Constitution of 1776, Article 59 stated the process of amending the
constitution:
A bill to amend the constitution had to pass in the General Assembly,
had to then be published at least three months before a new election, and
then be confirmed at the first session of the Legislature after that election
(ie. the bill had to pass a second time). (At the time elections
for the House of Delegates were held yearly). It was not required
for voters to ratify proposed constitutional amendments.
Members of the drafting committee, constitutional convention of 1776
(also called the "Committee of Seven") (named in Proceedings
of the Convention, p. 10):
Charles
Carroll the barrister (resigned August 27)
William
Paca
Charles
Carroll of Carrollton
George
Plater
Samuel
Chase (resigned August 27, 1776)
Robert
Goldsborough
Matthew
Tilghman, esq., president of convention
Robert
Townshend Hooe (began August 30, 1776)
Thomas
Johnson (began August 30, 1776)
Other biographies:
Gabriel
Duvall, clerk of the convention
Alexander
Contee Hanson, Jr.
Alexander
Contee Hanson, Sr.
Jeremiah
Townly Chase
Legislative history of ch. 80, Acts of 1791--Made it illegal
for a person to hold simultaneous seats in both the U.S. Congress and the
Maryland General Assembly, or being an Elector of the Senate or holding
any office of trust or profit under the state.
Discussed in Carl N. Everstine, The General Assembly of Maryland
1776-1850 (Charlottesville, VA: The Michie Company, 1982), 253.
Everstine does not say who introduced the bill. He points out
that one prominent and active member of the General Assembly who was immediately
effected by the amendment was Charles
Carroll of Carrollton, who was a member of the Maryland Senate
for the Western Shore at the same time he was a member of the U.S. Senate.
Carroll voted against the bill in the Maryland Senate, but when it passed
and before it took effect, he resigned his U.S. Senate seat.
Legislative history of Ch. 90, Acts of 1801--Removed the property
qualification for voting and gave the right to vote to every free white
male citizen of the state over 21 having resided in his county for one
year (reduced to 12 months in state and 6 months in county or city by ch.
83, Acts of 1809). (The voters elected delegates to the House but
only electors of the Senate; they also elected sheriffs.)
Discussed in J. Thomas Scharf, History of Maryland: From the
Earliest Period to the Present Day. vol. 2, 1879 (Reprint, Hatboro,
PA: Tradition Press, 1967) 609-611 and in James H. Fitzgerald Brewer,
"The Democratization of Maryland 1800-1837," in Morris L. Radoff, ed.,
The Old Line State: A History of Maryland (Annapolis:
The Hall of Records Commission, 1971), 55.
Scharf reports that the second article of Maryland's constitution requiring
a property qualification for free white males to vote stood for twenty
years (from 1776 to 1796) without any attempts to change it. Then
in 1797, Michael
Taney, (the father of future Supreme
Court Justice Roger B. Taney), a delegate from Calvert County and "an
ardent Federalist," introduced a bill in the House of Delegates "to abolish
all that part of the form of government which requires property as a qualification
for voters or for office." (Scharf's quote, p. 609) Scharf
writes that since this idea had not been introduced before, it was a new
one to the delegates and they had no idea where public opinion would stand
on the issue. Scharf reports that the most prominent members of the
House of Delegates who opposed Taney's bill were:
Philip
Barton Key
Thomas
Buchanan
Robert
Smith
John
Buchanan
Joseph
H. Nicholson (Republican)
Upton
Bruce
Charles
Frazier
Allen
B. Duckett
During the debate on the bill, Joseph H. Nicholson apparently insinuated
that the bill was so ridiculous and unreasonable that they might as well
give the vote to "women and children" too. (Scharf, p. 610). The bill passed
the House by 30 yeas to 21 neas, but was defeated in the Senate.
