Academy, Missouri

Ordinance concerning the repeal of the second section of an act of the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, entitled "An Act to establish a un.form system of publishing notices of judicial sales and other legal notices in St. Louis county, State of Missouri." Considered" 22 concerning the resumption of specie payment by all the banks in the

Passage source: Journal of the Missouri State Convention, Held at the City of St. Louis, October, 1861, published 1861.

but I am satisfied that the proposition to postpone the election from November until August next, is a confession of judgment. I take it as such, and as an acknowledgment that the people of Missouri are opposed to the Convention, and will vote its action down. We have been told again and again, that those opposed to the action of the Convention would prevent a fair expression of the popular will ; but only one man, it seems, has yet been cited as having made this declaration. Suppose one man in Missouri has said the State shall run with blood - one man or two men may say the same thing, but it would be no excuse for the Convention to further postpone its action. If you have the power to postpone until August, 1862, you have the same power to postpone until November, 1892. Is it any excuse why the Convention should withdraw the election from the people of Missouri in November simply because of the fear the people will not acquiesce in its action, or because one man has said that armed resistance shall be made? The proper way to meet the issue is to go before the people themselves. When the proposition was made to appoint a Governor, it was first proposed to hold him in office but thirty days, and then let the people decide upon it. Then again it was proposed to have the election held within the time allowed by the Constitution. But when the great pulse of the people of Missouri has been felt, and when it is ascertained that they are opposed to the action of the Convention three to one, then it is proposed to postpone it until August, 1862 ; and not only that, but it is also proposed that the people shall not pass upon it all. We have the power in our hands to hold office. We are here a bare majority, scarcely enough to do business, and yet we declare that we have the power to say that 200,000 voters in Missouri are not competent to attend to their own business, or pass upon our action. What is the reason there cannot be a fair vote ? There certainly can be a fair vote upon the north side of the river ; and is there a single county in the State where it cannot be done ? Not a single rebel commander, as the term goes, exists in the northern section of this State, that I know of. In the district I represent, I am satisfied a fair election can beheld, and that the people are ready to vote on the issues ; and I presume it can be done all through the State. Are we to say that the people shall not go to the polls after it has been determined that our action shall be submitted to them? Are we to say that they shall not vote because we think they, as freemen, will not do right at the polls? I am willing, so far as I am concerned, to let them pass upon the acts of the Convention, and allow them to dispose of it as they please. The making of a new Governor was no unimportant matter ; and shall we multiply our difficulties still further by postponing the election till August? I say, let the people vote at once.

Passage source: Journal of the Missouri State Convention, Held at the City of St. Louis, October, 1861, published 1861.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

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