TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE

TABLE OF CASES...

I. The First State Constitutional Conventions, 1776-1783.

Reasons for framing written constitutions

V

xiii

I

I

3

8

ΙΟ

12

13

14

15

16

16

17

19

21

26

30

30

39

62

72

73

92

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.

PAGE

Reading and journal entry

Executive veto power

Binding force of legislation with respect to amendments

Restrictions upon amending power.

Action by two successive legislatures.

Publication of proposed amendments

Distribution of proposals to voters.

Form of submission ..

Question as to what is "

one amendment

Submission at general or special elections

Separate ballots . . . .

Printing on ballot in full or by title.

184

Time when amendment becomes effective .

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

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

Legislative power to propose complete constitution in guise

of an amendment. . . .

Limits of legislative power to propose amendments.

Constitutional commissions.

258

260

262

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

Benner v. Porter, 9 How., 235..

Berry v. Bellows, 30 Ark., 198..

107

93

204

Bilbrey v. Poston, 63 Tenn., 232..
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

City of Chicago v. Reeves, 220 Ill., 274.....

Cleveland v. Construction Co., 67 Ohio St., 197.

Collier v. Frierson, 24 Ala., 108.....

179

239

46, 212, 219

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