But public opinion had been drawn to the issue, and before the next election,
many voters withdrew their support for those delegates who had not supported
the bill. Another bill was introduced in the next session (1798),
and this time it was not as vigorously opposed. It died in committee,
however. The following year, 1799, saw the bill reintroduced by John
Thomas of Frederick who formed a three-man committee with Philip
Barton Key of Annapolis and Major
William Hanson McPherson of Charles County (all three Federalists)
in support of the bill. The bill passed 48 yeas to 13 neas.
The Senate still refused to pass the bill, however. In 1799, the
House again passed the bill but the Senate only passed a version called
for changing the qualification from owning 50 acres of land or 30 pounds
of money to "or paying taxes."
In the session of 1800, the House passed a similar "act to alter such parts of the constitution and form of government as relate to voters and qualification of voters," but the Senate amended it. On December 13, 1800, members of the House of Delegates sent a message to the Senate saying that they could not agree with the amendments proposed. On December 18, 1800, members of the Senate declared in a message to the House that "without intending to enter into argument on the subject upon which each branch of this legislature has an equal constitutional power to act, on this occasion we feel it due to you, as well as ourselves, to state, in few words, the grounds upon which our amendments were framed... that every man having property in, a common interest with, and an attachment to, the community, ought to have a right of suffrage... that taxation and representation ought to be reciprocal..." The Senate again amended the bill to give the vote to "every person possessing assessable property to the amount of ten dollars shall hereafter be assessed in all county and state assessments." (Votes and Proceedings of the Senate of the State of Maryland 1800, p.43). The House of Delegates refused to go along with this amendment, and the bill was defeated again. Members of the House of Delegates sent a reply to the Senate saying that "we cannot, consistent with the principles of liberality and of nature, suppose that taxable property is the only interest or attachment that binds men to society; and when we reflect that liberty is the common and natural right of all men, we cannot agree to sanction that doctrine which makes property the measure of it..."
Scharf writes that in the elections of 1801, Democrats won a majority in both houses, and the bill easily passed in that year. Scharf does not say who introduced the bill that eventually passed, but L. Marx Renzulli, Jr., in Maryland Federalism 1787-1819, writes on p. 298 that it was Delegate Edward Lloyd of Talbot County (son of the former Senator James Lloyd who had co-authored the Sedition Act of 1798) who introduced the bill in the December Session of 1800. Renzulli writes that the Senate caved into pressure from the House of Delegates to pass the bill in December 1801 because members of the House "played their trump card by threatening to demand the calling of a constitutional convention to make the Senate an elective body." (p. 299). He writes that Samuel Chase, at that time a member of the U.S. Supreme Court, opposed the bill (p. 307). Renzulli points out that since the original bill failed to make clear that voters could also vote in congressional and presidential elections, it was necessary to pass ch. 83 in 1909 (ratified 1810) in order to clarify the matter (p. 298).
Legislative history of ch. 198, Acts of 1809--Removed the property
qualifications that were still required for "persons holding offices of
profit or trust" in the state.
Discussed in J. R. Pole, "Constitutional Reform and Election Statistics
in Maryland 1790-1812." Maryland Historical Magazine 55 (December
1960): 275-92. Pole writes on p. 278 that a bill to abolish
all property qualifications for holding elective office had passed in the
house of Delegates as early as 1791 but had failed to be confirmed in the
next legislative session. Scharf briefly discusses the bill and writes
(p. 611) that John
H. Thomas introduced the bill in November 1809 that resulted in
ch. 198, Acts of 1809, "An act to alter and abolish all such parts of the
Constitution and Form of Government as require a property qualification
in Persons to be appointed or holding offices of profit or trust in this
State, and in Persons elected Members of the Legislature or Electors of
the Senate." The bill was introduced
on November 7, 1809. William
E. Seth of Talbot County, Stevenson
Archer, Sr. of Harford County (father of the future Maryland treasurer
and U.S. Representative), and Theodorick
Bland of Baltimore City formed a committee "to prepare and bring
in" the bill (Votes
and Proceedings, November 1809, p. 1110). It was ratified in
1810.
Legislative history of ch. 167, Acts of 1809--Made it illegal
for the general assembly to "lay an equal and general tax, or any other
tax, on the people of this state, for the support of any religion."
