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duties on the attorney general with respect
to civil and criminal cases and with respect
to other matters.
Now, you will recall the Committee was
split right down the middle by an eleven
to nine vote for some period of time, but I
think that what we have reported now
really represents a concensus of the two
opposing groups on the Committee, and I
certainly urge that this amendment be de-
feated and that the Committee of the Whole
adopt the Committee recommendation.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in favor of the amend-
ment ?
(Tli ere was no response.)
Does any other delegate desire to speak-
in opposition? Delegate Dorsey.
DELEGATE DORSEY: Mr. President, I
want to eat Christmas dinner at Leonard-
town. For three months, now, the Executive
Committee has had the attorney general
report before them. As Chairman Morgan
has indicated, there has been almost an
even split in the views of the Committee,
but after the Convention of the Whole voted
to retain the attorney generalship as a
constitutional office, the language expressed
in this report represents a compromise be-
tween all parties. It was adopted unani-
mously by the Committee and, I might
add, Judge Hammond, Chief Judge in the
Court of Appeals, who was one of Mary-
land's outstanding attorney generals, con-
ferred with several members of the Com-
mittee and said that he could be quoted
publicly that if the office was to be re-
tained and given constitutional status that
certain duties should be spelled out in the
report of the Committee.
The Committee followed that advice, and
I ask this Committee of the Whole to
follow the advice of the Chief Judge of the
Court of Appeals of Maryland and the
unanimous agreement of the Executive
Committee.
I might say to Delegate Gallagher that
this Committee of the Whole followed his
report in substance, and we ask you to fol-
low the report of the Executive Committee.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in favor of the amend-
ment? Delegate Boyce.
DELEGATE BOYCE: I hate to disagree
with the distinguished gentleman from
Southern Maryland, who was rather vocal
this morning, and I, too, hone he gets to
Leonardtown for Christmas lunch.
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But the honest truth of this matter is
that in this Committee, as such, there was
no vote taken on this. What the Chairman
asked us was would we agree, if we thought
this was satisfactory after it had been
rewritten about a dozen times.
DELEGATE DORSEY: Would the gentle-
man yield ?
THE CHAIRMAN: Just a second, Dele-
gate Dorsey. Do you yield for a question,
Delegate Boyce?
DELEGATE BOYCE: Let me yield, first.
THE CHAIRMAN: Go ahead, Delegate
Dorsey.
DELEGATE DORSEY: Did you dissent?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Boyce.
DELEGATE BOYCE: Let me answer
that; I said perfectly clearly and I will
say again that I personally told the Chair-
man if he could get something to bring up
here on the floor, that was perfectly satis-
factory by me, but I intend to vote against
the Committee Recommendation. I intend
to vote for Delegate Gallagher's report be-
cause I felt all along the Judge had no
business telling this Committee how to
write it and that the attorney general had
no business having his own man sit in the
Committee and actually try to draft it. I
found one delegate, whom I respect greatly,
back in the coffee shop during the Com-
mittee hearing and I asked, "For heaven's
sake, what are you doing here?"
He said that there was no point in his
being in the room if the Attorney General
and City Solicitor of Baltimore City were
going to write the report.
I think we ought to be perfectly clear
that there was not a vote taken in that
Committee on this question. There was
never a vote taken.
Secondly, I do not think any commitment,
as far as bringing something on the floor,
is necessary to have a vote on the floor, and
therefore I shall vote for the Gallagher
amendment when it is brought forward.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Henderson.
DELEGATE HENDERSON: Mr. Chair-
man, I should like to address my remarks
not to what happened in any Committee or
did not happen, but to the merits of this
controversy.
As most of you know, I spent ten and a
half years of my life in the attorney gen-
eral's office during which time I at one
time or another gave advice to every de-
partment agency of the State of Maryland,
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