CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN ILLINOIS. There have been four Constitutional Conventions in this State. The first was held under an act of Congress adopted on April 18, 1818. The second convention was held in 1847, the third in 1862 and the fourth in 1869-70. All of the conventions after 1818 were assembled for the purpose of altering, revising or amending the then existing Constitution. An attempt was made in 1824 to assemble a convention, but when the question of holding a convention was submitted to the people, it was voted upon in the negative. In 1842 and 1856 similar attempts were again defeated by the people. CONSTITUTION OF 1818. On April 18, 1818, Congress passed an act authorizing the assembling of a convention in the territory of Illinois for the purpose of forming a State Constitution and a State Government. Delegates to the convention were elected in pursuance of the act of Congress and assembled at Kaskaskia on August 3, 1818. The convention completed its labors on August 26, of the same year. Its work was not submitted to the people for ratification or rejection but the Constitution adopted by the convention became operative on December 3, 1818, by the admission of Illinois as the twenty-first State of the Union. At the time of the convention the territory of Illinois had a population of less than 45,000 and the settled part of the State did not extend much farther north than Edwardsville, now the county seat of Madison County. The territory was divided into fifteen counties, namely: St. Clair, Randolph, Madison, Monroe, Gallatin, Johnson Edwards, White, Pope, Jackson, Crawford, Bond, Union, Washington and Franklin. The Congressional Enabling Act fixed the number of delegates to the convention and apportioned them among the several counties. The counties of St. Clair, Madison and Gallatin were each entitled to three delegates. Each of the remaining twelve counties elected two delegates. The Constitution adopted by the convention was a rather brief document. Its main provisions were taken from the Constitutions of New York, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. Under its terms the powers of government were assigned to three distinct departments-the Legislative, the Executive and the Judicial-and, except as provided in that instrument, each department was made supreme in its own sphere.' Very little power, however, was granted to the Executive Department by the first Constitution. With the exception of the slavery question 1 Constitution 1818, Article I, Sections 1 and 2. this, perhaps, is the most interesting feature of the Constitution of 1818. Before the Revolution the governors of most of the colonies were appointed by the King of Great Britain. These royal governors had not always acted in the interest of the people and, in many instances, had refused to approve laws passed by the colonial legislatures. Governors thus came into disfavor and the legislatures were regarded as the guardians of the people's liberty. In framing the first State Constitutions it was deemed wise to curtail the powers of the governor and to enlarge the powers of the legislature. It never occured to our forefathers that there was a vast difference between a governor appointed by the King and a governor elected by the people. They never stopped to think that a governor who held his office at the will of the people would be apt to observe the interests of those who could work his political ruin. In their opinion, based on previous experience, governors were inclined to act arbitrarily and contrary to the wishes of the people. Thus developed the early policy of granting little power to the executive department of the government. Subsequently this policy was recognized as unwise. To-day the tendency is to enlarge the powers of the Executive Department. But governors were distrusted in the early years of our history and the fact that the Constitution of 1818 conferred but little power on the Executive Department is due to that feeling of distrust. 3 The framers of the first Constitution accomplished the overshadowing of the executive branch of the government in two ways: (1) By vesting extensive appointive powers in the Legislature, 2 and (2) by placing the veto power in the hands of a Council of Revision, composed of the Governor and the Supreme Court judges. Under the Constitution of 1818 the Legislature was empowered to appoint judges of the Supreme Court and of the inferior courts, and "an auditor of public accounts, an attorney general, and such other officers for the State as may be necessary In establishing the Council of Revision with power to veto acts of the General Assembly the Convention of 1818 borrowed from the New York Constitution of 1777. New York abandoned this plan in 1821, but Illinois retained it until 1848. In 1818 there was much agitation in the territory of Illinois concerning the slavery question. The people were divided into two factions, one favoring and the other opposing slavery. The Congressional Enabling Act expressly declared that any Constitution adopted should not be repugnant to the Ordinance of 1787.4. Article VI of the Ordinance of 1787 is as follows: "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted: Provided, always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original states, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid." Notwithstanding the provisions of the enabling act the slavery question was perhaps the most important question before the conven 2 Constitution 1818, Schedule, Section 10. Constitution 1818, Article III, Section 19. 