The Act simultaneously repealled and annulled the several clauses and sections
of the declaration of rights and constitution that had made the tax possible
in the past.
Secondary sources:
Brewer, James H. Fitzgerald. "The Democratization of Maryland
1800-1837," in Morris L. Radoff, ed., The Old Line State: A History
of Maryland.
Annapolis: The Hall
of Records Commission, 1971.
Everstine, Carl N. The General Assembly of Maryland 1776-1850.
Charlottesville, VA: The Michie Company, 1982.
Niles, Alfred S. Maryland Constitutional Law. Baltimore:
1915. (At Law Library: KFM1600 .N5 1915)
Pole, J. R. "Constitutional Reform and Election Statistics in
Maryland 1790-1812." Maryland Historical Magazine 55 (December
1960): 275-92.
Report of the Constitutional Convention Commission (August 25,
1967). Annapolis: State of Maryland, 1967. -- General
list of amendments only.
Renzulli, L. Marx, Jr. Maryland Federalism 1787-1819.
PhD Diss., U. of Va., 1962. (At Law Library: JK2308 .R4 1962)
Report of the Constitutional Convention Commission (August 25,
1967). Annapolis: State of Maryland, 1967. -- General
list of amendments only.
Riley, Elihu S. History of the General Assembly of Maryland
1635 - 1904. Baltimore: Nunn & Co., Publishers, 1905.--General
list of amendments only.
Scharf, J. Thomas. History of Maryland: From the Earliest
Period to the Present Day. 3 vols., 1879. Reprint, Hatboro,
PA: Tradition Press, 1967.
Steiner, Bernard C. Citizenship and Suffrage in Maryland.
Baltimore: Cushing & Co., 1895. (At Law Library:
JK1936.M3 S8 1895)
Newspaper Articles:
"Legislature of Maryland: House of Delegates Wednesday November
7, 1810." The Maryland Gazette, 14 November 1810. Maryland
State Archives SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Maryland State Law Library Collection
of the Maryland Gazette) MSA SC 2311-1-27, 0/62/7/13.
"Leave given to bring in a bill ... to confirm an act passed at November
session, 1809, entitled, an Act to alter and abolish all such parts of
the constitution and form of government as require a property qualification
in persons to be appointed or holding offices of profit or trust in the
state, and in persons elected members of the legislature, or electors of
the Senate...
Archives of Maryland:
Votes
and Proceedings of the House of Delegates of the State of Maryland November
Session 1791
Votes
and Proceedings of the Senate of the State of Maryland November Session
1791
Votes
and Proceedings of the House of Delegates of the State of Maryland November
Session 1794
Votes
and Proceedings of the Senate of the State of Maryland November Session
1794
Votes
and Proceedings of the House of Delegates of the State of Maryland November
Session 1797
Votes
and Proceedings of the Senate of the State of Maryland November Session
1797
Votes
and Proceedings of the House of Delegates of the State of Maryland November
Session 1798
Votes
and Proceedings of the Senate of the State of Maryland November Session
1798
Votes
and Proceedings of the House of Delegates of the State of Maryland November
Session 1800.
Votes
and Proceedings of the Senate of the State of Maryland November Session
1800
Votes
and Proceedings of the House of Delegates of the State of Maryland November
Session 1801
Votes
and Proceedings of the Senate of the State of Maryland November Session
1801
Votes
and Proceedings of the House of Delegates of the State of Maryland November
Session 1802
Votes
and Proceedings of the Senate of the State of Maryland November Session
1802
Votes
and Proceedings of the House of Delegates of the State of Maryland November
Session 1804
Votes
and Proceedings of the Senate of the State of Maryland November Session
1804
Votes
and Proceedings of the House of Delegates of the State of Maryland November
Session 1806
Votes
and Proceedings of the Senate of the State of Maryland November Session
1806
Votes
and Proceedings of the House of Delegates of the State of Maryland November
Session 1809
Votes
and Proceedings of the Senate of the State of Maryland November Session
1809