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VOTE ON FIFTEEN AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION SUB

First.

Second. Third. Fourth.

Fifth. Sixth. Seventh.

COUNTIES.

Strafford.....

Belknap

Carroll....

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ཚུ |Ayes.

Noes.

370 3,044 98 3,302

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Rockingham..... 2,122 4,155 608 5,816 1,375 5,076 1,896 4,540 658 5,758 1,897 4,875 1,757 4,534 162 3,256 375 3,045 162 3,181 512 2,923 496 2,940 471 2,584 251 2,809 353 2,723 348 2,678 337 2,836 460 2,618 483 2,554 363 2,223 296 2,310 271 2,404 265 2,320 223 2,350 263 2,327 267 2,315 Merrimack........ 1,164 3,848 702 4,401 824 4,295 826 4,285 397 4,757 961 4,154 1,272 3,891 Hillsborough. 3,948 2,504 1,319 5,106 1,839 4,545 3,001 3,006 1,536 4,856 3,345 2,936 3,624 2,456 Cheshire.... 2,210 868 874 2,339 815 2,322 1,602 1,366 1,050 2,009 2,092 960 2,028 1,022 Sullivan..... 912 1,844 461 2,310 478 2,175 641 2,043 355 2,421 768 1,915 850 1,883 Grafton...... 1,974 3,474 1,095 4,434 1,347 4,153 1,475 3,891 1,152 4,366 1,784 3,722 2,153 3,560 Coos........

1,204 475 485 825 921 714 870 736 493 1,064 1,017 637 1,191 453

MITTED TO PEOPLE ON SECOND TUESDAY OF MARCH, 1851.

Eighth. Ninth. Tenth. Eleventh. Twelfth. Thirte'nth. Fourte'nth. Fifteenth.

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2,076 4,209 1,599 4,811 1,235 5,268 1,073 5,447 770 5,661 1,655 4,565 1,940 4,289 1,606 4,865

Ayes.

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Noes.

Second Session, 1851. Upon reassembling on April 16 the convention proceeded to canvass the returns of votes upon its proposed amendments and found that all had been rejected by the people.

This remarkable result of its deliberations called forth the following comment from Governor Dinsmoor in his annual message' to the Legislature at the June session, 1851:

The popular reception of the amendments proposed by the convention to revise the Constitution, is a remarkable incident in our history. Considering the character of that very respectable body, composed, as it is known to have been, of the most able and distinguished representatives of the various classes, occupations and interests in the State, and enjoying, perhaps, in as high a degree as any former political assembly in New Hampshire, the confidence of their constituents, it was not to have been anticipated that they would be so unfortunate in apprehending the wishes of the people as to fail in securing their acceptance of even one of the numerous amendments submitted for their approval.

It is apparent from this decisive expression of the popular will that the present Constitution is, in the main, entirely satisfactory to a large majority of the people; that the alterations demanded by them are few and obvious, and that they neither contemplated nor desired the extensive and radical changes proposed by the convention. This result also inculcates the instructive lesson, which may be useful for our guidance hereafter, that no material or important amendments to the Constitution can be expected to find acceptance with the people which are anything more than declaratory of their known sentiments, and that it is always unsafe to assume a knowledge of their opinions when they have not been distinctly pronounced. It would be an error to suppose that all the labor and expense bestowed on this unsuccessful attempt to improve the Constitution has been entirely lost. An occasional examination and discussion of the principles and forms

'Journal of House of Representatives, June Session, 1851, pp. 31-32.

of the fundamental law are not without their use, if they serve no other purpose than to bring more clearly to view the great merits of our old and well-tried Constitution, and to give the people another opportunity to reaffirm their strong and unabated attachment to it.

The convention, after briefest discussion, resolved to submit what have commonly been described as three new amendments, but in fact, as comparison of their text shows, to re-submit three of those just rejected. These were the amendments proposing to abolish the religious test, to abolish the property qualification, and to provide a new mode for amending the constitution. Provision was made for submitting these to the people at the annual town meetings to be held March 9, 1852, at which time the amendment abolishing the property qualification was adopted.

The three amendments with the popular vote thereon are given on page 216.

The manuscript journal of the convention of 1850-51, with a very inadequate index, is in the office of the secretary of state, but has never been published.' The Patriot (newspaper) of Concord, which was issued as a daily during the first session (Nov. 6, 1850, to Jan. 3, 1851) of this convention, published a stenographic account of its proceedings, with a full report of the debates.

On April 17, 1851, the convention adjourned sine die.

1 The Journal of the preceding convention, 1791-2, was published in Province and State Papers, Vol. X, pp. 33-196, in 1877.

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Art. 29. religion."

Strike out the words " who is not of the Protestant

Art. 42.
Protestant religion."

Strike out the words,

66

and unless he shall be of the

Art. 14.

II.

PART II.

Strike out the words "shall have an estate within the district which he may be chosen to represent of the value of one hundred pounds, one-half of which to be a freehold whereof he is seized in his own right."

Art. 20.

Strike out the words "and seized of a freehold estate in his own right of the value of a hundred pounds, being within this State."

Art. 42.

Strike out the words "and unless he shall at the same time have an estate of the value of five hundred pounds, one-half of which shall consist of a freehold in his own right within this State."

III.

Arts. 99, 100. Strike out these articles and insert in lieu thereof the following:

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