TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE.

TABLE OF CASES. . .

1. The First State Constitutional Conventions, 1776-1783

-Reasons for framing written constitutions

V

xiii

New Hampshire

Massachusetts.

-New York

Maryland ..

North Carolina.

-Delaware..

Pennsylvania.

Georgia..

Vermont

South Carolina

New Jersey, Virginia

Early forms of procedure

Provisions for altering first state constitutions

II. The Constitutional Convention, 1784-1908. .

→Growth of distinction between constitutions and statutes

Methods of calling conventions

Submission of constitutions to a popular vote..

III. The Legal Position of the Constitutional Convention

Legislative control of conventions . . .

Constitutional restrictions upon power of conventions.

Implied restrictions.

→Power of conventions to enact legislation not of a constitu-

tional character.

IV. The Amendment of State Constitutions

Conventions and amendment through legislative action.

History of amending procedure . .

Present methods of amending constitutions.

-Flexible and rigid constitutions

Steps in the amending process. .

Legislative majority for proposal.

I

I

3

8

10

12

13

14

15

16

16

17

19

21

ÕRNNSTUTX

104

Legislative ratification in Mississippi and South Carolina

Erroneous and contradictory amendments

Judicial control of the amending process. .

Whether amendment adopted a judicial question.

Doctrine of liberal construction . .

Amendments fundamentally affecting organization of gov-

209

209

215

Control over form of procedure, not over substance of pro-

posal. . .

234

Constitutional amendments and ordinary legislation

Overruling of courts by constitutional enactments

237

238

Judicial veto power with respect to amendments.

243

Breaking down of distinction between state statutes and

constitutions . . .

249

Legislative power to propose complete constitution in guise

of an amendment.

258

Limits of legislative power to propose amendments .

Constitutional commissions ...

V. The Working of the Constitutional Referendum. .

Frequency with which amendments are proposed . .

Subjects upon which a real popular judgment may be ob-

tained ..

266

266

270

APPENDIX: Table of votes on constitutional questions, 1899-1908. 293

INDEX

345

Austin v. Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, 1 Yeates, 260. 37

Birmingham and Atlantic Railway Co., ex parte, 145 Ala., 514.. 75,

87, 113

Bott v. Secretary of State, 62 N. J. Law, 107; 63 ibid., 289....185, 193,

Chase v. Board of Election Commissioners, 151 Mich., 407.... 183, 221

Commonwealth v. Griest, 196 Pa. St., 396.. 150, 151, 155, 160, 161, 183,