school district for at least six months in each
year; and in case of a failure on the part of the
general assembly so to provide"—what then?
The report that is made by this superinten-
dent of instruction about which the people
know nothing on God's earth: they have
never seen one word of it when this constitu-
tion is submitted to them; and they know not
what it is. They will not know; and will
have no means of knowing what it is, or is
to be. Yet we are gravely asking the people
of the State to vole that what somebody else
hereafter shall do, shall become for the time
at least, a part of the organic law of the
State, That is the inevitable result of the
adoption of this fifth section as it stands.
Mr. RIDGELY, Will not the same state of
things exist exactly, if we confer upon the
legislature the power to prepare a uniform
system of free public schools? Will the peo-
ple know what it is to be?
Mr. MILLER. They will not know perhaps
what the system is to be; but the legislature
will come here and will pass a law, and the
people will know that there will be nothing
engrafted in the law unless the people through
the legislature act upon it.
Mr. CUSHING. Do not the legislature act
upon this and decide whether they will amend
it or not?
Mr. MILLER. They take the responsibility
of deciding that something shall be a part of
the organic law of the State about which they
know nothing at the time. We understand
what law-making is. The legislature, the law-
making part of the government, has power to
pass laws relating to the public schools of the
State. They know that if men are elected by
the people to the legislature they will pass
such laws as in their judgment they may ap-
prove of; and they become apart of the law
of the State, subject to be repeated by the
legislature or amended from time to time.
But this report adopts, as a part of the organic
law of the State, something which this State
superintendent may hereafter devise, in case
the legislature shall fail to do this thing.
Why should we distrust the legislature on
this subject? You have made it incumbent
upon the legislature by the first part of this
section, to provide a uniform system of pub-
lic schools, by which a free school shall be
kept open six months in the year. Every
man admitted to that legislature will have to
take an oath to support this constitution. If
he discharges his duty and lives up to the
obligations of that oath, he cannot go home
to his constituents without having discharged
his duties under this section. Cannot the
representatives of the people be trusted? I
think if we attempt to go into the details of a
system here, we shall find more difficulty
about it than the legislature. We shall find
more differences of opinion upon the subject.
In all systems of government you must
trust somebody; you must repose confidence |
somewhere. Why not trust the legislature ?
you have done here what never has been
done before. You have imposed an additional
obligation binding upon the conscience of
every member of the legislature, to perform
this duty. That never has been a duty im-
posed by the constitution of the State before,
When applications have been made from
year to year to the legislature to pass such
a system as that, there was no obligation
resting upon the consciences of the members
of the legislature to perform that duty. Hence
it was that in these various differences with
regard to the system of schools in the coun-
ties, the members failed to unite upon any
system whatever. But when the legislature
have this obligation resting upon their con-
sciences, each individual acting under it, you
will find that they will go to work and dis-
charge their duty and form such a system as
that.
I would not delegate to anybody the power
to make a law for the State of Maryland
which shall be a law upon our statute books,
even for a single day, unless it first came
from the proper law-making power, the gen-
eral assembly. I deny the power of this con-
vention to delegate the law-making power
in that way to anybody; to take the power
away from the legislature and to confer it
upon the State superintendent.
The amendment of the gentleman from
Baltimore (Mr, Stirling') only changes the
name. The thing remains the saline. It is a
system of public instruction for the State.
That is a law of the State, certainly. It is
something made, even of higher obligation
than the ordinary acts of the legislature,
because it is incorporated into the con-
stitution itself. It is something that nobody
knows about—
Mr. STIRLING. I would like to ask the gen-
tleman one question. The article on the
treasury department says that the comptroller
of the treasury shall have power to prescribe
the forms by which stocks are transferred.
Is not that a part of the organic law of the
State, vesting power in somebody?
Mr, MILLER, Certainly; but that is only
the performance of a ministerial duty.
Mr. STIRLING. Well; is not this minis-
terial duty ?
Mr. MILLER. What will be the effect of the
amendment of the gentleman from Baltimore
city, making it a system subject to be altered
and amended by the legislature? If the leg-
islature when they receive the report of this
superintendent do not choose to adopt that
report as the law of the State, if they do not
choose to make any law whatever, if they
violate the obligation of their oaths and fail
to perform their duty of adopting a uniform
system, I should like to know what will pre-
vent the succeeding legislature from repealing
this law? So that we do not get rid of the
difficulty. |
