alties which can never be enforced. He thought this was considering the members of all future legislatures as mere children. They would be insulted by thus infringing upon their rights, to be considered "soft" and liable to be influenced by lobby members. They would taunt this convention with this treatment; but if this matter should be left to them, will exert themselves to carry out the intentions of this convention. Suppose this article should be engrafted into the constitution, how easy would it be for the legislature to say that complaint should be made five or ten days after the commission of the offense, or that two or three witnesses should be necessary for prosecution -would not that render these penal clauses nugatory? We should, then, confide to the good faith of the legislature to carry into effect our enactments; he considered it more magnanimous to do so than to get out of our legitimate province by making laws. The penalties are too large and the imprisonment too long to render it possible to enforce them; their magnitude would shock the people. They never could be carried into effect. This was not a transgression of any law of nature, such as murder, arson, or burglary, but a crime only because made so by the action of this convention. Mr. Baker gave notice to the committee that he had an amendment to the report, which he would submit at the proper time.

Mr. Clark was opposed to paper money of any description, let it emanate from whence it may. He was as much opposed to the introduction of "wildcat" as of "Badger" money, and would join in the hunt against these banks with a double-barreled gun, and shoot the wild cat with one barrel, the badger with the other, and then tumble them both into the same grave. He came here from an independent county, and was himself emphatically an independent man. He had heard it said on this floor that there was no such thing as an independent man to be found; it was a mistake; he would inform the gentleman who made the remark that there were independent men on the other side of the Wisconsin, and thank God and their wives these independent men were on the increase. He went the whole length in the exclusion of paper money; he had given his constituents a pledge to go the whole figure in opposing banks; and

when he should be found to forfeit that pledge on this floor he hoped his tongue would cleave to the roof of his mouth, or he be in condition for the ants to carry him through the keyhole. But he was opposed to penal clauses in the report inasmuch as he considered them disproportioned to the offense.

Mr. Beall would detain the convention by making a few remarks upon this subject which had already been so ably and cogently discussed. He thought the gentleman from Walworth (Mr. Baker) had struck the right vein at last, and he had been delighted and enlightened by listening to his able remarks; he was delighted with them because he considered them practical. Yesterday we listened to the remarks of lawyers-yesterday we had theory; today we have listened to farmers, and we had the theory reduced to practice. He considered that the convention were going ahead too fast yesterday and he would hold on to the anchor thrown out to windward by the member from Walworth. He would not detain the convention by any set speech on this subject, as he considered the floor justly belonged to the member from Dodge (Mr. Judd) but he had a substitute for the report of the committee, which he would submit at the proper time, which substitute met his views, and he hoped it would meet the approbation of the convention. Mr. Beall said he had nothing to say in regard to the principle of banking; that question was settled. No member of the committee had yet expressed himself in favor of banking and probably none would, but he did not agree with the report nor substitutes or amendments in detail as he was opposed to the penal clauses in the majority report and was opposed to the immediate suppression of the circulation of foreign paper money. The first because he considered it more properly the duty of the legislature to affix penalties and the latter because it would prove prejudicial to the interests of the people.

Mr. Judd next took the floor, premising his remarks with the observation that he had no proposition to offer, but had risen to place himself in a right position in regard to this subject. The course the discussion had taken was calculated to place the committee in a wrong position; anyone who opposed the report had been called "bank" men, which application was not

true as regarded him, nor of any member who had preceded him, if their professions were true, and he did not doubt them. All Democrats were opposed to banks, but the question was simply upon the details, and he objected to the details of the majority report. Of all the propositions submitted he preferred that of the gentleman from Iowa (W. R. Smith) which was the most simple, correct, and less liable to misapprehension. The gentleman says, "The insertion of abstract principles into the constitution would render them a dead letter, unless the penalties were clearly defined and adopted," which he did not consider was the case, and quoted from the constitution to support his argument, showing that it contained abstract propositions to which no penalty was appended.

