The reconstruction convention met on December 9, 1867, and continued in session (excepting a recess from December 24 to January 7), until March 11, 1868. The first article of the new constitution on which the convention took action was reported on January 9.[278] Before that time many resolutions and ordinances were introduced. Most of them related to "relief" (such as suspension of tax collections, homestead exemption, stay of execution for debt, etc.), or to the pay and mileage of delegates, and only rarely was anything said about the constitution. On December 16 the more conscientious members secured the appointment of a committee to inquire whether the convention had power to do any business besides frame a constitution.[279] This committee did not discuss the law of the question, but recommended on moral grounds a resolution to this effect: That all ordinances or other matter ... already introduced and pending are hereby indefinitely postponed; and in future no ordinance or other matter ... not necessarily connected with the fundamental law shall be entertained by this convention [except relief legislation]. This report met with vigorous opposition. It was saved from the table by two votes. But it was adopted.[280] The contemporary Conservative press describes the convention as very infamous and very disgusting.[281] It contained thirty-three negroes, and the transactions recorded in the official journal show that it was composed largely of men of low character. Hence, to many of the delegates, framing the constitution was only a minor incident of the convention, and the main part of that work was left to a small number of men. Their work shows intelligence and ability. Moreover, in the records of the convention there are not wanting traces of that undoubted public spirit which animated many of the supporters of reconstruction--the honest desire to repair and develop the material welfare of the state. This spirit is evident in the speeches we have cited, and in some of the resolutions. We have stated how the campaign of 1868 resulted in giving the governorship to the Republicans and a majority of twenty-nine in the legislature to the Conservatives; how Governor Bullock tried to reduce that majority through Meade, and how Meade refused his aid; and how the majority was more than doubled by the expulsion of the negroes and the seating of the minority candidates. From that time to the reorganization of the legislature in 1870, the most remarkable fact in the state politics was the hostility between the governor and the legislature.