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doubt that plenty of gentlemen would take the office.
And why? Because it opened the path to professional
preferment. In regard to the onerous duties of this office,
he asked if the incumbent of the position in 1864, (Mr.
John L. Thomas, ) had not found time to come down here
and stay for four months as a member of the Constitu-
tional Convention?
Mr. Brown thought that it seemed to be admitted by
all that $3, 500 was not too much. He certainly knew that
it was not. An important law officer of the State should
certainly be able to live and support his family in a com-
fortable manner. He did not doubt that if the office was
put up at auction, it would be taken for $1, 000, that am-
bitious young men who had no practice would be glad to
take it, but they did not want men of this kind; they
wanted men of ability, intelligence and character, men
who would have weight with a jury.
Those who had experience in the Criminal Court would
say that it required a man of the most enlarged experi-
ence and of the highest talent to meet the requirements
of the position. It often happened that important cases
had to be tried in a large city like Baltimore, where men
of position and wealth would be on trial, where defaulting
officers of banks and other institutions were on trial, who
would be defended by the highest talent not only of the
city but of the State, and no young, inexperienced man
could be competent to prosecute such cases. He believed
that there was but one dissenting voice in his delegation
on this question, and the opinion was that $3, 500 was
little enough. This matter concerned the city of Balti-
more alone, and he thought the views of her representa-
tives should be respected by the Convention.
Mr. Syester had never tried a case in the city of Balti-
more, but if the case was as presented by the gentleman
from Baltimore, (Mr. Brown, ) God help him from ever
trying a case there. He had supposed the judges and
juries of that city were like those of the rest of the State.
If the judges and juries could not understand a case un-
less expounded to them by a learned lawyer, he pitied
them, and was glad that it was not so in the counties.
Mr. Wethered said while the convention was fixing the
question of salaries, they should adopt a fixed stand-
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