Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/332

Rh young female slave to escape to the Free States. The Governor rejected the petition, which prayed for mercy in her case, on the plea “of the state of feeling between the Free and the Slave States at the present time.”

I have to-day been present at a sitting of the Great Convention in the Capitol, which has met there for the reconstruction, or rather extension, of the States Constitution. I had on this occasion the pleasure of seeing many well-formed heads and foreheads, and manly vigorous forms among the one hundred and thirty legislators here assembled, and shook the friendly hands of divers of them. But a bill regarding general education was ordered to be laid on the table for some future time, without exciting much attention. The assembly occupied itself principally with the questions regarding an increase of judges in the country in accordance with the increased population. The purport of this Convention was similar to that in Ohio, and was designed to place greater power than formerly in the hands of the people, by giving them a participation in the election of judges and other State's officials, which formerly lay more immediately in the hands of the legislative power of the State. It delighted me to see America progress in its democratic tendencies, faithful to its fundamental principles. For if the new steps which are now taken in this direction do not produce an immediate advantage, still they have done much for the great popular education of a conscious public existence which is hereby asserted.

In the large rotunda-like entrance to the Capitol stands a statue of Washington, executed by the French sculptor Houdon. I do not know when I have seen a nobler work of art, or one which more perfectly represented the ideal human being in the every-day reality. It is Washington, the President, with the large chin, the