No outside pressure was brought to bear upon them to
influence their consideration of this subject. The grasshoppers
had ravaged the State the previous year, cutting off entirely the
principal crop of the country. Again in the spring of 1875, in
some of the river counties, the young had hatched in myriads, and
devoured the growing crops ere winging their way to their
mountain home. Gloom overspread the people at the prospect of
renewed disaster, and the dismal forebodings were realized even
as the delegates sat in council, for at this time occurred the
final appearance of the locust. As the people gazed into the sky
and watched the silver cloud floating in the sunshine resolve
itself into a miniature army clad in burnished steel, women
forgot to be concerned for their rights, and the delegates
thought only of completing their work with the utmost economy and
speed.

The new constitution, however, was formed on a more liberal
basis. Hon. R. B. Harrington, of Beatrice, in the Committee on
Bill of Rights, substituted the word "people" for "men," and it
passed without comment. An article on amendments was embodied in
the constitution, the same in substance as the one defeated in
1871, under which, as was actually done in 1881, the legislature
could present amendments relating to suffrage.

The question of adopting the article relating to qualifications
of electors being before the convention. Judge Clinton Briggs of
Omaha sat during the reading of the first clause, "every male,"
etc., meditating, as he related to a friend, on how many lives
had been sacrificed and how many millions of money had been spent
in getting rid of the word "white," which had made such an unjust
restriction, and how easy it would be, by one dash of the pen,
to blot out the word "male," and thus abolish this other unjust
restriction. On the inspiration of the moment, he moved to strike
out the word "male," R. B. Harrington relates that the motion of
Judge Briggs, who had not before expressed his sentiments, and
who had not consulted with the known advocates of the measure, so
astonished the convention that it was some time before they could
realize that he was in earnest. The friends rallied to Judge
Briggs' support. Gen. Chas. F. Manderson--a member of this, as of