Since 1850, every sixteen years the voters of Michigan have been given the option to hold a Constitutional Convention to draft a new constitution for the state. In fact, the voters of Michigan will be given that option this year. Michigan has attempted to draft a new constitution six times – four of those were successful and resulted in the Constitutions of 1835, 1850, 1908, and 1863. Two attempts failed – 1867, and 1873.
The attempt made in 1873 was different from all of the other revision attempts because instead of holding a Convention, the legislature passed a joint resolution authorizing the Governor to appoint a commission to make recommendations. Governor John Bagley appointed two men from each of Michigan’s nine congressional districts. Most of the men were lawyers and former legislators.
The Commission met in the Senate Chamber of the Second Capitol for a total of 39 days between August 27, 1873 and October 16, 1873. Each provision the commission discussed had to be approved by 2/3 of the members before it was added to the Constitution. The resulting Constitution would have increased the number of senators and representatives, changed the terms of the Senate from two to four years, placed additional limits on the types of laws the legislature could make, and removed specific mentions of salaries paid to state officials from the constitution. In addition, it would have added into the constitution the ability to revise the document through a constitutional commission.
When the Constitutional Commission was done with their work, they forwarded their report to the Governor, who forwarded it to the Legislature. The Legislature then used their power to place amendments on the ballot to bring the whole draft constitution to a statewide vote. The 1873 Constitution failed overwhelmingly by a vote of 39,258 yeas to 124,034 nays. The main reason the voters refused the new constitution was because they were unhappy that it had not been drafted in a full convention as outlined in the Constitution of 1850.
For a complete overview of Michigan's constitutional history, watch Rise & Progress: Michigan's Constitutions and Constitutional Conventions presented by Capitol Deputy Director of Education & History Cambray Baylis.
