Page:History of Gardner, Massachusetts (1860) - Glazier.djvu/74

deeds in one general office of registry, instead of entering them on the books of the town where the land was situated, and the right of absentees to sue for the collection of debts, were the subjects of complaint in a petition, concluding with the request that precepts might be issued for meetings, to express public sentiment in relation to a revision of the Constitution, and if two-thirds of the qualified voters were in favor of amendment, that a State convention might be called. The existence of this body was continued by an adjournment to Worcester. The petition was immediately forwarded to the General Court. A copy was subsequently submitted to the town, at a meeting held October 2nd, for the purpose of receiving a report from the delegates. It was then voted, "That Mr. Daniel Baird be requested to inform the town whether this petition was according to his mind, and he informed the town it was; but that he did not approve of its being sent to the General Court until it had been laid before the town." The petition was read paragraph by paragraph, rejected, and the delegates dismissed.

On the 16th of October, in compliance with the request of 34 freeholders, another town meeting was called: after a long and warm debate, the former delegates were re-elected to attend the convention, at its adjourned session. A petition had been offered, praying consideration of the measures proper in the alarming situation of the country, and for instructions to the representative to inquire into the expenditure of public money, the salaries of officers, the means of increasing manufactures, encouraging agriculture, introducing economy, and removing every grievance. Directions were given to endeavor to procure the removal of the Legislature from the metropolis to the interior; the annihilation of the Inferior Courts; the substitution of a cheaper and