The convention then adjourned at an early hour in the forenoon until Monday.

On Monday, after an hour spent in matters of temporary interest, the bank article again came up. On motion of some gentleman (I forget who) the exclusion of foreign bank paper after 1849 was reduced from $50 to $20. Mr. Hicks then offered an amendment to exclude all foreign paper after 1847, which was lost; and finally the article was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading by a decisive vote.

On Tuesday it was reported back, engrossed, and was finally passed by the convention, 80 to 24; see yeas and nays.

And so ends the bank battle. After every species of censure had been cast on the committee and the friends of their report, after evasive substitutes had been lauded and adopted, after the salutary and safe principle of minimum penalties had been scouted and rejected, the whole came back again to its original shape, excluding the penalties, section for section, and almost word for word as originally reported; and all the quibbles and evasions called in requisition failed ultimately of any effect, except to expose the inconsistency of their chief advocates. If you desire the test votes, do not look to the final votes but to the votes on Mr. Ryan's amendments. These were the first and last decisive tests between those who desired to see the door ajar and those who desired to see it closed forever. Thank God, if the constitution be adopted with this article, banks can never gain a foothold in our state. I have sent you the article as adopted, which will speak for itself.

The next subject was Moses M. Strong's report on suffrage, which has been in debate since Tuesday and remains still undisposed of. After various minor amendments in committee of the whole, the first serious question was on the motion of Mr. Ryan to substitute the ballot for the viva voce system, which finally prevailed by a decisive vote.

The next question was the right of negro suffrage. There was a very excited debate in which Mr. Gibson and Mr. Chase of Fond du Lac, Mr. Randall, and Mr. Tweedy in a very able and eloquent speech advocated the right, which was opposed by the two Strongs with great ability, and by Mr. Ryan, Mr. Whiteside, and others. The question was taken late yesterday evening, when only thirteen were found voting for it.

This morning Mr. Boyd of Walworth offered an amendment in committee of the whole, providing for a separate submission of the

negro question to the people, which was advocated by himself very ably, and also by Mr. Baker and Mr. Moore, and opposed by Messrs. Burnett, Moses M. Strong, and Bevans, and lost, 35 to 49.

In the afternoon came up the right of foreign suffrage, which was much discussed by Mr. Burnett, Bevans, and Barber, of Grant, and Mr. Parks of Waukesha, against the right, and by Moses M. Strong, Dr. Huebschmann, and Ryan and Harkin of your county in favor of it, when the committee rose and reported.

Mr. Burnett's amendment excluding unnaturalized foreigners after the adoption of the constitution was then put, and lost by a very large majority. See yeas and nays. The separate submission was then put to the vote by yeas and nays and lost, by 47 to 51. Mr. Burchard then moved an amendment extending the right of suffrage to negroes, pending which the convention adjourned.

The article as it now stands is as it was reported in all the sections except the first and second. In the second "viva voce" is stricken out and "by ballot" inserted; and the first section is so amended as to admit to vote substantially as follows: First, citizens over twentyone who have resided in the state twelve months; second, aliens of the same age and residence who have declared their intentions to become citizens and taken an oath of allegiance to the state and United States; third, Indians of the same age and residence who have been declared citizens by act of Congress; fourth, Indians of mixed blood who belong to no tribe and live a civilized life.

This is a great improvement on the article as reported and may be regarded in the light of a compromise, in which light it meets with general approbation here and will undoubtedly pass without further material amendment.

I have little more to add. Yesterday morning Mr. Strong of your county made an able report from the committee on the organization of the judiciary. General Crawford, from his special committee on that subject, reported an article "for abolishing laws for the collection of debts under $100." The General is a good man and a good Democrat and figures as a sort of tame Davy Crockett in the convention.

We have had two distinguished visitors here: Mr. Barnard of Rhode Island, who delivered a most admirable and eloquent lecture to the convention on schools, and Mr. Caleb Cushing, who did not deliver a lecture on China, to the great disappointment of everybody.

3 Henry Barnard, one of America's greatest educators. From 1859 to 1861 he was president of the University of Wisconsin. Most of his life was spent at Hartford, Connecticut. Here he died in July, 1900, in the house where he had been born eighty-nine years before.

Little is doing in the way of new party figuring; the voting of the last week has somewhat disordered the elements of this scheme, or else I am greatly mistaken. Leaders have failed their troops and troops have failed their leaders more than once; still there is an effort to rally, and we are gravely told that the bank was no test question-oh, not at all: the elective judiciary-that is the test. Whether that untried and unauthorized test will fill its office in removing from the way of certain gentlemen whose ambition outruns their capacity the favorite of your county and other distinguished men remains to be seen; but such is the office it is intended to fill.

I wish I had room to give you an account of the attempts which were had about two weeks ago to organize a caucus, and which have substantially failed, but I have filled each letter with more important matters. Still I may find room for this another time, although for obvious reasons the caucus was not so accessible to members of the LOBBY.

