EdNC. Essential education news. Important stories. Your voice.

Search ednc.org

Day 49 of the Convention

Share this story

Our republishing policy

EdNC is a nonprofit, online, daily, independent newspaper. All of EdNC’s content is open source and free to republish. Please use the following guidelines when republishing our content.
  • Our content must be republished in full. If your organization uses a paywall, the content must be provided in full for free.
  • Credit our team by including both the author name and EdNC.org in the byline. Example: Alex Granados, EdNC.org.
  • If republishing the story online, please provide a link to EdNC.org or a link to the original article in either the byline or credit line.
  • The original headline of the article must be used. Allowable edits to the content of the piece include changes to meet your publication’s style guide and references to dates (i.e. this week changed to last week). Other edits must be approved by emailing Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected].
  • Photos and other multimedia elements (audio, video, etc.) may not be republished without prior permission. Please email Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected] if you are interested in sharing a multimedia element.
  • If you republish a story, please let us know by emailing Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected].
Please email Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected] if you have any questions. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Canonical tag

Please include the following canonical tag in the <head> of the republished story.

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.ednc.org/day-49-of-the-convention/">

HTML content

This includes the title, byline, content, and tracking pixel required for republishing this story.

Copy & paste HTML
This story is tagged:

Tuesday, March 10, 1868

The Convention was called to order on Tuesday at 10 o’clock, Mr. Pres. Cowles in the Chair. 

On this 49th day of the convention, Mr. L.D. Hall of Sampson County was sworn in a member of the Convention, replacing Mr. Williams. [See prior coverage on February 8, March 4, and March 5.]

The report on the committee on the judiciary was taken up. Various amendments were offered and some accepted with a vote on the third and final reading with a vote of yeas – 80, nays – 20.

The report of the Committee on Penal Institutions and Public Charities also passed its third and final reading with a vote of yeas – 79, nays – 11. Section two was amended to allow but not require the General Assembly to make specified crimes punishable by death.

When the Convention reassembled for the evening session at 7:30 p.m. the report of the Committee on Suffrage and Eligibility to Office was taken up and placed on its third and final reading. Various amendments were offered for the oath in Section 2. The oath offered by Mr. Heaton was accepted with the vote of yeas – 74, nays –27.

SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide, from time to time, for the registration of all electors, but no person shall be allowed to register without first being required to take an oath or affirmation to support the Constitution and laws of the United States, and laws of North Carolina, not inconsistent therewith.

OATH

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina, not inconsistent therewith. So help me God.

According to the Daily Sentinel, “the House became involved in a scene of great confusion. Various points of order were raised, motions to adjourn and deafening calls for the question were heard on all sides, and at last, a motion to adjourn was entertained, put to a vote and carried, amid great confusion.”

 

Resources

Ferrell, Joseph, ed., Compilation of the Official Report of the Proceedings of the Convention (Chapel Hill, N.C.: unpublished manuscript 2007). (See day 8 for fuller explanation of this resource.)

 

*The debate and other quotes are close to verbatim from the reported resources with some adjustment to put all comments in first person, present tense.