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Mr. Ritchie explained that the State's Attorneys were
unlike any other State officers; they returned large
amounts into the State treasury, all the result of their
own labor, and they should be paid a fair compensation.
Mr. Syester asked if there ever had been any difficulty
in procuring a candidate for this office in the city of Bal-
timore ?
Mr. Barry would answer by saying that there had been
difficulty in procuring a competent person.
Mr. Carter. —When?
Mr. Syester said that was a mere matter of taste. There
had never been any difficulty in procuring persons at
$3, 000, either in Baltimore or elsewhere, to fill these po-
sitions. The duties were simple, and required no such
great store of legal lore as the gentleman from Baltimore,
(Mr. Garey, ) asserted. They needed to consult a few
authorities and know something about the license laws,
and that was all. This thing of raising salaries must be
stopped. What were they going to give the judges?
Mr. Maulsby. —Don't start that.
Mr. Syester. —Yes, we will start it. The liberal minded
gentlemen who are in favor of such high salaries allege
the increased cost of living, but the present state of affairs
cannot long continue; the people are beginning to talk
about them; a return to specie payment may take place
at no distant day, and what will be said then about these
high salaries? The action of this Convention is watched
with momentous interest, and its doings are fully criti-
cized from day to day, and if they were not careful the
people would tear their work to flinders. It would be the
most disastrous thing that could happen to the party
which they all represented if their work was not ratified
at the hands of their constituents. He besought gentle-
men not to attempt to conform this constitution to the
fluctuating condition of affairs at present, which might be
changed any day or hour.
The motion to insert $4, 000 was lost.
Mr. Gill moved to insert $3, 500.
Mr. Buchanon asked if it would be in order to insert
$2, 500.
209
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