Friday, February 14, 1868
The Convention was called to order on Friday at 10 o’clock, Mr. Pres. Cowles in the Chair.
Mr. Welker proposed an ordinance to prohibit the distillation of grain. Mr. McDonald moved to postpone the whole matter stating, “a man has a right to distill. I do not think it is right to prohibit a man, if he wished to distill his own grain. If stopped now, Northern whisky would pour in here. It is bad whisky and I am opposed to that too.”* Mr. Galloway spoke as well: “these side issues are dangerous. Look at Maine, Ohio, and Massachusetts, where side issues defeated the party. Leave the liquor question then, where it stood at first. The rights of the colored men are endangered by these such issues.”
With no resolution, by special order, the Bill of Rights was taken up. The Convention, once again, had lengthy debates on debt obligations.
The Convention adjourned and then reconvened at 7:30 p.m. Votes, with some discussion were taken. Sections four and five were adopted by an overwhelming majority the delegates.
On motion the Convention adjourned.
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Ferrell, Joseph, ed., Compilation of the Official Report of the Proceedings of the Convention (Chapel Hill, N.C.: unpublished manuscript 2007).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 from this day’s proceedings are close to verbatim from the reported resources with some adjustment to put all comments in first person, present tense.
