- Event type: CREATE
Utah State Constitutional Convention 1895 (2020 Edition)
Proceedings and Debates of the Convention Assembled to Adopt a Constitution for the State of Utah
The Convention
All the delegates.
To see the full record of a committee, click on the corresponding committee on the map below.
Gavel Presentation to President Smith
I am proud to salute a man who was born in the Territory, whose motto was “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.”On my way to the building this morning I was accosted by a number of your friends and my friends, the friends of this Convention, who imposed upon me the very pleasant and delicate duty of asking you to accept from them an emblem of your authority during the continuance of this Convention. The article which I present to you or will present to you is one of domestic manufacture; it was made by one of the good citizens of Salt Lake City. I will mention the parts of this. The handle, Mr. President, as you will observe, is very slender; a larger one it was believed wouldn't be necessary. The temper of the Convention is such as ought to and doubtless will prevail during its deliberations. This handle is made of paradise wood, typical no doubt of the harmony that will prevail in this Convention. The wood was grown in the Temple square in this city. The body of the gavel is made from mountain mahogany, grown on these grand hills surrounding this city. In the center of this body, at one end, is a piece of wood taken from the keel of an English vessel, the Augusta, which was sunk off the Atlantic coast during the Revolutionary war by the guns of our Revolutionary fathers. That ship lay imbedded for a period of more than eighty years. It then was resurrected by American ingenuity and genius. It was thought by the maker of this and his friends that the destruction and burial of that ship would serve to remind some folks at least of the doom that might await tyrants and oppressors, leaving off that part of it, even the resurrection period, after eighty years. On the reverse end of this gavel is a piece of metal which suspended the bell which first proclaimed the freedom of the American people; that was secured by the maker years ago. It is believed that when this gavel finally falls at the conclusion of the labors of this Convention, that it will be a proclamation to the people of this Territory giving to them, as did the old liberty bell, freedom and liberty, to this grand people, a grand State which is to be as grand as there is in America. With the best wishes of your legions of friends, please accept this emblem of your authority.
Decisions yet to be taken
Document Timeline
- Gavel Presentation to President Smith (introduced on 1895-03-06 10:30:00 - CREATE - e911470) [This document]
[view current proposal at this moment]
- None (introduced on 1895-03-06 10:30:00 - ADOPT_PROPOSAL - e911471) [view current proposal at this moment]