He did not understand the meaning of the gentleman's phrases of "hards" and "softs" and therefore would not use them; the gentleman was perfectly welcome to use them in his parlance, but he wanted nothing to do with them. The idea was that the gentleman was not afraid of this convention, but afraid of all future legislatures. His opinion was that if any legislature which may hereafter be sent here is corrupt enough, violate any article in this constitution, he was willing to consider all future officers, governors, and legislatures as honest as himself and would [not] believe the people would ever send here representatives so wilfully corrupt as to violate any article in the constitution.

By voting for the amendment of the member from Grant to the substitute offered by the member from Iowa it was intended to render the latter so perfectly ridiculous that its friends would not know it, and no person who sincerely understood it would vote for it. He would state one word in regard to the section of the amendment of the gentleman from Grant prohibiting the circulation of treasury notes within our state. Would the United States admit a state into the Union with such a proposition in her constitution, making it a felony to pass, utter, or receive a treasury note? Especially a state in which she has so much public land in market, and so much more to come into market hereafter? Most certainly not. He gave

notice that he would not allow gentlemen to call him a "bank" man because of his opposition to such a gag as these penalties.

Mr. A. Hyatt Smith took the floor, but gave way to a motion to rise, report progress, and ask leave to sit again. Which motion was put and carried, and the committee rose accordingly. The convention then adjourned to two o'clock.-Express, Oct. 20, 1846.

BANKS AND BANKING

(Remarks of Mr. Beall, of Marquette, in committee of the whole)

MR. CHAIRMAN: The gentleman from Walworth has struck the right view at last. He has broken new ground, and I have no doubt his views will exert a great influence on the results of this question. Yesterday we listened to the speeches of lawyers -we had theory. Today I trust we shall hear from farmers and their opinions of the inevitable operation of the principles which are sought to be introduced into this article. I shall detain the committee but a short time, as I suppose the floor properly belongs to my friend from Dodge (Dr. Judd).

I have nothing to say, sir, of the fraudulent practices of banking and the intense feeling entertained and expressed thereof throughout the territory. I have my full share of that feeling, and I shall endeavor to carry out what I believe to be the sentiment of that political interest to which I profess to belong. The gentleman from Racine (Mr. Ryan) has drawn a most dismal but not untrue picture of individual and financial calamity which the modern system of banking has inflicted upon this whole country, and particularly the western portion of it, and he urges upon the committee in a speech of great power and talent that a system which has proved so utterly faithless in its management and ruinous in its consequences shall be condemned and inhibited in the constitution of the state. Sir, I agree with him in all this. My hostility to the frauds of moneyed monopolies which in defiance of the law have plundered year after year millions from the honest and producing industry of the country is as fixed and inveterate as his own. I believe the idea of special bank charters in this territory at least

cannot be entertained for one moment by any public man. I go further, sir. The sentiment of the masses, not only here, but all over the Union, is concentrating against monopolies of every kind with exclusive privileges; and I am greatly mistaken if the day is far distant which will produce a concurrent and unanimous action on this subject, fixing on a surer basis the monetary exchanges and dealings of the people, and reducing to fact what is now, in some degree, merely the opinion and desire of the great Democratic party of the country.

I shall be unable, Mr. Chairman, to vote for the measures proposed in the report of the committee on banks and banking, as amended, nor can I support the plan suggested in the amendment of the gentleman from Walworth (Mr. Baker) in regard to both of which I design to make a few remarks. At the proper time it is my intention to offer a substitute embodying my views and which with the permission of the committee I will now read:

"Section 1. The legislature of this state shall not have power to grant any special bank charters or confer any special banking privileges whatever.

"Section 2. All banks and all banking of any description whatever, either general or special, is forever prohibited within this state, except as hereinafter provided for.

"Section 3. No law authorizing banking in any manner or under any pretext whatever shall ever be passed by the legislature of this state, except such law be general in its terms and conveying rights equally to every citizen, and shall be adopted in the following manner: The proposed law shall pass through the ordinary forms of legislation, the yeas and nays being taken and entered at large upon the journal of the legislature, and, if adopted by them, shall be published fully and distinctly in six weekly newspapers located in different sections of the state for thirteen weeks in succession next preceding any general election, and shall then be submitted to the people, and if approved by a majority of the electors of this state, at such election, made to appear by the returns to the proper office as shall be provided for the election of members of Congress of the United States, then the said act shall become a law of the land,