CHAPTER IV

COUNCIL OF REVISION—PERCENTAGE OF VETOED BILLS—COUNCIL
RAN COUNTER TO PUBLIC SENTIMENT IN 1812-1814—ITS
VETOES OF WAR MEASURES—ITS VETO OF THE BILL OF NOVEM¬
BER 20, 1820, FOR A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION—HISTORY
OF THE MOVEMENT FOR A CONVENTION—ACT OF APRIL I3,
182I—ELECTION OF DELEGATES, AND ANALYSIS OF VOTE.

The conviction was often expressed in the convention of
1821 that in the council of revision, composed of the governor
and judges, there was an improper union of legislative and ju¬
dicial powers. It was not the percentage of the bills which it
vetoed, for this was small^ when compared with the liberal use of
the veto power by governors and presidents of more modern days,
but their character which made it the subject of public odium.
It had seemed to put itself in the path of public opinion, and
public sentiment would not endure its opposition. On several
occasions when the legislature favored an enlargement of the
judicial force (the most urgent occasion being in 1812, during
the controversy over the charter of the Bank of America), and it
was apparent that the council of appointment was prepared to
respond to the legislative and popular wish, the council of re-
 

I. The abstract of vetoed bills presented by Justice Piatt to the
convention of 1821 showed that 128 out of 6590 bills passed by the two
houses had been vetoed by the council, eighty-three as repugnant to the
constitution, forty-five as inconsistent with the public good. The council
and the legislature seem oftenest to have come in conflict in the year
1785, sixteen bills having been vetoed in the course of the session, ten as
unconstitutional, and six as inconsistent with the public good.
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