With the erection by the National Assembly of the _Staatenausschuss_, or Committee of the States,[67] the draft of the constitution was laid before that body for further consideration. On February 21st the committee submitted the result of its deliberations to the National Assembly, which referred it in turn to a special committee of twenty-eight members, whose chairman was Conrad Haussmann, a member of the German Democratic Party. [67] _Vide_ p. 245. The National Assembly began the second reading of the constitution on July 2d and finished it on July 22d. The third reading began on July 29th. This brought a number of important changes, one of which is of deep significance as indicating the extent to which the members of the National Assembly had already succeeded in freeing themselves from the hysterical mode of thinking induced by the immediate revolutionary period. All drafts of the constitution up to that date had provided that no member of a former reigning house in Germany should be eligible to the Presidency. This provision was stricken out on third reading. The constitution was finally adopted on July 31, 1919, by a vote of 262 ayes to 75 nayes. The negative votes were cast by the German National People's Party, the German People's Party, the Bavarian Peasants' League, and one member of the Bavarian People's Party (Dr. Heim). The constitution was signed by President Ebert and the ministry at Schwarzburg on August 11th, and went into effect three days later. On this date the imperial constitution of April 16, 1871, several paragraphs of which were still in effect under the provisional constitution of February, 1919, ceased to exist. The Weimar constitution consists of two "main divisions." The first, dealing with the construction of the state, is divided into seven sections, which are subdivided into 108 articles. The second main division, dealing with "fundamental rights and fundamental duties of the Germans," has five sections, with 57 articles. A comparison of the preambles of the old and new constitutions indicates the different point of view from which they were approached. The constitution of 1871 began: "His Majesty the King of Prussia, in the name of the North German Federation, His Majesty the King of Bavaria, His Majesty the King of Wurtemberg, His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Baden, and His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Hesse and on the Rhine, for those parts of the Grand Duchy of Hesse situated south of the Main, form an everlasting federation for the protection of the territory of the federation and of the right prevailing within its borders, as well as for the furtherance of the welfare of the German people." The new constitution's preamble reads: