Page:Address of Frederick V. Holman at Oregon Bar Association annual meeting.djvu/50

 the so-called revolution of 1688; of the establishment of the Bill of Rights, which, in its essential features, is a part of the original Constitution of the State of Oregon; of the causes which led to the American Revolution; of the Revolution itself; of the Declaration of Independence. They ignored the debates in the Convention when the Constitution of the United States was formed; the fifth and sixth amendments to the Constitution of the United States; what was published in The Federalist; personal liberty as opposed to tyranny; and human rights as against the tyranny of Courts. Take this amendment, with its contradictory provisions, and determine, if you can, what was in the minds of its framers, and what was their intent.

The people and the legal voters of Oregon are certainly of as high average intelligence as those of any other State in the Union. Its earliest pioneers were people of high courage and intelligence, who first saved Oregon and then made it. Oregon has ever since attracted conservative people. It has been no place for the adventurer or the idler. Up to 1900, its growth was not fast. Its population, as shown by the census of that year, was 413,536. Its population, as shown by the census of 19 10, is 672,765, an increase of 226,261 in ten years. But only a part of Oregon's voters have taken the initiative amendments seriously. Very few of them have read the proposed amendments, fewer still have taken the trouble to give any serious thought as to what most of the initiative amendments meant. Many do not vote on initiative measures, hoping that what is right or proper will prevail. Many who voted for this amendment of Article VII of the Constitution were misled by the first clause of its ballot title. Its ballot title was as follows:

"For amendment to the Constitution of the State of Oregon, providing for verdict by three-fourths of jury in civil cases; authorizing grand juries to be summoned separate from the trial jury, permitting change of judicial system by statute, prohibiting re-trial where any evidence to support verdict; providing for affirmance of judgment on appeal notwithstanding error committed in lower Court, directing Supreme Court to enter such judgment as should have been entered in lower Court; fixing terms of Supreme Court; providing judges of all Courts be elected for six years, and increasing jurisdiction of Supreme Court."

This careless, not to say dilettant, way of voters considering or not considering serious amendments of the Constitution