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Convention do no act which could impair that right, or
could possibly be construed as an approval or ratification
of the wrong. Let us not touch the subject, but let the
shame and obloquy of the act rest where they properly
belong.
Mr. Stoddert inquired whether an apparent acquies-
cence in the action of the convention of 1864 would pre-
clude the people of Maryland from demanding compen-
sation for their property?
Mr. McKaig did not want slavery, and did not believe
there were ten men in Maryland who would vote to rein-
state it, but he was not willing to place in a grand Dec-
laration of Rights censure on those who had gone before
us. He (Mr. McKaig) would now say, say nothing about
slavery, but keep a dignified silence on the subject. Was
slavery abolished by law? No, the body of men who
came here and took the oath to support the constitution,
which declares that private property shall not be taken
for public use without compensation, ignored their oaths
and wiped out at one blow thirty millions of private
property.
Mr. Jones fully agreed with gentlemen that the act
which had been committed was a violent, ruthless act,
but slavery could never be re-established. The insertion
of the pending article in the Bill of Rights was said by
some gentlemen to be crawling at the feet of power and
reflecting upon our ancestors. He did not see under what
construction it could be tortured Into any such meaning.
The reasons why it should remain were to him all-con-
vincing. It had been charged by our opponents that this
Convention was called for the purpose of re-establishing
slavery—the minds of the negroes had been inflamed and
poisoned with this suspicion. They all knew that this
charge was false and slanderous, and they should show-
the colored people who lived among us and with us thai
we had no such intentions. It should be our object te
convince these people that we are their friends, and that
these traveling missionaries from the North, who are go-
ing down among them preaching pestilent doctrines and
alluring them from their industrial avocations, are their
worst enemies.
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142
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