A SPIRITED DEBATE.
At once Mr. Slough addressed the Chair, and after warmly eulogizing the general features of the Constitution, pronouncing it “a model instrument,” he formally announced that political objections impelled himself and his Democratic associates to decline attaching their signatures to it. These objections he stated at length. They were, briefly: The curtailment of the boundaries of the State; the large Legislative body provided for; the exclusion of Indians made citizens of the United States, from the privilege of voting; the registry of voters at the election on the Constitution; the refusal to exclude free negroes from the State; and the apportionment.
This action of the Democratic members had been foreshadowed for several days, but it was, nevertheless, something of a surprise. The Republicans understood that several of the Democrats had earnestly opposed such a course, and hoped that some of them would be governed by their own convictions, rather than by the mandate of their caucus. For a few moments after Mr. Slough concluded, the Convention sat, hushed and expectant. But no other Democratic member rose. It was evident that the caucus ruled. Then Judge Thacher, President pro tem., addressed the Chair, and in a speech of remarkable vigor and eloquence, accepted the gauge of battle thrown down. “Upon this Constitution,” he declared, “we will meet our opponents in the popular arena. It is a better, a nobler issue than even the old Free-State issue. They have thrown down the gauntlet; we joyfully take it up.” He then proceeded to defend, with great earnestness and power, the features of the Constitution objected to by Mr. Slough. “The members of the Convention,” he asserted, “have perfected a work that will be enduring.” The Constitution, he affirmed, would “commend itself to the true and good everywhere, because through every line and syllable there glows the generous sunshine of liberty.” It was and should be, he declared:
“Like some tall cliff, that lifts its awful form,
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm;
Though round its breast the rolling clouds shall spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head.”
Read in the light of subsequent history, these declarations appear almost prophetic.