4 Act of Congress, April 18, 1818, Section 4 tion. The provisions relating to slavery which were finally incorporated into the Constitution were the result of a compromise between the opposing factions. Section 1 of Article VI of the new Constitution provided that "neither slavery or involuntary servitude shall be hereafter introduced in this State. Section 2 of the same article, subject to certain conditions, permitted "persons bound to labor in any other state" to "be hired to labor in this State" and section 3 recognized existing contracts or indentures binding persons to service. It is apparent that with respect to slavery, the Constitution adopted by the First Constitutional Convention was not in complete accord with the Ordinance of 1787. On that ground Congress might well have refused to admit Illinois to the Union. Up to this time, however, there had been no serious attempt in Congress to make an issue of the slavery question, and despite the protests of certain members of Congress, Illinois was admitted as a state although its Constitution was inconsistent with the Ordinance of 1787. Between 1802 and 1818 Congress met the slavery problem by the alternate admission of free and slave states. In 1819 when Missouri made application for admission to the Union eleven of the twenty-two states of the nation were free while the remaining eleven states recognized slavery. But the impending storm that broke when Missouri sought admission as a state and resulted in the famous Missouri Compromise was plainly forecast when Representative Tallmadge of New York objected to the admission of Illinois on the ground that Article VI of the Constitution of 1818 was repugnant to the Ordinance of 1787. The Consitution of 1818 made the following provision concerning the amendment thereof: "Whenever two-thirds of the General Assembly shall think it necessary to alter or amend this Constitution, they shall recommend to the electors, at the next election of members to the General Assembly, to vote for or against a convention; and if it shall appear that a majority of all the citizens of the State, voting for representatives, have voted for a convention, the General Assembly shall, at their next session, call a convention, to consist of as many members as there may be in the General Assembly, to be chosen in the same manner, at the same place, and by the same electors that choose the General Assembly, and which convention shall meet within three months after the said election, for the purpose of revising, altering or amending this Constitution." Only one method of amending the instrument was provided for. Both of the later Constitutions, in addition to the convention method of revising or amending such documents, authorized the General Assembly to propose constitutional amendments and to submit them to the voters for ratification or rejection. The first Constitution, however, could be amended only by assembling a constitutional convention for that purpose. THE STRUGGLE IN 1824. Although slavery was not completely abolished by the Constitution of 1818, Illinois was regarded as a free state. To that extent the anti 5 Constitution 1818, Article VII. slavery forces had obtained a victory. But the struggle for and against slavery did not come to an end with the admission of Illinois as a state. Although the pro-slavery faction, in the face of the prohibition contained in the Ordinance of 1787, had obtained a compromise in the convention at Kaskaskia, it was not satisfied. Shortly after Illinois became a state the advocates of slavery began their efforts to amend the Constitution in accordance with their views. This precipitated a bitter struggle between the opposing factions which continued for several years and finally culminated in the defeat of the pro-slavery group in 1824. In 1823 the pro-slavery faction secured the adoption by "twothirds of the General Assembly" of a resolution favoring the assembling of a convention to alter, revise or amend the Constitution. The question of calling a convention was to be submitted to the voters in 1824. A turbulent campaign followed in which the only issue was whether or not the existing Constitution should be amended so as to recognize the principle of slavery absolutely or more fully than it was recognized by Article VI of that instrument. Governor Coles, formerly a slave holder, was the leader of the anti-slavery party. The people, on August 2, 1824, voted against the calling of a convention and the pro-slavery faction was defeated. CONSTITUTION OF 1848. In 1842 a resolution of the General Assembly favoring the calling of a convention to amend the Constitution was submitted to the voters but was not ratified. A similar resolution, however, was approved by the people in 1846. Delegates to the convention, 162 in number, were elected at a special election in April, 1847, and assembled at Springfield on June 7, 1847. The convention adjourned August 31, 1847. The convention's work was submitted to the people at a special election held in March, 1848, and was ratified by a large majority. Two articles were submitted separately and adopted. The new Constitution became operative on April 1, 1848. 