[November 4, 1846]

MADISON, October 29, 1846

J. C. BUNNER ESQ.: I notice by your paper received this evening that the Milwaukee Sentinel is supposed to be lacerating the feelings. of your correspondent. Not having seen that journal since the sitting of the convention, I am of course unable to judge of the degree of severity with which my scribblings are visited; but if you who are a judge in such matters will inform me of the proper degree of mortification to be felt on the occasion, it shall be felt accordingly forthwith. The lamentations of the Whigs and their new allies on the subject of banks are too common to excite much attention; and for all other matters of which I have spoken in my observations on the convention the Whigs here exult, and I think the Whigs everywhere have reason to exult in the crusade which has been on foot to divide the Democratic party for the benefit of a few hungry aspirants who with little other merit and no claims on the sympathies of the party seek to build their political fortunes on the destruction. of better men. I notice some quasi Democratic papers lay the blame on those who resist this new movement; the fact is only useful to show in what quarters the movement found its origin; for the rest, it will sound ill in the ears of the Democratic people that the whole blame of this division is with those who stand for the whole partywhole in its true principles and its true men--and will not see prin

ciples, men, and all sacrificed to build up fortunes of a corrupt combination of bank Democrats, Doty men, and Tallmadge conservatives. Such is and has been the real issue. I now doubt whether it will succeed here; I never doubted that it could not succeed with the people. The old, known, and tried men of the party, whether tried in station or out of it, whether serving as officers or soldiers, with their good old General at their head, will not be thrown aside by a party who have never been ungrateful to their servants, never have forgotten true, staunch, and tested service, and who abhor all treachery, double-dealing, and timeserving. So much for so much. I resume an account of the doings. of the honorable convention, who are kicking up such a dust all round.

The first business on Friday morning was the suffrage article. Various attempts were made to amend it, which all failed, and the article was finally ordered to be engrossed for a third reading by a very decided majority. This lasted till towards noon, when it was proposed to adjourn over till Monday, which was carried by a pretty decisive vote until the yeas and nays were ordered, when there was considerable of a small row, many backing out from the adjournment on the yeas and nays; but it finally passed by a small majority. Various reasons for adjourning were urged by the honorable delegates-all in fact but the true one, which I suspect was that they were heartily worn out; and I think the rest and preparation for business evinced this week seem fully to justify the recess.

On Monday, in a thin house, the suffrage article again came on the carpet, and after considerable sparring and maneuvering with a view to recommitting it for alteration, it was ordered to be printed as it then stood and made the special order for next morning. Then came up A. Hyatt Smith's report on the eminent domain of the state, which was taken up by the committee of the whole, amended by the chairman of the committee who reported it, and reported to the convention. Mr. Ryan moved as amendments three additional sections, providing: First, that the acquisition of property by the state, not necessary to the legitimate objects of government, except by grant or forfeiture, should be discouraged; second, that the expropriation of private property should only be made when necessary to the same objects, and then only on payment first made to the owner of the value assessed by a jury of the county; and third, that the state should not derive revenue from property expropriated from private persons; which failed by a decisive vote by yeas and

nays, which you will see. Mr. John Y. Smith then raised some questions on the distribution act, which it seems "is suspended by a state of war," whereby we lose our 500,000 acres on entering the Union. Much desultory debate then followed on the subject of Mr. Martin's very mean act for our admission, Uncle Sam's impositions on our territory, our razed boundaries, and of driving a bargain with Uncle Sam on the subject, when on motion of Mr. Ryan the article together with that on the act of Congress and that on boundaries was recommitted to the committee of the whole to be taken up in the order of the latter report, not then made. This is a very important subject, and I hope will be maturely considered and carefully acted on.

Next came up Adjutant General Smith's report on the militia, when the convention again resolved itself into committee of the whole. You doubtless have this report, which is a compulsory system of organizing and disciplining the militia. It found several opponents on the floor, as it would everywhere amongst the people, who have no notion of being be-drilled and be-bothered in time of peace that some quasi great men on a small scale may wear epaulettes and side arms, and some quasi great men on a larger scale may wear a comfortable salary in addition to the feathers and gold lace, e. g., adjutant generals. The first attack was by Mr. Chase of Fond du Lac, who proposed a substitute based on the principle of enrollment only in time of peace. This attack was most valorously resisted by the gallant chairman of the committee and the no less gallant General Crawford. Mr. Strong of your county, who opposed the report, ventured upon a lament over the days of sweet cider and gingerbread with a mock pathos rivaling Burke's lament for the days of chivalry; for which innocent display he was for the hundredth time pounced upon by the military heroes and their friends of the new order as if he had been a public traitor, with insult and accusation of all sorts. Mr. Strong is too patient and too gentle a man for the daily scenes of almost gladiatorial contention into which every man is forced who does his simple duty in the business of the convention, if in doing so he happens to fall foul of the hobbies ridden by the accomplices of the new scheme. Pending these discussions the convention adjourned at a late hour.

Next morning the judiciary committee reported by the chairman. The article reported, is I believe, longer than all the other reports yet made together. Some men take a wonderful amount of words to a very small modicum of ideas a great deal of milk to a very little