After many
changes of sentiment, and after passing, modifying, and repealing
many laws, the people of the Commonwealth seem to have settled
down on a policy which permits each town or city to decide
by vote whether the sale of liquor shall be permitted within
their limits. The bill was then passed, without the reference
to the people. But the measure sealed the fate of the coalition.
Some of its provisions, especially that for seizing and destroying
stocks of liquor kept for sale in violation of law, were very
severe, and were held unconstitutional by the Court. The
liquor sellers, almost all of them, were Democrats. They
would not readily submit to a law which made their calling
criminal.
So the Whigs were restored to power by the fall election
in 1852. Their heads were turned by their success. They
did not quite dare to repeal the law providing for a Constitutional
Convention, but they undertook to repeal so much of it as
required that the choice of delegates should be by secret
ballot. The minority resisted this repeal with all their
might. They alleged with great reason that it was not decent
for the Legislature to repeal a provision which the people
has expressly approved.
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