7 The Constitution of 1848 was a much longer and more elaborate instrument than the preceding one. It contained many provisions not found in the Constitution of 1818, and some of the existing provisions which were deemed undesirable or the usefulness of which had been outgrown, were changed. It continued the Governor's term at four years, fixed his salary at $1,500 per year, and provided that he could not succeed himself. 9 It also abolished the Council of Revision created by the Constitution of 1818 and vested a qualified veto power in the Governor alone. 10 A majority vote of both houses, however, was all that was necessary to pass a measure over the Governor's veto. 1 1 In this respect there was no difference between the two constitutions, for under the Constitution of 1818 a majority vote of both houses was sufficient to override the veto of the Council of Revision. In the years between 1818 and 1845 the State government made some unfortunate business experiments. One of these was that of 6 Articles XIV and XV. 7 Constitution 1848, Article IV, Section 2. 8 Constitution 1848, Article IV, Section 5. 9 Constitution 1848, Article IV, Section 3. 10 Constitution 1848, Article IV, Section 21. 11 Constitution 1848, Article IV, Section 21. State banking. Money was scarce in these early years. The Constitution of 1818 expressly provided for the creation of a State bank. In 1821 the General Assembly established such a State bank, with power to issue notes on the credit of the State. The experiment was a failure. Bad management in loaning to irresponsible persons caused the bank to fail in 1831. Another State bank was chartered in 1835 but bad management again resulted in its failure in 1842. During this period also the State undertook to carry out extensive schemes for the construction of internal improvements. One of these internal improvement projects, the Illinois and Michigan Canal, was successful. The scheme of building a great system of railroads, however, not only proved to be a failure but brought the State to the verge of bankruptcy. In 1837 the General Assembly appropriated $10,000,000 for the purpose of constructing railroads and other internal improvements. 12 After constructing about fifty miles of railroad, the project was abandoned in 1841. The net result of the plan to build a system of railroads was a heavy increase in the State's indebtedness. The State's venture into the banking field and the unfortunate outcome of its internal improvement schemes produced a crisis. The State was heavily in debt and its credit was seriously impaired. It seemed almost impossible to pay the debts contracted as a result of these reckless business experiments, and there were some suggestions of repudiating the whole State debt or a part of it. Repudiation, and the consequent disgrace, were prevented, however, largely through the efforts of Governor Ford who came into office in 1842. It was only natural that a constitutional convention assembling in the midst of, or immediately after such trying times, would endeavor to prevent similar occurrences. This purpose was accomplished by restricting the power of the Legislature to charter banks and to contract debts. The Constitution of 1848 contained several provisions concerning banks. The creation of a State bank was expressly forbidden. 13 The General Assembly was prohibited from extending or reviving the charter of the previously existing State bank, 14 and no law passed by the General Assembly relating to the incorporation of banks could become effective until it had been ratified by the people. 15 The provisions restricting the power of the General Assembly to contract debts were equally drastic. Except for the purpose of "repelling invasion, suppressing insurrection or defending the State in war, no debts in excess of $50,000 could be contracted "unless the law authorizing the same, was approved by the voters, 16 and it was further provided that "the credit of the State shall not, in any manner, be given to or in aid of any individual, association or corporation." 17 All of these provisions, which were material limitations on the General Assembly, were due to the experience of the preceding years. The Constitution of 1848 contained certain provisions designed to restrict the power of the General Assembly to pass private and special laws-legislation for particular individuals or certain localities. 12 Laws of Illinois 1836-37, pages 18 and 121-136. |