32 



procedure for making return of the votes cast and certifying the 

 delegates-elect; the time and place for the assembling of the 

 delegates; who should preside at the opening session of the con- 

 vention; the organization of the convention, including election 

 of officers, employment of clerks and other personnel, and sup- 

 plying of vacancies in the convention; and the per diem and mileage 

 of delegates. 

 Summary . 



As tlie foregoing review shows, while the phraseology of the 

 North Carolina Constitution has alv:ays contemplated the convention 

 as the omnipotent instrument of the sovereign people, it i s never- 

 theless clear that as a practical matter there has been but one 

 entirely unlimited convention in the history of North Carolina, 

 that of 1861-62, The practical considerations as well as the theory 

 of the limited convention were well summed up in a dictum by the 

 late Chief Justice Stacy: 



"[W]hile the Constitution apparently contains no specific 

 authority for limiting the pox-jers of a convention called 

 under this section, nevertheless the people themselves in 

 voting upon the proposition, 'Convention or No Convention," 

 may perforce, in terms of its submission, limit the authority 

 of the convention, for, in this vjay, upon such condition of 

 limitation alone will the call for the convention be approved 

 by a majority of the qualified voters of the State," 



•^^ Opinions of the Justices in the Hatter of Calling a Convention , 

 20U N.C. b06 at bl2 (1933). 



