In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

TEN The Constitutional Convention: A Triumph amid Setbacks ({Con Con" T he Illinois Constitutional Convention of 1970 had a good run. Convention delegates pieced together a new governing charter for the state that was accepted by the voting public, something that had not happened in a hundred years. Aside from ceremonial moments, the working of the convention hardly captivated the imagination of Illinoisans. To most of the state's II,II3,976 souls, "Con Con" was an oblivious exercise. Its image as a toy of political elitists may not have been way off base, but many of the chang~s in basic governmental powers and duties forged at the convention went far beyond cosmetic. Afterward , those bullish on the convention at its start had no hesitation toasting the result with champagne. No question, the Illinois Constitutional Convention was an uncommon event. Yet it was pretty dry stuff to a citizenry overwhelmed by the passionate, often violent issues of the 1960s and early 1970S. People remained as divided as ever over the Vietnam War, even though American troops were avoiding major battles with the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong early in 1970 and Nixon was reducing u.s. troops in the conflict from 543,000 to 340,000. The upheaval bred by opposition to the war continued to flood the country, including Illinois where the rampaging of rebellious students across university campuses reached a crescendo in 1970. Rewriting the state's constitution just was not a turn-on, nothing like the civil rights or environmental protection movements or other causes that evoked spirited commitment from great crowds. Nevertheless, the convention persevered. It was a triumph in perseverance for those who wanted it to happen, and it was a triumph in perseverance for those who carried it out to a successful conclusion. Occurring in the wake of the I960s, a "slum of a decade" as writer Richard Rovere called it, the convention provided a fresh start for the ensuing decade in Illinois. While the new Constitution of 1970 did not go as far in many areas as some desired, its effect on the whole range of Illinois government, on state fiscal policy, on civil rights, 119 120 . THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION and on other fundamental matters was imposing. "Con Con" also was a story of people, big and small, some of whom would go on to larger roles in Illinois public life while others returned to anonymity. Upon second glance years later, the n6 delegates elected to the convention were an interesting group. For the record, the 1970 convention was the sixth of its kind in Illinois. The first such gathering was at old Kaskaskia in 1818 when frontier delegates in twenty-three days drew up the constitution with which Illinois moved from territorial status to statehood. Of the five conventions before I970, voters rejected the work of two, the second of which met in the early I920S. The last successful convention, obviously, was the one that produced the Illinois Constitution of 1870, the charter under which Illinoisans would live for a century. With each new generation, derision of the 1870 document increased until the belittling of it as an outmoded, horse-and-buggy relic became a cliche-accepted by governors and grade school children alike. David Kenney of Carbondale, a political science professor at Southern Illinois University for many years and a delegate himself to the 1970 convention, put it more urbanely in underlining in a textbook he authored the need for revision of the 1870 constitution. "In a static society it might be possible for a state's constitution to continue unchanged for long periods of satisfactory service," wrote Kenney. But, he continued , "when social and economic conditions change rapidly however, as has been the case in the last century, and especially so since World War I, in Illinois, then without adequate constitutional change there is increasing ineffectiveness of performance and disparity between what is expected of government and what it can deliver. Under conditions of rapid social change, piecemeal constitutional amendment occasionally will not suffice and a broader revision·of the fundamental law becomes necessary. While constitutions deserve respect they have no claim to immortality. Like records of any sort, they exist in one sense only to be revised periodically in the interest of superior performance."l Still, as much as the impetus for a convention picked up steam in the I960s, not many individuals really thought it would happen as early as it did. From the start, skeptics regarded...

Share