the pleasure of the convention. 8. No vote shall be reconsidered unless the motion for reconsideration be made by a member who voted with the majority. 9. Every question shall be decided by yeas and nays, whenever a demand for the same shall be made and sustained by at least ten members. IO. The Convention may resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole Convention at any time on the motion of a member; and, in forming a Committee of the Whole, the president shall leave the chair and appoint a chairman to preside in committee; and the rules of proceeding in convention, shall be observed in Committee of the Whole, except the rule limiting the times of speaking, and rule 9. II. After the journal has been read and corrected, the order of business shall be as follows: First, the presentation of resolutions and petitions; second, the reports of committees; third, the unfinished business of the preceding day. MODES OF PROCEDURE. Resolved, That the methods of procedure in revising the Constitution shall be as follows: I. All amendments proposed shall be offered in writing, and shall be read by the secretary for the information of the convention, when, unless rejected or otherwise disposed of, the same shall be referred to an appropriate committee, who shall examine and report the amendments referred to the convention, with such recommendations as they may deem advisable. No proposition for an amendment shall be received after Wednesday of the second week, unless by unanimous consent of the convention or upon the recommendation of the committee. 2. There shall be appointed by the president five separate committees, consisting of two members from each county, which shall be committees on the following subjects: (1.) On bill of rights and executive department. (2.) On legislative department. (3.) On judicial department. (4.) On future mode of amending the Constitution, and other proposed amendments. (5.) On time and mode of submitting to the people the amendments agreed to by the convention. On January 7 the president appointed the standing committees, naming their chairmen as follows: On Bill of Rights and Executive Department, On Legislative Department, James F. Briggs, of Manchester. On Judicial Department, Ellery A. Hibbard, of Laconia. On Future Mode of Amending the Constitution, and other Proposed Amendments, William S. Ladd, of Lancaster. On Time and Mode of Submitting to the People the Amendments agreed to by the Convention, Charles A. Dole, of Lebanon. Among the other leading members of this body were John D. Lyman, of Exeter ; Calvin Page, of Portsmouth; John W. Sanborn, of Wakefield; Joseph B. Walker, Amos Hadley and Benjamin A. Kimball, of Concord; Frank N. Parsons, Isaac N. Blodgett and Alvah W. Sulloway, of Franklin; David Cross, Charles H. Bartlett, George C. Gilmore, and Henry E. Burnham, of Manchester; Robert M. Wallace, of Milford; George B. French, of Nashua ; Ira Colby, of Claremont; Dexter Richards, of Newport; and Edward R. Ruggles, of Hanover. The most important changes in the constitution proposed by this convention were, the abolition of the system of classifying towns for the election of a representative, the change in the time of the meeting of the Legislature from June to January, the granting of a fixed salary for the members of the Legislature, and the addition of a clause prohibiting the manufacture, or sale, or keeping for sale, of all alcoholic or intoxicating liquors as a beverage. The convention prepared seven amendments which were submitted, in the form of questions, to the qualified |